Curious, Anatomical, Obscure or Delicious Korea: Seeking Suggestions

Dear Morbid Anatomy readers:

In just a few days, I am off to live for one month (!!!) in Seoul, South Korea as part of the fantastic Apex Art Outbound Residency Program. For those of you who are interested, I will be documenting my Korean adventures on a special blog for Apex Art; you can check that out by clicking here. I arrive in Seoul on September 16th, so blog entries should begin soon after.

But I have a more pressing question for you, dear readers: do any of you out there have any suggestions for suggested Korean sights, sounds, and tastes? Of particular interest, of course, are museums and collections--especially old natural history or anatomical/medical--but any suggestions, from foods to markets to restaurants to shops to national parks to amusement parks to folk art to fine art to curiosities of any kind, would be very much appreciated!

Suggestions will be gratefully received at morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com. Thank you very very much in advance!

Image: House Swallow from the Ehwa Womans University Natural History Museum, Korea.

Seeking Private, Curious, Arcane and Overlooked Scandinavian Museums, Collections, Sights and Curiosities

Greetings folks.

I am in the midst of planning a trip to Scandinavia around the upcoming Congress for the European Association of Museums for the History of Medical Sciences on the theme of ‘Contemporary medical science and technology as a challenge to museums' to be held at Medical Museion in Copenhangen, September 16-18.

More on that conference--at which I will be delivering a paper--soon (though the impatient among you can see the full line up here); for now, I mention it only as an excuse for soliciting suggestions from Morbid Anatomy readers regarding private, curious, arcane, and overlooked museums, collections, sights and curiosities that one shouldn't miss in this part of the world, of which I know frightfully little.

Any suggestions very much appreciated! Suggesters can leave comments on this post or email me at morbidanatomy@gmail.com.

Thanks so much!

Image: The Biologiska Museet, Stockholm--which is very much on my list!--from Picasa user Traci Brandon.

Morgue Slabs, East End of London, Free to a Good Home

This just in from Morbid Anatomy reader Eoin:

I work at an artists studio and we are currently having a clear out. We have four old morgue slabs and their bases that we are trying to dispose of. They are free to a good home but the new owner must take them all and arrange their own pick-up and delivery, they weigh well over a ton! Each slab is a four person lift. They are currently in the East End of London. I hope that we can find a new home as soon as possible (within a week to ten days) or we will have to unfortunately dump them.

Interested parties can email Eoin at studio@makesomespace.co.uk.

Wet Specimen Collections in New York City?

Does anyone out there know of any collections of human anatomical wet specimens (as seen above, in the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden) in New York City or nearby?

If so, please contact me at morbidanatomy@gmail.com. All leads appreciated. Thank you!

Image: Bernardus Siegfried Albinus Case in anatomy hall of Museum Boerhaave in Leiden, the Netherlands. All preparations by Albinus, Circa 1730. Caption reads: embryo in membranes, injected with red wax; child arm, holding the eye's vascular tissue; spinal column of human foetus. More images from the Museum Boerhaave can be seen here.

Enigmatic Found Photo

A found photo of what appears to be a parade organized around a gigantic Japanese baby in a carriage? I stumbled upon this terrifying yet fascinating photograph at the Hartville Flea Market on a trip to Ohio this weekend. Does anyone have any idea about what might be going on here? Or where it might be happening? Click on image to see larger version for more detail; the original quality was pretty poor, as you can see.