About Me

I'm a PhD student researching the role of the archaeological dead in contemporary British society. Think of this as a scrapbook of all the interesting links, snippets of information and random bits and bobs I come across pertaining to death, dying and the dead. Enjoy?!

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    atlasobscura:

    All the secrets of human consciousness may be embedded somewhere in the squishy brains nestled in our skulls. This drive to find out what’s hidden in our mental anatomy has resulted in medical specimen collections of brains all over the world. The Wilder Brain Collection in Ithaca, New York, has around 70 brains; the Cushing Brain Collection in New Haven, Connecticut, has around 550. But this is nothing compared to the around 3,300 brains kept at the Brain Museum in Lima.

    Curious Fact of the Week: Biggest Brain Collections

    The mysterious Dr Glidden: Callous actions of archaeologist who raided hundreds of Native American graves to set up macabre museum remembered in California The Catalina Island Museum has opened an exhibit dedicated to a notorious Native American grave robber who presided over an ‘Indian museum’ built out of the bones he recovered from the burial grounds. ‘The Strange and Mysterious Case of Dr. Glidden’ delves into the colorful and mysterious past of amateur archaeologist Ralph Glidden - hoping to shed light on a gruesome period in the Californian islands history. The no-holds-barred exhibit features an introduction that says he, through his unscientific plundering, disregarded ‘the sanctity of human remains’ and inflicted ‘near-permanent damage’ on research into local Native American life. Laying out what visitors can expect, the museum’s Executive Director Michael De Marsche compared the exhibition to those at Holocaust museum’s in Europe saying they explore, ‘similar issues: the genocide of a people, the desecration of their graves and the lack of respect for the sacredness of their remains.’ The ‘disturbing and troubling exhibition’ was put together after museum curator discovered boxes of Glidden’s journals, letters and photographs that document how he went about his dubious methods. (Source: Daily Mail)

    The mysterious Dr Glidden: Callous actions of archaeologist who raided hundreds of Native American graves to set up macabre museum remembered in California

    The Catalina Island Museum has opened an exhibit dedicated to a notorious Native American grave robber who presided over an ‘Indian museum’ built out of the bones he recovered from the burial grounds.

    ‘The Strange and Mysterious Case of Dr. Glidden’ delves into the colorful and mysterious past of amateur archaeologist Ralph Glidden - hoping to shed light on a gruesome period in the Californian islands history.

    The no-holds-barred exhibit features an introduction that says he, through his unscientific plundering, disregarded ‘the sanctity of human remains’ and inflicted ‘near-permanent damage’ on research into local Native American life.

    Laying out what visitors can expect, the museum’s Executive Director Michael De Marsche compared the exhibition to those at Holocaust museum’s in Europe saying they explore, ‘similar issues: the genocide of a people, the desecration of their graves and the lack of respect for the sacredness of their remains.’

    The ‘disturbing and troubling exhibition’ was put together after museum curator discovered boxes of Glidden’s journals, letters and photographs that document how he went about his dubious methods.

    (Source: Daily Mail)

    Lockerbie bombing: Pan Am 103 returned to Scotland ONE of Scotland’s most visited museums hopes its bid to display aircraft wreckage from the Lockerbie bombing will be boosted by the remains of Pan Am flight 103 being moved north of the Border. The Crown Office yesterday confirmed the wreckage had been moved from an Air Accidents Investigation Branch hangar in Hampshire to a storage facility near Dumfries. The investigation into the 1988 attack, in which 270 people were killed, is ongoing, although Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the former Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the bombing, died last year. The Riverside Museum in Glasgow, which attracts more than a million visitors a year, is seeking part of the wreckage to add to its permanent display about the disaster, which was developed with the victims’ families. A source said: “We continue to hope some of the fuselage will be made available to help us to tell this important story.” Museum officials have previously told The Scotsman they were seeking “something which is identifiably part of the aircraft rather than just a piece of metal”, such as a seat or one of the black boxes. Curators have previously said: “We want items that tell a story, such as a piece of fuselage which shows blast damage, or something which illustrates the forensic investigation.” (Source: Scotsman)

    Lockerbie bombing: Pan Am 103 returned to Scotland

    ONE of Scotland’s most visited museums hopes its bid to display aircraft wreckage from the Lockerbie bombing will be boosted by the remains of Pan Am flight 103 being moved north of the Border.

    The Crown Office yesterday confirmed the wreckage had been moved from an Air Accidents Investigation Branch hangar in Hampshire to a storage facility near Dumfries.

    The investigation into the 1988 attack, in which 270 people were killed, is ongoing, although Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the former Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the bombing, died last year.

    The Riverside Museum in Glasgow, which attracts more than a million visitors a year, is seeking part of the wreckage to add to its permanent display about the disaster, which was developed with the victims’ families.

    A source said: “We continue to hope some of the fuselage will be made available to help us to tell this important story.”

    Museum officials have previously told The Scotsman they were seeking “something which is identifiably part of the aircraft rather than just a piece of metal”, such as a seat or one of the black boxes.

    Curators have previously said: “We want items that tell a story, such as a piece of fuselage which shows blast damage, or something which illustrates the forensic investigation.”

    (Source: Scotsman)

    Why are some leaders’ corpses preserved? The body of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is to be embalmed and put on display permanently at a military museum. How do you preserve a body indefinitely, and why is it done? The body of Hugo Chavez is to be exhibited in glass casket in a newly converted museum of the revolution near the presidential palace where he ruled for 14 years, according to Venezuela’s acting leader Nicolas Maduro. Maduro said Chavez would be following in the footsteps of other embalmed leaders, Ho Chi Minh, Lenin and Mao Zedong. He might also have mentioned North Korea’s Kim Jong-il or Ferdinand Marcos, former leader of the Philippines. The latter’s wife Imelda is keeping his body in a mausoleum in her home in the north of the country until, she says, the government agrees to give him a state funeral. So, why are some former heads of state preserved indefinitely? According to Maduro, Chavez belongs to his people and he will be preserved so that “his people will always have him”. Read more here.

    Why are some leaders’ corpses preserved?

    The body of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is to be embalmed and put on display permanently at a military museum. How do you preserve a body indefinitely, and why is it done?

    The body of Hugo Chavez is to be exhibited in glass casket in a newly converted museum of the revolution near the presidential palace where he ruled for 14 years, according to Venezuela’s acting leader Nicolas Maduro.

    Maduro said Chavez would be following in the footsteps of other embalmed leaders, Ho Chi Minh, Lenin and Mao Zedong.

    He might also have mentioned North Korea’s Kim Jong-il or Ferdinand Marcos, former leader of the Philippines. The latter’s wife Imelda is keeping his body in a mausoleum in her home in the north of the country until, she says, the government agrees to give him a state funeral.

    So, why are some former heads of state preserved indefinitely?

    According to Maduro, Chavez belongs to his people and he will be preserved so that “his people will always have him”.

    Read more here.

    Chavez Body to Be Put on Permanent Display

    (CARACAS, Venezuela) — Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, and now Hugo Chavez. The late leader’s supporters have put him on a pedestal long provided for the world’s great leftist revolutionaries by saying they will embalm his body for perpetual display.

    Vice President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s acting head of state, said Thursday that Chavez’s body would be forever displayed inside a glass tomb at a military museum not far from the presidential palace from which the socialist firebrand ruled for 14 years.

    “We have decided to prepare the body of our ‘Comandante President,’ to embalm it so that it remains open for all time for the people. Just like Ho Chi Minh. Just like Lenin. Just like Mao Zedong,” Maduro said.

    Other socialist or communist leaders given similar treatments after dying are Russian dictator Josef Stalin, though his body was later removed, and North Korea’s father-and-son leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. But it was the famous display of Soviet founder Lenin in Moscow’s Red Square in 1924 that inspired the custom among leftist leaders.

    Maduro said Chavez’s body would be held in a “crystal urn” at the Museum of the Revolution, a stone’s throw from Miraflores presidential palace, but that first the body would lie in state for “at least” seven days at the museum.

    The announcement followed two emotional days following the leaders’ death in which Chavez’s supporters compared him to Jesus Christ, and accused his national and international critics of subversion.

    But not everyone shared in the adoration of Chavez in death.

    Read more here…

    King Richard III exhibition attracts 15,000 in two weeks An exhibition about the archaeological dig for Richard III’s remains has attracted 15,000 visitors in its first two weeks. The display at Leicester’s Guildhall explains the story behind the search for the lost monarch under a council car park in the city. It also explains the scientific evidence which led to remains found last year being identified as the king. The venue normally attracts about 37,000 visitors over an entire year. Visitors have queued around the building for the free exhibition, which is expected to remain at the Guildhall for about a year, until a permanent visitors’ centre opens. Leicester mayor Peter Soulsby said: “These extraordinary visitor numbers show how much the Richard III story has captured the imagination of people across Leicester, Leicestershire and beyond. Read more here!

    King Richard III exhibition attracts 15,000 in two weeks

    An exhibition about the archaeological dig for Richard III’s remains has attracted 15,000 visitors in its first two weeks.

    The display at Leicester’s Guildhall explains the story behind the search for the lost monarch under a council car park in the city.

    It also explains the scientific evidence which led to remains found last year being identified as the king.

    The venue normally attracts about 37,000 visitors over an entire year.

    Visitors have queued around the building for the free exhibition, which is expected to remain at the Guildhall for about a year, until a permanent visitors’ centre opens.

    Leicester mayor Peter Soulsby said: “These extraordinary visitor numbers show how much the Richard III story has captured the imagination of people across Leicester, Leicestershire and beyond.

    Read more here!

    A funeral director’s view on Death: A Self-Portrait The Wellcome Trust’s exhibition of death-related artefacts could have done with more on funeral practices and rituals, says funeral director Barry Albin-Dyer Some of the war imagery in this show – especially Otto Dix’s drawing of shock troops marching in gas masks – made me think about the work I do repatriating deceased servicemen. I’ve been out to Afghanistan and Iraq (I’ve even come under mortar fire), so I can imagine how it might feel to be in such dangerous circumstances. Although soldiers might see death as an almost natural extension of their work, their families certainly don’t. I’ve met thousands of mothers who’ve lost their sons. I never tell them I know how they feel. How can I possibly know that? The art collector Richard Harris must be a very macabre fellow. He’s amassed more than 1,000 artefacts relating to death, the best of which feature in this very interesting show. The majority – like a lovely painting of Napoleon as half-man, half-skeleton – touch upon our fear of death. I’m not afraid of death myself: as a Christian, I believe I’m going to a better place. When I was younger, though, I found it difficult telling people what I did. But having spent a lifetime in the business, I now think most people understand that our job is really much more about the living, being a source of comfort to them. I’d have liked to see more about funeral services and their many rituals. At FA Albin & Sons, we conduct funerals in the Victorian tradition: we never have red and white flowers (they represent blood and bandages); we never allow petals to fall from the back of the hearse; and we never tip our hats to a mourner, since that might indicate that it’s their turn next. We lift our hats instead. There’s another tradition, from Scotland, called “sin-eating”. The poorest man in a village would be given bread and water that had touched the corpse, in order to draw out sin. We don’t do that today, but it’s this kind of detail about funerals – which I see as a communal act of mercy and a sign of a civilised society – that’s missing from this exhibition. • Barry Albin-Dyer is owner of FA Albin & Sons Funeral Directors (albins.co.uk). Death: A Self-Portrait is at the Wellcome Collection, London NW1, until 24 February. If you’re anywhere near London, do go and check out this exhibition (and Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men at the Museum of London), it’s fabulous!

    A funeral director’s view on Death: A Self-Portrait

    The Wellcome Trust’s exhibition of death-related artefacts could have done with more on funeral practices and rituals, says funeral director Barry Albin-Dyer

    Some of the war imagery in this show – especially Otto Dix’s drawing of shock troops marching in gas masks – made me think about the work I do repatriating deceased servicemen. I’ve been out to Afghanistan and Iraq (I’ve even come under mortar fire), so I can imagine how it might feel to be in such dangerous circumstances. Although soldiers might see death as an almost natural extension of their work, their families certainly don’t. I’ve met thousands of mothers who’ve lost their sons. I never tell them I know how they feel. How can I possibly know that?

    The art collector Richard Harris must be a very macabre fellow. He’s amassed more than 1,000 artefacts relating to death, the best of which feature in this very interesting show. The majority – like a lovely painting of Napoleon as half-man, half-skeleton – touch upon our fear of death. I’m not afraid of death myself: as a Christian, I believe I’m going to a better place. When I was younger, though, I found it difficult telling people what I did. But having spent a lifetime in the business, I now think most people understand that our job is really much more about the living, being a source of comfort to them.

    I’d have liked to see more about funeral services and their many rituals. At FA Albin & Sons, we conduct funerals in the Victorian tradition: we never have red and white flowers (they represent blood and bandages); we never allow petals to fall from the back of the hearse; and we never tip our hats to a mourner, since that might indicate that it’s their turn next. We lift our hats instead.

    There’s another tradition, from Scotland, called “sin-eating”. The poorest man in a village would be given bread and water that had touched the corpse, in order to draw out sin. We don’t do that today, but it’s this kind of detail about funerals – which I see as a communal act of mercy and a sign of a civilised society – that’s missing from this exhibition.

    • Barry Albin-Dyer is owner of FA Albin & Sons Funeral Directors (albins.co.uk). Death: A Self-Portrait is at the Wellcome Collection, London NW1, until 24 February.

    If you’re anywhere near London, do go and check out this exhibition (and Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men at the Museum of London), it’s fabulous!

    Death: A Self-portrait 15 November 2012 - 24 February 2013 Our major winter exhibition showcases some 300 works from a unique collection devoted to the iconography of death and our complex and contradictory attitudes towards it. Assembled by Richard Harris, a former antique print dealer based in Chicago, the collection is spectacularly diverse, including art works, historical artefacts, scientific specimens and ephemera from across the world. Rare prints by Rembrandt, Dürer and Goya will be displayed alongside anatomical drawings, war art and antique metamorphic postcards; human remains will be juxtaposed with Renaissance vanitas paintings and twentieth century installations celebrating Mexico’s Day of the Dead. From a group of ancient Incan skulls, to a spectacular chandelier made of 3000 plaster-cast bones by British artist Jodie Carey, this singular collection, by turns disturbing, macabre and moving, opens a window upon our enduring desire to make peace with death. A full events programme will accompany the exhibition, as well as a beautifully designed keepsake publication featuring a selection of images from the Richard Harris Collection. So excited to see this! 

    Death: A Self-portrait

    15 November 2012 - 24 February 2013

    Our major winter exhibition showcases some 300 works from a unique collection devoted to the iconography of death and our complex and contradictory attitudes towards it. Assembled by Richard Harris, a former antique print dealer based in Chicago, the collection is spectacularly diverse, including art works, historical artefacts, scientific specimens and ephemera from across the world. Rare prints by Rembrandt, Dürer and Goya will be displayed alongside anatomical drawings, war art and antique metamorphic postcards; human remains will be juxtaposed with Renaissance vanitas paintings and twentieth century installations celebrating Mexico’s Day of the Dead. From a group of ancient Incan skulls, to a spectacular chandelier made of 3000 plaster-cast bones by British artist Jodie Carey, this singular collection, by turns disturbing, macabre and moving, opens a window upon our enduring desire to make peace with death.

    A full events programme will accompany the exhibition, as well as a beautifully designed keepsake publication featuring a selection of images from the Richard Harris Collection.

    So excited to see this! 

    thisbelongsinamuseum:

    For some reason I have the song “That’s Your Funeral” from the musical Oliver! playing in my head. Maybe it’s because I have just read about the Bestattungsmuseum (Undertakers’ Museum) in Vienna. Located near the Schloss Belvedere in an old funeral home, the museum contains more than 600 artifacts documenting Viennese funeral and burial rituals. On display are elaborate black uniforms worn by the pallbearers (Pompfüneberer), as well as hearses, wreathes, sashes, lanterns, torches, black flags, a football shaped urn, photographs of corpses seated in chairs (Probably still better than half the crap I see on Facebook) and a Magritte-inspired “sitting coffin”. Speaking of coffins (this is an undertakers museum after all) there are quite a few interesting, historical pieces. One is the economic, re-usable coffin, made with a flap on the bottom, which was created by the Emperor to save wood and hasten decomposition. Well, it proved quite unpopular and led to riots. Can you imagine people rioting over crappy caskets in today’s world? Besides football riots, I really can’t. Anyway, it was quite common to attach a cord-like device to the hand of the deceased inside the coffin, just in case the corpse came back to life he or she could ring a bell. To this day the city’s hospitals still occasionally administer lethal injection after death to avoid premature burial. This is probably why the Viennese hate cremation. Besides the whole “fear of being buried alive” thing, it sounds like they would much rather leave behind a schöne leiche (a beautiful corpse) than be reduced to dust. Hey, it’s their funeral!

    (Image Source 1, 2, 3)

    thisbelongsinamuseum:

    If your conscience is represented by an Angel Museum on your right shoulder, then obviously the left holds the temptation of the Devil Museum. The Žmuidzinavičius Museum (I challenge you to a Lithuanian Spelling Bee) in an obscure part of Kaunas displays over 3,000 sculptures and carvings of devils from all over the world. The collection (and the crazy unpronounceable name) comes from the late artist Antanas Žmuidzinavičius, even though Soviet law prohibited owning any religious artifacts, especially anticommunist, nationalist folk art. He faced Siberian exile if his devils were discovered, and only Stalin’s death in 1953 saved his ass.

    Started in 1966, his former home serves as a memorial to devils, witches, and other characters from various myths and folklore with most of the objects coming from visitor donations. Yes, any foreigner (even ones with children) can bring their own native devil art to add to the collection. That’s some museum policy! Anyway, the museum mostly focuses on former Soviet territories, everywhere from Armenia to the Sakha Republic. Man’s never-ending battle with the devil comes in many forms: wood, stone, silk, pottery and canvas. One famous piece ’The Division of Lithuania’, features Hitler and Stalin as two fork-tailed devils, dancing on a pile of human skulls. It’s been on public view since 1990. It’s interesting to note that Lithuania was the last Pagan state in Europe; and devils, equal with all gods, are more human in nature than the Christian view of an evil Satan. That’s something to remember when viewing some of the more humourous devil depictions. But probably the best part of the museum is the well-stocked basement bar, which proves that the devil always wins! 

    (Image Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4)

    • Posted 7 months ago
    • October 17th, 2012

    102 Likes & Reblogs

    thisbelongsinamuseum:

    One of my first posts on this blog was about famous death masks from museums around the world. But what I really want to know is where I can find the largest collection of death masks in, I don’t know, the Ukraine? Well, I’m in luck. At the One Street Museum in Kiev there is a fascinating and extensive death mask collection. For over ten years, museum director Dmitry Shlyonsky has been collecting authentic wax and plaster face masks of prominent Ukrainian writers, politicians and artists, including figures such as Malevich, Bulgakov, Paustovsky and Petlyura. The museum now displays sixty casts (here’s a slideshow of the exhibit), as well as the work of master of post-mortem masks, famed Soviet sculptor Sergey Merkurov. In Armenia one can visit his house-turned museum where 59 Soviet leader death molds are on display, including the only original one of Lenin.

    thisbelongsinamuseum: Open since 1966, the Witch’s Dungeon Classic Movie Museum is the longest-running Halloween-ish museum in the United States. It is only open during the month of October. The brainchild of Bristol, Connecticut native Cortlandt Hull (who was literally a child when he opened this place), the museum is housed in a 40 by 17 foot Swiss chalet-style structure full of life-size figures of classic movie monsters, like Lon Chaney’s Mummy, Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein, Bela Lugosi’s Count Dracula and Vincent Price’s Abominable Dr. Phibes. The heads of many of the figurines were based on life-casts of the actual actors who portrayed them. Some costumes, background sets and props are from the original films. Because the place is so tiny and only open once a year, there are hour-long lines to get inside. I guess the waiting is the really scary part. But at least the museum redeems itself with outdoor screenings of silent horror classics. 

    thisbelongsinamuseum:

    Open since 1966, the Witch’s Dungeon Classic Movie Museum is the longest-running Halloween-ish museum in the United States. It is only open during the month of October. The brainchild of Bristol, Connecticut native Cortlandt Hull (who was literally a child when he opened this place), the museum is housed in a 40 by 17 foot Swiss chalet-style structure full of life-size figures of classic movie monsters, like Lon Chaney’s Mummy, Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein, Bela Lugosi’s Count Dracula and Vincent Price’s Abominable Dr. Phibes. The heads of many of the figurines were based on life-casts of the actual actors who portrayed them. Some costumes, background sets and props are from the original films. Because the place is so tiny and only open once a year, there are hour-long lines to get inside. I guess the waiting is the really scary part. But at least the museum redeems itself with outdoor screenings of silent horror classics. 

    • Posted 7 months ago
    • October 11th, 2012

    51 Likes & Reblogs

    Murderer James Legg’s gruesome tale revived for anatomy exhibition Story of murderer’s postmortem participation in crucifixion experiment resurrected for exhibition on medical ethics in 19th-century London The crime of James Legg, a Chelsea pensioner who murdered a fellow pensioner more than two centuries ago, might well have been forgotten long ago had he not, unknowingly, participated postmortem in a bizarre scientific experiment. Instead, his story, and a plaster cast of the 73-year-old’s corpse flayed to the muscle, will form the centrepiece of an exhibition on medical ethics and practices in bygone London. Legg’s immortality in art owes everything to the efforts in 1801 of sculptor Thomas Bank, and artists Benjamin West and Richard Crossway, to demonstrate most depictions of the crucifixion of Christ were anatomically incorrect. Aside from stringing up a live victim, the best possible solution would seem to be to acquire one freshly dead. At the time, as the study and teaching of anatomy became increasingly popular, the only legal source of corpses were those of executed prisoners. Demand, though, far exceeded supply, leading to brisk business in the gruesome trade of bodysnatching, where gangs of what were known as resurrection men stole corpses from the capital’s cemeteries to sell to anatomist surgeons. It was not only the surgeons who were interested in the dead bodies. Anatomy classes were also offered at the Royal Academy of Arts, and many artists forged relationships with surgeon-anatomists. So, it was to Joseph Constantine Carpue, a well-known surgeon, that Banks and the artists turned for help. An opportunity presented itself when Carpue was called to the Chelsea hospital after Legg had apparently dispatched one of his fellow pensioners with a gun. He was sentenced to death by hanging, and taken to the gallows. Immediately after the execution, his still-warm body was taken by Carpue and Banks and hung from a cross. After letting it settle into position, it was then flayed to remove all the skin before Banks made a cast of it, which the Royal Academy retains, occasionally lending it to exhibitions. Now the plaster cast is going on display at the Museum of London as part of the exhibition Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men, which opens on 19 October. Jelena Beklavac, curator of Human Osteology at the Museum of London, said: “It is a privilege to have the James Legg cast on display. Looking at James is an absorbing and poignant experience and I am certain visitors will be struck by his presence in the exhibition. James underlines our continued fascination with all things anatomical.” Full article here.

    Murderer James Legg’s gruesome tale revived for anatomy exhibition

    Story of murderer’s postmortem participation in crucifixion experiment resurrected for exhibition on medical ethics in 19th-century London

    The crime of James Legg, a Chelsea pensioner who murdered a fellow pensioner more than two centuries ago, might well have been forgotten long ago had he not, unknowingly, participated postmortem in a bizarre scientific experiment.

    Instead, his story, and a plaster cast of the 73-year-old’s corpse flayed to the muscle, will form the centrepiece of an exhibition on medical ethics and practices in bygone London. Legg’s immortality in art owes everything to the efforts in 1801 of sculptor Thomas Bank, and artists Benjamin West and Richard Crossway, to demonstrate most depictions of the crucifixion of Christ were anatomically incorrect.

    Aside from stringing up a live victim, the best possible solution would seem to be to acquire one freshly dead.

    At the time, as the study and teaching of anatomy became increasingly popular, the only legal source of corpses were those of executed prisoners. Demand, though, far exceeded supply, leading to brisk business in the gruesome trade of bodysnatching, where gangs of what were known as resurrection men stole corpses from the capital’s cemeteries to sell to anatomist surgeons.

    It was not only the surgeons who were interested in the dead bodies. Anatomy classes were also offered at the Royal Academy of Arts, and many artists forged relationships with surgeon-anatomists.

    So, it was to Joseph Constantine Carpue, a well-known surgeon, that Banks and the artists turned for help.

    An opportunity presented itself when Carpue was called to the Chelsea hospital after Legg had apparently dispatched one of his fellow pensioners with a gun. He was sentenced to death by hanging, and taken to the gallows.

    Immediately after the execution, his still-warm body was taken by Carpue and Banks and hung from a cross. After letting it settle into position, it was then flayed to remove all the skin before Banks made a cast of it, which the Royal Academy retains, occasionally lending it to exhibitions.

    Now the plaster cast is going on display at the Museum of London as part of the exhibition Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men, which opens on 19 October.

    Jelena Beklavac, curator of Human Osteology at the Museum of London, said: “It is a privilege to have the James Legg cast on display. Looking at James is an absorbing and poignant experience and I am certain visitors will be struck by his presence in the exhibition. James underlines our continued fascination with all things anatomical.”

    Full article here.

    thisbelongsinamuseum: Even though I’ve been to Whitby, I’m sad to say I have never seen the “Hand of Glory”. On display at the Whitby Museum (it’s even on the freakin’ entrance sign), this mummified severed human hand was discovered hidden in the wall of a nearby thatched cottage over a hundred years ago by a local historian. A “Hand of Glory”, common throughout Europe for over four hundred years, is the dried and pickled hand of a man who had been hanged for murder. Supposedly the hand, usually the left because everyone knows that’s the sinister one, was cut off while the body still hung from the gallows. It symbolized that the person “did the deed”, while also holding mystical powers. If only all our hands can one day be cut off and live on in museum collections. Cross your fingers! (Image Source)

    thisbelongsinamuseum:

    Even though I’ve been to Whitby, I’m sad to say I have never seen the “Hand of Glory”. On display at the Whitby Museum (it’s even on the freakin’ entrance sign), this mummified severed human hand was discovered hidden in the wall of a nearby thatched cottage over a hundred years ago by a local historian. A “Hand of Glory”, common throughout Europe for over four hundred years, is the dried and pickled hand of a man who had been hanged for murder. Supposedly the hand, usually the left because everyone knows that’s the sinister one, was cut off while the body still hung from the gallows. It symbolized that the person “did the deed”, while also holding mystical powers. If only all our hands can one day be cut off and live on in museum collections. Cross your fingers!

    (Image Source)

    Auschwitz: How relevant is it in today’s society?

    A while ago, I was having a conversation with friends; the Holocaust came up and we began to tentatively discuss it. After a few minutes, one friend, who had been keeping very quiet, looked up and said, slightly confused: “What even is the Holocaust?”… I know: I was completely stunned. She is a relatively sensible person, yet seemed to have no knowledge of this massive historical event. The Holocaust, this significant chunk of world history, this stain on life in the 20th century, and probably one of the most discussed atrocities in the whole of history, had not even registered its existence to her.

    I was particularly offended by her comment, due to feeling slightly more acquainted with the event than many other people I know. For, as part of a project engineered by Holocaust Educational Trust, in March 2012 I visited the site of Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

    As well as being deeply moved by the horrific personal stories and deathly atmosphere of the place, I found it extremely hard to know how to react to the place as a museum. Looking through some of the few pictures I took from the day, I’m struck by how uncomfortable and serious I look; it’s not like smiling for the camera as a visitor abroad, or in a conventional museum; the whole place demands respect, especially in the photos you take as a visitor. But is it even right to be a visitor, taking snaps for the album, labelling the place as a museum?

    Full article here.