A Case of Missing Identity: Researching a Phrenological Bust: A Guest Report by Museum Studies Student Liza Young, St. John's University

Liza Young--a museum studies student at St. John's University--took interest in an enigmatic recent acquisition to The Morbid Anatomy Library: the 19th century plaster phrenological death mask bust seen above. Working with our Head Librarian Laetitia Barbier, she unearthed a fascinating history and possible provenance. Below are her findings thus far; stay tuned for more installments! You can also find out more about Liza and her work by clicking here.

This spring the Morbid Anatomy Museum welcomed a fantastic new addition to its collection of unusually beautiful things: a plaster bust created for the study of phrenology. The bust portrays a man whose age lies somewhere between young and ageless. The white of the plaster has tarnished over the years, yet a faint phrenological map is still visible, sketched across his crown and eyes. At the base of the bust, where a label identifying to whom he belonged or in which museum he was housed, only a single word remains immediately visible: tragique.

Such slight hints to the story behind this bust present the opportunity for an ideal research project for an archivist-in-training such as myself. Somehow, I have been chosen as the lucky one to assist in undertaking this mission for information, to discover where the bust originated, who created him, and who had posed as the model. But where does one begin when dealing with a head created for a dead science whose only identifying mark (the label) has worn away? I’m not sure, but I began with self-guided history lesson.

Part One: A Little History

Phrenology, originally known as “cranioscopy,” is a pseudoscience created by the German physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828) in 1796. The discipline spread throughout Europe, finding particular popularity amongst the British, between 1810 to 1840. To briefly sum up the essence of a fascinating practice, each lump of the skull was believed to correspond to a particular moral or immoral temperament localized within a specific area of the brain, which would swell or dip in relation to the volume of the temperament’s presence. Phrenology was believed to allow the true nature of one’s character be read through the skull, which would enable mankind to identify both the gifted and, most importantly, the deviant members of society without any previous knowledge of the individual’s history. The early nineteenth century marked the rise of the Industrial Revolution, which brought with it the birth of city life and, consequently, the crime-infested city streets that would one day inspire the likes of Jack the Ripper. Phrenology was a science that many looked to as a tool that might curtail these escalating crimes by tagging the deviants before they deviated.

Left image is an edible print available for sale in the Morbid Anatomy Museum gift shop. Click the image to view/purchase/eat!

Illustrated phrenological maps of skulls were used to study the lay of land, or the head, so to speak, along with three-dimensional busts like the one in question. Some busts were created without a model, while others were taken from plaster casts of human faces. The Morbid Anatomy’s bust depicts a face nearly perfect in form, though lacking the too-smooth features of a generic piece for study. The shape of the nose, definition around the mouth, and, most importantly, the shallow undulations of his skull mark the piece as a cast from a unique human head. Who might have supplied his head for such a study? While some men did sit for personalized casts, the majority of the busts were made from less voluntary gentlemen.

In order to hone the new science, phrenologists studied the skulls of exceptional characters on the opposing ends of the spectrum: the most brilliant of men and the most errant. However, the only abundant cache of skulls available was provided by the local executioner. Yes, following death by guillotine or some such unfortunate fate, scientists would make a cast of the head, now relieved of its body, and study the plaster copy for the lumps of the brain that would, they believed, mark the subject as the criminal he was now known to be. While it cannot be stated indisputably that the bust in question was cast from a criminal (the length of his neck suggests he was not guillotined, unlike these men), it is safe to say that he was indeed dead. This conclusion is evidenced by the opening of his eyes, which would have been unbearable for a living model. Understanding the ultimate end of the model is very likely as close to identifying him as I will able to come, so let’s put a pin in that and move forward to where this man lived out his life before it was cut short.

Remnants of text on the phrenological bust. 

Part Two: Heritage of the Headless

As mentioned, the only fully legible of the three words along the base of the bust spells the French word tragique. This suggests, of course, that the bust is of French, or possibly Swiss, origin. It is possible that the first word reads Sestinia, though it is difficult to say, particularly as the only information I could find in relation to the word is that it is an Italian surname and an obscure plant of no particular use or potency. However, a few other clues point strongly toward French heritage.

Upon further examination of the head, I noticed a phrenological zone behind the left ear had been labeled with amativité. It is the French translation of “amativeness,” meaning the inclination toward sexual arousal. If an individual presented an overdeveloped amative temperament, phrenologists believed his character would be plagued by obscene and licentious behavior.
 

Details of phrenological bust.

If underdeveloped, he might suffer from a cold, detached personality. A second, nearly entirely erased label appears above the left eye. Though it is completely illegible, it seems to mark the zone associated with “tune,” which relates to a love of music. It is tempting to read into the meaning behind these isolated labels. Do they allude to the crime for which the model was executed? Or are they coincidental remains? Having studied the character of music throughout art and history, I am well aware of the perceived intoxicating effects attributed to listening to music for pleasure, rather than for devotion to God, which, according many an old master (Bosch, Vermeer, etc.), will inevitably lead to licentious behavior. However, phrenology was considered a science, not a form of artistic expression, so I must put a rest to any further symbolic interpretation.

The facts state that tragique and amativité are French. If I were pressed to volunteer a possible answer as to what the label reads in full, I would suggest “Sestinia, La Discipline Tragique," though I would say it very hesitantly. The case for French heritage is further enforced through the bust’s acquisition history. Joanna Ebenstein, the mother of the Morbid Anatomy Museum, purchased the bust from the Upper West Side shop Maxilla and Mandible (sadly, now closed), who purchased it from “the Auzoux workshop” during the 1990’s in Normandy, France. So who then is Auzoux?

Part Three: The Creator

Louis Thomas Jerôme Auzoux (1797-1880) was a French physician frustrated by the body’s inability to be preserved long enough for thorough anatomical study. Cadavers decomposed too rapidly. Anatomical drawings and texts proved too dry. Wax models melted under prolonged touch. In response to these issues, Auzoux turned to the popular art of papier-mâché, typically used to created dolls for children, and built life-size anatomical models of the human body. The organs of these faux cadavers could be removed and handled, mimicking the process of dissection. However, while Auzoux was certainly interested in the functions and design of the cranium, he was devoted to the science of anatomy, not phrenology. He, as far my research can tell, never created casts like the one in question. What, then, was the bust doing at Auzoux’s workshop? After a brief interview with the gentleman who sold the bust to Joanna, I learned that the piece was likely not manufactured by Auzoux, but possibly used as a reference piece in the factory’s collection. Perhaps it was sold during a weeding of their collection.

Just upon reaching this dead end, I received word that Laetitia Barbier, the Head Librarian of the Morbid Anatomy Library, had a lead. It seemed the creator may have been another Frenchman known as Dumoutier. And so began another plunge into JSTOR.

Dumoutier’s “Cephalometre,” a machine the phrenologist created to study the exact contours of the skull via Dumont d’Urville’s Phrenologist: Dumoutier and the Aesthetics of Races

Pierre Marie Dumoutier (1797-1871) was a famed phrenologist and adventurer. He accompanied the naval officer and explorer J. S. C. Dumont d’Uvrille on his expedition to the South Seas in 1837. The mission of the expedition was to further the study of phrenology (as well as ethnography) through analyzing the skulls of natives living in Patagonia, the Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea. Dumoutier was to be the “natural historian” of the voyage, which entailed casting the heads of many living me, as well as collecting the skulls of the dead. Upon one such attempt to acquire a particular skull from “a most ferocious tribe of Malays,” Dumoutier was refused. Instead, the native offered to quickly decapitate the head of an enemy and present that to the phrenologist. As generous as the offer was, Dumoutier declined. Upon his return to Toulon, in the south of France, Dumoutier had created more than fifty plaster busts, many painted to match the color of the individual’s skin tone, as well an equal number of skulls. While these artifacts of phrenological research were, at the time, property of the government, many are now in the care of the Flaubert Museum and the History of Medicine in Rouen.

 
Morbid Anatomy’s bust on the left, the Flaubert Museum’s on the right

Upon researching Dumoutier’s work, I found his style to be very similar to that of the one in the hands of the Morbid Anatomy Museum. The simplistic bases and the length of the neck are identical. Though not exact replicas, the materials, the labeling of only the left portion of the skull, the style of script, and the color of the plaster all appear very alike in comparison. The main differences between the two are the closed eye lids of the finished piece in Rouen, its paper label, and the script to the side of its base. It is possible that these details were performed during the finals phases of the cast’s completion – phases at which the Morbid Anatomy’s piece never quite arrived. While there remains many details to be scrutinized, questioned, and scrutinized again, it seems we are heading in the right direction – or at the very least a logical direction founded on evidence-based research. We now have a sketch of the history surrounding the bust, including who created it, the type of character the model may have been, as well as where both gentlemen likely lived.

This project will continue until more solid conclusions are unearthed. I have contacted the Flaubert Museum (using my pitiful French) regarding my and the Morbid Anatomy Museum’s research. I will report the diagnosis when the results are in. I also intend to explore the possibility of another French phrenologist’s involvement with the piece: François-Joseph-Victor Broussais (1772-1838), whose style is quite similar to that of Dumoutier. Until then, should there happen to be a phrenology scholar out there reading this, any suggestions are certainly welcome.

Sources

Combe, George. The Phrenological Journal and Magazine of Magazine of Moral Science, for the Year 1843, Vol. XVI. Edinburgh: Maclachlan, Stewart & Co., 1843.

Gordon, M and R. “1830S Phenological Head: Broussais's System" - Antique Scientific Instruments and Early Technology for Discerning Collectors... (accessed June 29, 2014).

Mclaren, Angus. “A Prehistory of the Social Sciences: Phrenology in France.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 23, no. 01 (1981): 3.

Pierpont, et al., Rev. John. Annals of Phrenology, Vol. 2. Boston: Marsh, Capen and Lyon, 1835.

Rochette, Marc. “Dumont d’Urville’s Phrenologist: Dumoutier and the Aesthetics of Races * Translated from French by Isabel Ollivier.” The Journal of Pacific History 38, no. 2 (2003): 251-268.

"The Death Mask of Napoleon." Musées en Haute-Normandie. (accessed June 29, 2014).

"The Phrenological Organs." Phrenology. (accessed June 29, 2014).

And of course Joanna Ebenstein and Laetitia Barbier

Morbid Anatomy Library In The New York Times; Open Tomorrow (Saturday, February 8) 2-6 PM; No Appointment Necessary!

Curious to know more about our own Brooklyn-based Morbid Anatomy Library? If so, you could do much worse than to check out this lovely writeup in The New York Times entitled "Death in the Afternoon, Then Drinks."

If the library seems of interest, why not pay us a visit? We are open to the public every Saturday from 2-6 PM; our next open day is tomorrow, February 8. We are located at 543 Union Street, (at Nevins). enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery. Admission is free although, as the article mentions, "donations are accepted, both monetary and material." Some of our donated object include "a pair of emu feet and the human skeleton — a medical teaching model — [which] are here 'basically because wives wanted to get them out of the house.'"

Hope to see you at the library very soon!

Photo by Michael Kirby Smith, drawn from The New York Times story.

Invisible Cabinets: A Glimpse into the Morbid Anatomy "Gentlemen’s Erotica" Section: Guest post by Laetitia Barbier

In the run up to Valentine's Day and its attendent festivities, I asked Morbid Anatomy Library head Librarian Laetitia Barbier to write a bit about a "mini-collection" tucked discreetly away in our own "special collections" cabinet. Following is her post; To learn more about the history of these enigmatic publications, you won't want to miss Colin Dickey's Valentine's Day lecture "Privately Published: A Descent Into Early 20th Century Mail Order Erotica;" more on that can be found here. 

As a Parisian student, I was fascinated with the idea that our National Library once conserved its most licentious material in a reclused section conveniently named “The Hell.” Confiscated over the centuries by the French authorities, piles of erotic publications and other unchaste artifacts were gathered on the shelves of the storage room, labeled “ENFER” and cast away from general public appreciation. Stored aside to prevent “ moral contamination” and only visible to a few scholars under very strict conditions, the censored hoard flourished to become a secret yet abundant collection. “L’enfer” was the academic repository of mankind’s most untamed fantasies.

Is there such a “Hell” section in the Morbid Anatomy Library? Do we hide from public eyes risqué publications that might cause our visitors to blush? The answer is, of course, yes. And our very own purgatory section, locked in our dark wood Victorian cabinet, we call “Gentlemen’s Erotica.”

Among the bizarre treasures enclosed in our “Gentleman’s Erotica” section, two volumes bear nearly the same title in an identical layout with elegant, elegant typography. A private Anthropological Cabinet of the Hermaphrodite, supposedly from 1903 and his homonymous twin, published thirty years later, presenting 500 Authentic Racial-Esoteric Photographs and Illustrations. In fact, it is more likely that both “private Cabinets” were published around 1930, begat by Falstaff press - an American publishing house who discretely provide these pseudo-scientific compendiums by mail, sometime antedating their publication to avoid censorship. On a boastful frontispiece, both books indeed guarantee an illustrated journey through “scientific explorations” and “Museum archives” to “mature subscribers only” but because of their unassuming covers, the majority of the Morbid Anatomy visitors never give them any attention. These books were, indeed, just as invisible in a family man’s study, safely incognito in the multitude of books. Nonetheless, the few of us who did open them know how explicit and disturbingly sexy these aphrodisiacal little publications are. "Educational" literature, they blurred every line between good and bad taste with the latent vocation to arouse their masculine and voyeur audience.

If you want a better sense of what lies hidden within these books, join us this Valentine's Day for Colin Dickey's heavily-illustrated lecture "Privately Published: A Descent Into Early 20th Century Mail Order Erotica." And, for the boldest among you, feel free to ask the Gentleman’s Erotica section next time you’ll visit the Morbid Anatomy Library.

This is the second guest post Laetitia has written based on her favorite books in the Morbid Anatomy Library; to see all posts by Laetitia, click here. Click on images to see larger, more detailed versions.

Morbid Anatomy Library Internship, Anyone?

The Morbid Anatomy Library--which makes available to the public a collection of curiosities, books, artworks, ephemera, and artifacts relating to "the interstices of art and medicine, death and culture"--is seeking interns! If you are interested, please contact Laetitia Barbier at morbidanatomylibrary [at] gmail.com.

For more about the Morbid Anatomy Library click here.

Photo of The Library by Joanna Ebenstein.

Morbid Anatomy Library Now Hosting Regular, No-Appointment-Necessary Open Hours: Every Saturday from 2-6 PM!

Beginning tomorrow--Saturday, January 26th--the Morbid Anatomy Library (pictured above) will be open to the public, with no appointment necessary, on Saturdays from 2:00 - to 6:00 PM. So come on by for a perusal of the stacks and a gander at our human skeleton, tatty taxidermy, ex votos, magic lantern slides, post mortem photographs, wax embryological models, and unclassifiable curiosities!

For more about the Morbid Anatomy Library and for directions and other such information, click here.

Photos of The Library by Joanna Ebenstein.

Morbid Anatomy Library No Appointment Open Hours, Saturdays January 12 and 19, 2-6:00 PM

For the next two Saturdays--January 12th and 19th--the Morbid Anatomy Library (seen above) will be hosting no-appointment-necessary open hours from 2:30 - to 6:00. So come on by for a perusal of the stacks and a gander at our human skeleton, tatty taxidermy and wax embryological models.

For more about the Morbid Anatomy Library and for directions and other such information, click here.

Photo of The Library by Joanna Ebenstein.

Spectropia - Mirage and Ghost Stories at the Morbid Anatomy Library: Guest Post by Laetitia Barbier

I am very pleased to introduce the first of what I hope will be many guest posts by Morbid Anatomy Library intern Laetitia Barbier; she has been working with us on and off over the past few years, and has just returned to America to finish her dissertation for The Sorbonne on painter Joe Coleman.

Laeti will be writing a series of short articles for this blog based on her favorite books in the Morbid Anatomy Library; following is her first:

While helping Joanna with the post-Hurricane Sandy library unpacking, I recently stumbled upon this incredible book. Squeezed between larger volumes of the vast “Death and Art” section, this amethyst-colored booklet was so thin that its title was almost impossible to read. “Spectropia or the Surprising Spectral Illusions Showing Ghosts Everywhere and of any Colors” - A rather theatrical headline, rendered on the front cover in a multiple typography layout evoking 19^th century entertainment posters. The pamphlet cover is also illustrated with a silver, almost invisible hooked nose ghoul, pointing an accusative finger at an even more invisible target. In good condition, the book is in fact a recent facsimile of a Victorian era manual. Its author, J.H. Brown, a complete stranger to me, published it 1864 both in England and in America.

Spetropia - What does it mean? I was both amused by this obscure neologism, and by the idea that the ghosts mentioned in the title did, apparently, not suffer any constraints of space, time or even hue - 'everywhere and of any colors. ' If omnipresence could be a common aspect of spirit's nature, the concept of their polychromatic manifestations was obviously something very new to me and so far incredibly bizarre. It is only by reading the texts and shuffling through the pages of this book that the magical aspect of this treasure item revealed itself to me. 

Spetropia is no necromancy handbook, neither an history of Phantasmagoria spectacles as its macabre iconography might have suggested. It is, instead, an optical illusion manual, a toy book, a pure product of rational amusement. Spectropia in fact suggests that there is no need for a magic lantern operator to create frightening apparitions; your own eyes can serve as a substitute.

Dividing his book in several sections, Mr. Brown explains in his introduction a few simple facts about eye anatomy and their physiological specificities, and also on optic and chromatic learning, so that even young readers could understand that the experiment he proposes is not a metaphysical one, but truly rooted in science.

As he explains, the first step in this intriguing visual path is to pick out your own ghost from the sixteen large lithography plates--a pretty complex dilemma, as those Santa Muerte-like figures vie with each other in terms of amiable whimsicality, reflecting the minimal, almost naïve aesthetic preferred by Brown himself for practical purposes; at one point in the book, he apologies profusely for “the apparent disregard of taste and fine art” of his illustrations. Once your spooky companion is chosen, stare at it for about “a quarter of minute” and then move your eyes to a neutral, preferably white surface: a wall, a sheet of paper or, in my case, the ceiling of the Morbid Anatomy Library. Subsequently, the monochromatic monsters will appear, floating in the air like phosphorescent silhouette, an afterimage produced by the persistence of vision for only few seconds on the retina. As Brown explains it, the illusion will be produced in the complementary color of its original paper doppelganger. For instance, if you were to select the purple hand image (5th down), you will be haunted by a yellow ghost whereas an extended focus on a green one (3rd down) will manifest into a flamingo pink apparition… Spectres, or so it would seem, are true dandies.

But beyond this fantastic imagery, Spectropia has another quite surprising particularity. Brown's main interest was, in fact, not to amuse a young audience; instead, very alarmed by what he called a “mental epidemic” and the superstitious zeitgeist of his era, Mr. Brown was an anti-spiritualist crusader, and his aim was to bring belief in communication with the deceased to an end. By showing through playful optical experiments how ghosts could be seen everywhere and of any colors, and according to demonstrable scientific principles, Brown's object was to demonstrate how the human mind could so easily and predictably be tricked by deceiving the senses.

A true scientific mind himself, who denies legitimacy to ''the follies of spiritualism,” Brown eventually offers a quiet poetic vision of the limits of his own rationalism when, in his anatomical expose, he describe the eye as “the most wonderful example of the infinite skill of the Creator.”

You can find out more about Laetitia Barbier by clicking here; you can read some of her articles about Parisian curiosities for Atlas Obscura by clicking here. You can find out more about this book--and order a copy of your own!--by clicking here. Very big thanks, also, to my sister Donna Ebenstein for gifting this book to me a number of years back.

All images are scanned from the book; click on image to see larger, more detailed versions.

Morbid Anatomy Library Open Hours, This Sunday, January 6, 1:30-6:00 PM

This Sunday the Morbid Anatomy Library (seen above) will be hosting no-appointment-necessary open hours from 1:30- to 6:00. So come on by for a perusal of the stacks and a gander at our human skeleton, tatty taxidermy and wax embryological models.

For more about the Morbid Anatomy Library and for directions and other such information, click here.

Photo of The Library by Joanna Ebenstein.

Morbid Anatomy Library Open Hours, This Sunday, December 30th, 1:30-6:00 PM

This Sunday, the newly post-Hurricane Sandy re-built Morbid Anatomy Library (seen above) will hosting no-appointment-necessary open hours from 1:30- to 6:00. So come on by for a perusal of the stacks and a gander at our human skeleton, tatty taxidermy and wax embryological models.

For more about the Morbid Anatomy Library and for directions and other such information, click here.

Photo of The Library by Joanna Ebenstein.

"Santa Muerte, Posada’s Mexico and the End of Times" Guest Post by Salvador Olguín, Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence

 

For this non-end-of-days end-of-days, a word on Death in Mayan and Mexican culture from new Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence Salvador Olguín:

I’ve been following the Morbid Anatomy blog for quite some time. This is my second guest post in the blog (the first can be found here); this time I am officially writing as Morbid Anatomy’s new Scholar in Residence. I told Joanna Ebenstein I wanted to write a few lines to commemorate such major occasion as the end of the 13th baktun of the Mayan calendar –that is, the 13th cycle of 144,000 days since the world began, otherwise known as The End of Times. Posting this text after the announcement of the Morbid Anatomy Library’s recent acquisition of a lot of Santa Muerte artifacts, also celebrated in this article by David Metcalf, is a happy coincidence. Finally, being able to use this post to introduce Posada’s Mexico, a book about José Guadalupe Posada recently acquired by the MA library, is a real treat.

José Guadalupe Posada was a Mexican engraver and illustrator who started working in the late 1800s as a cartoonist. He produced a vast number of etchings, most of which first appeared in the news papers and cheap periodicals published in Mexico City during the last decade of the 19th and the early 1900s. Posada’s was a time of social turmoil. The publications where he worked criticized the autocratic government of Porfirio Díaz for favoring Mexico’s Europeanized higher classes over the workers and the dispossessed. In this milieu, Posada used his art to satirize the rich and powerful, but also to illustrate current events and the news: murders, cases of cannibalism, floods, earthquakes and the End of the World, which people in Mexico believed was imminent 100 years ago.

Posada created a series of iconic characters like Don Chepito Marihuano (Mr. Chepito The Pothead), a gentleman who entertained the habit of smoking large amounts of weed. You can see him holding a skull, Hamlet-style, in the bottom illustration above. One of his most iconic illustrations was La Calavera Garbancera, later baptized as La Catrina by Diego Rivera. She came to represent Death personified for all Mexicans. Posada conceived her as a working class woman of mixed Native American and European blood, wearing a pretentious French hat. Later Rivera painted her in one of his murals (4th image down), but instead of using her as a vehicle of social commentary he dressed her up in a full fancy gown, making her a proud symbol of the unification of Mexico’s dual roots: Spanish and Native American. The fact that this symbol is embodied as a skeleton shows the importance of the personification of Death in Mexican iconography, and makes La Catrina a direct precursor of Santa Muerte.

Most Mesoamerican cultures had a cyclical notion of time. There were times of destruction and times of renewal. There had been other Worlds, and other versions of Humanity in their mythical pass, and there would be new worlds and a new humanity in the future. A Mayan wouldn’t be surprised that the world didn’t come to an end: today marks the beginning of the 14th baktun. Death remains the only certain thing in life; believing She’s a person, a being that watches over us, is certainly a soothing idea. Knowing She likes to smoke, drink, and feast like Santa Muerte does is simply the best. Take a look at these images from Posada’s Mexico, now available for researchers at the Morbid Anatomy Library.

You can find out more about Santa Muerte in these recent posts (1, 2); you can find out more about our upcoming Santa Muerte lecture and party by clicking here, and more about The Morbid Anatomy Library by clicking here. You can find out more about Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence Salvador Olguín by clicking here. All images are scans from Posada’s Mexico, a book about José Guadalupe Posada recently acquired by the Morbid Anatomy library.

Morbid Anatomy Library Acquisition Number 1,352: New Lot of Santa Muerte Related Materials from Mexico

The Morbid Anatomy Library is delighted to announce the acquisition of a new lot of materials related to Santa Muerte, which is, depending on whom you ask, a Mexican-based "cult" or "new religion" which worships death as a female saint.

"Santa Muerte," which literally translates to "Holy Death" or "Saint Death," is popular in Mexico and the United States with disenfranchised populations for whom conventional Catholicism has not provided a better or safer life. It is thought to have its roots in the rich syncretism of the beliefs of the native Latin Americans and the colonizing Spanish Catholics.

The artifacts donated to the library, many of which you see above, include sacred books and pamphlets, devotional statues, magical soaps and oils, charms, incense, and even "La Biblia de la Santa Muerte." They were generously donated by Friends of Morbid Anatomy Tonya Hurley and Tracy Hurley Martin as found on their travels in Mexico. Stay tuned for a series of future guest posts documenting their travels.

These artifacts are now on display and available to researchers. The library will host no-appointment-necessary open hours tomorrow, Sunday December 16th, from 1-4:30. Address and directions here. For more on the fascinating Santa Muerte--and more images!-see this recent post.

Resurrection Again: The Morbid Anatomy Library Post-Hurricane Sandy

Yesterday, we at The Morbid Anatomy Library spent a long, long day putting the library back together after our very zealous pre-Hurricane Sandy preparations. Above are some images showing the progression of the library from TOTAL CHAOS to some element of order; there is still a bit of fine-tuning left to do, but the bulk of the clean up is now completed, books are sorted into their respective categories, and artifacts are back in their general designated area. The library should be completely back up and running sometime in the next few days.

Thanks SO very much to friends and fellow Observatorians Shannon Taggart and Ethan Gould (15th down), and my wonderful former intern Laetitia Barbier (10th down) for all of their support, moral and physical. And that shrine to Saint Florian will be built in short order, and that is a promise!

You can find out more about The Morbid Anatomy Library by clicking here.