February 2012
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“I’m asked quite often whether or not dead bodies are “scary” or if I worry about...”
– “Dead Bodies Look Like Dead Bodies,” on Order of the Good Death’s blog.
gunhilde asked: I may be wrong about this, but from what I remember, that diary is actually the sole known instance of a Resurrection Man keeping any such record of his activities. Obviously, there were good reasons not to do so.
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'The Diary of a Resurrectionist'
Remember those “Resurrection Men” I mentioned yesterday? Some of them kept diaries.
gunhilde:
Full Text available from the Internet Archive
What follows is a fairly typical week, taken from December, 1811. Note that a ‘small’ refers to the cadaver of a child. Adults were paid for by surgeons and anatomists on an individual basis, with rare medical conditions fetching a premium....
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The Rise of the Mortsafe
Mo medical schools, mo problems.
About 200 years ago, the expansion of medical schools meant a growing need for bodies suitable for dissection. From Wikipedia:
Before the Anatomy Act of 1832, the only legal supply of corpses for anatomical purposes in the UK were those condemned to death and dissection by the courts. Those who were sentenced to dissection by the courts were often guilty of...
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Kentucky Family Sues Cemetery Owners For Dropping... →
A Frankfort family is suing cemetery owners after they say workers dropped their mother twice during her burial, causing her body to roll out of its casket.
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Man lies dead for three years before discovery →
Yet another story of a long-undiscovered dead person. Sad.
Less sad: Pigeons broke in and turned on his radio, which alerted neighbors (and the police).
I like pigeons.
(via The Order of the Good Death on Facebook)
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Hail To The Veep: America's Executive Underdog →
From NPR, a look at the often overlooked: America’s vice presidents. Particularly this tidbit:
Jefferson’s second vice president was New York Gov. George Clinton. (Incidentally, New York has given the country more vice presidents than any other state.) Clinton was memorialized with a bridge over the Hudson River — at least kind of. It’s called the George Clinton...
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Morbid Anatomy: Théodore Géricault's Morgue-Based... →
New article on Morbid Anatomy guest-authored by Paul Koudounaris (author of The Empire of Death, which I finally got my hands on this week) about Théodore Géricault’s preparatory studies for his most famous painting:
At the time, there were programs in local morgues to lend human remains to art students for anatomical study—something like a lending library of body parts. Géricault would...
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WatchThis is insanely neat. I love the pleased expression at the end.
Skeleton stop motion video by museumoflondon on Flickr:
Laying out a skeleton in anatomical postion
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"The Deadly Nevergreen": Public Hangings at Tyburn →
Article from The Chirurgeon’s Apprentice on the “Tyburn Tree,” notorious site for public hangings in what is today London:
Beginning in the 18th century, Tyburn became a battleground between the surgeons who needed to procure corpses for dissection and the mob who fought ferociously to protect the dead from this indignity.
Read the whole thing.
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Dazed & Confused: Interview with Paul Koudounaris... →
It took me long enough, but I finally ordered a copy of this book this morning. If you need me in the next 5 to 7 days business days, I’ll be near the mailbox.
From the interview:
There is something hypocritical about modern mortuary practices. We don’t want the dead around at all any more, so we ask the deceased to play out one last scene as a living person, dressed and made up as if...
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ofpaperandponies asked: That story of Joyce Carol Vincent in interesting on their own, but it also provides an interesting perspective on the recent death of David Carter. Well, recent discovery. He committed suicide four years ago in West Allis, WI. The cases are rather dichotomous in the end, but the reactions of those around the cases are so similar on the familial front, yet on the community front, they're so...
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Joyce Carol Vincent: How could this young woman... →
From The Guardian:
On 25 January 2006, officials from a north London housing association repossessing a bedsit in Wood Green owing to rent arrears made a grim discovery. Lying on the sofa was the skeleton of a 38-year-old woman who had been dead for almost three years. In a corner of the room the television set was still on, tuned to BBC1, and a small pile of unopened Christmas presents...
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Do the dead outnumber the living? →
This is something I think about fairly frequently. The article estimates the number to be 107,602,707,791.
The population of the planet reached seven billion in October, according to the United Nations. But what’s the figure for all those who have lived before us?
It is often said that there are more people alive today than have ever lived - and this “fact” has raised its head again since the UN...
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The Burns Archive: Teaming up for a Historic... →
From the Burns Archive blog:
Dr. Stanley Burns and noted forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden met to discuss a joint volume on the photographic history of forensic science. This unique project will include Dr. Burns’ historic photos documenting the genesis of medical forensic studies from the 1860s on. These images will be combined with Dr. Baden’s own photographs taken over five decades of...
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Dead bodies stored in cupboards on the Tube →
The bodies of people who commit suicide on the London Underground network are often stored in cleaning cupboards and store rooms until an undertaker can collect them, a new documentary has revealed.
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Beyond the Grave: Concepts of Death in Early... →
Delightful article from The Chirurgeon’s Apprentice:
Up until the last decades of the 19th century, people living in Derbyshire, England meticulously collected and stored their fallen or extracted teeth in jars. When a person died, these teeth were placed inside the coffin alongside the corpse. On Judgment Day, those who failed to do this would be damned to search for the lost teeth in a...
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Families Suffer Through Chicago Morgue Backlog →
A very sad story from NPR:
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office was so far behind in burials for the poor that bodies have been stacking up. Conditions at the overcrowded morgue have been described as inhumane and unsanitary, and there are reports that the department has lost track of bodies. Following efforts to change its practices, the morgue is now trying to catch up and clean...
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Books of Human Flesh: The History behind... →
From The Chirurgeon’s Apprentice:
The process of binding books using human flesh is known as ‘anthropodermic bibliopegy’. One of the earlier examples dates from the 17th century and currently resides in Langdell Law Library at Harvard University. It is a Spanish law book published in 1605. The colour of the binding is a ‘subdued yellow, with sporadic brown and black splotches like an old...
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“Let’s, let’s be dignified. If you’ll quit telling them they’re dying, if you...”
– Jim Jones, from transcripts of the final minutes of Jonestown in “Father Knows Best,” Lapham’s Quarterly.
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January 2012
53 posts
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Vultures skeletonise corpse for the sake of... →
Let’s hear it for Central Texas! (San Marcos isn’t far from Austin, where I live.)
oldowan:
Ever entertained the idea of leaving your body to science? Even if you have, you can scarcely have considered the strange fate of one donated corpse that has just been revealed in the journal Forensic Science International: a donor’s body was left in a Texan wilderness so that vultures...
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The New Yorker: The Story of a Suicide →
Two college roommates, a webcam, and a tragedy.
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The Book of Face →
<Self Promotion>
The Ossuary now has its very own baby Facebook page, and the only person who likes it so far is me.
Come join me; I’d love to hear from you!
</Self Promotion>
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