In December of 1896, a group of anatomists and anthropologists from Washington, D.C. traveled to a sideshow in Atlanta to examine a mummy known as the San Diego Giant, purportedly the ancient desiccated corpse of one of the tallest men… Read More ›
Museum Exhibit
The discovery of a 5500-year-old cold case
In 1896, Sir Wallis Budge, Keeper of the Egyptian Department at the British Museum at the turn of the 20th century, reportedly witnessed the exhumation of six mummies dated to the predynastic era, the period between the Neolithic and Dynastic periods… Read More ›
Relics of junk science: Bally’s 19th century miniature plaster heads
The Science Museum of London has a set of 60 eerie little plaster heads that look like miniature death masks. Johann Gaspar Spurzheim (1776-1832), a well-known 19th century phrenologist, commissioned these bizarre relics to help his students study phrenology. As phrenology… Read More ›
The artistic de-compositions of Théodore Géricault
The Raft of the Medusa (1818-1819) is an impressive oil painting that is 16 feet by 23 feet by French Romantic master Théodore Géricault (1791-1824). The painting, which hangs in the Louvre in Paris, portrays the twisted bodies of the dead… Read More ›
5 historical figures whose heads have been stolen
The graves of famous people have been plundered for hundreds of years. Bodies and body parts have been stolen by guards trusted to keep corpses safe, scientists determined to study them, and even admirers with good intentions (i.e. Thomas Paine)…. Read More ›
The cadaver crucifixion experiments
Cadavers have been used to teach anatomy and surgical techniques, discover rates of decomposition, and even to develop crash test dummies. Corpses have also been used to settle anatomical debates about how Jesus of Nazareth might have been crucified and test the… Read More ›
This Buddhist statue holds a macabre secret
Last year the Drents Museum in the Netherlands displayed a large Buddhist statue as part of their “Mummies: Life Beyond Death” exhibit. This was the first time that this statue had been presented outside of China. Why was a statue… Read More ›
A criminal’s relic: The macabre history of severed hands
A traditional form of punishment, under Sharia, Islamic law, and in Medieval Europe involved publically amputating a criminal’s body part, often the one used to commit a crime. The pain of the amputation and the shame of the permanent mark… Read More ›
Three deathhacks for a corpse: Books, necropants, and tables
*****WARNING: Graphic Images Below***** Today people have many post-mortem alternatives for their loved ones besides the same old burial or cremation. Companies now offer a variety of services like a green burial with a tree planted on top of the… Read More ›
A morbid donation only a medical museum could love
On September 17, 1862 Union and Confederate soldiers fought the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, MD, during which 23,000 troops were killed in less than a day. Two weeks after the Civil War’s bloodiest battle, a Sharpsburg-area farmer found a… Read More ›
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