Skip to main content

Abstract: Pathological Bodies: Visitor attitudes towards the display of historical potted specimens at two British medical museums.

Aoife Sutton-Butler (PhD Candidate, School of Archaeological and Forensic Sciences, University of Bradford) 

Pathological Bodies: Visitor attitudes towards the display of historical potted specimens at two British medical museums.

 

Across Britain many educational and public institutions hold collections of historical anatomical and pathological fluid preserved potted human remains, sometimes referred to as ‘wet specimens.’ This paper will present data collected at the Surgeons Hall Museum (Edinburgh) and the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garrett (London) on the display of these types of human remains. One hundred and forty visitors were surveyed on the display of these human remains and comments from the visitor’s book were also analysed. Although these collections are still being used in teaching and research, some authors have called them ‘obsolete’ (Lee and Strkalj 2017). Potted specimen collections were the focus of the study for several reasons. They were considered the most valuable type of specimen by anatomists in the 18th century, and they still require a skill set which is not widely specialised in (Moore 2005; Bocaege et al 2013). These collections are also unique in appearance as they have soft tissue attached, despite being a couple of hundred years old. They are different to the archaeological remains on display in museums which are skeletonised or mummified in appearance and are sometimes used to compliment osteology students in the teaching of paleopathology (University of Bradford). The visitor surveys revealed that the public finds these collections interesting, not upsetting to see on display, and that they often ‘see themselves’ in these collections through shared pathologies. Anatomical and pathological potted specimens of the past have the potential to open up conversations linked to themes such as death, ethics, organ donation, the body on display, the preserved body, and socioeconomic status (Richardson 2006).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Conference Programme

Programme 09:00 - 09:15 Welcome and intro Dr Jane Draycott, University of Glasgow 09:15-10:15 Keynote Prof Adrienne Mayor, Stanford University 10:15-11:15 Panel 1: Metamorphosis of Bodies Dr Tanika Koosmen, University of Newcastle, Australia [Dis]Playing Changing Bodies: Metamorphic Greco-Roman Myths as “Display” of Form Dr Ryan Denson, University of Exeter: Pickled Tritons: The Bodily Display of (Divine) Cryptids in the Roman Empire COFFEE BREAK 11:15 – 11:30 11:30 - 12:30 Panel 2: First Impressions/Judgement of Bodies Jasmine Sahu-Hough, PhD candidate - Yale University: “The Sort of Man You All See Me To Be”: Visible Disability and Citizenship in Classical Athens Dr Dan Mills, Georgia Institute of Technology: Physiognomic Disability in Literary, Statuarial, and Numismatic Depictions of Claudius 12:30 - 13:30 Panel 3: Bodies of Servants Dr Anastasia Meintani, Universität Wien: Bodily Display in the Context of the Banquet Shreya Sharma, Independent Scholar: Visual Arts and British Impe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Abstract: Pickled Tritons: The Bodily Display of (Divine) Cryptids in the Roman Empire

 Dr Ryan Denson - University of Exeter Pickled Tritons: The Bodily Display of (Divine) Cryptids in the Roman Empire   Tritons, the mermen of the antiquity, could be imagined as inhabiting the natural world and as creatures one may even encounter, similar to modern notions of cryptid sightings. Pliny the Elder, for instance, reports that a Triton was seen playing a shell-trumpet in a cave during the reign of Tiberius ( Natural History, 9.4). As with ordinary marine life, their bodies were occasionally found and preserved as physical proof of their supposed existence. Thus, Aelian, in his History of Animals, discusses a Triton corpse on display at Tanagra (13.21), describing how a local man once suffered divine vengeance for profaning its body by cutting off some of the scales. Pausanias, viewing the same corpse a century earlier, presents two starkly different versions of how it came to reside in Tanagra ( Description of Greece , 9.20). He further tells of another Triton t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Abstract: [Dis]Playing Changing Bodies: Metamorphic Greco-Roman Myths as ‘Display’ of Form

  [Dis]Playing Changing Bodies: Metamorphic Greco-Roman Myths as ‘Display’ of Form Dr Tanika Koosmen University of Newcastle, Australia. tanika.koosmen@newcastle.edu.au The historical narrative of displayed bodies in a variety of contexts – freak shows, museum display of human remains, even as far as drag shows – finds its philosophical origins in the traditions of Greco-Roman mythological metamorphosis. To display a body is to be aware of its physicality, its metaphorical makeup, and its human/nonhuman subjectivity. In the Greek and Latin myths of transformation, exemplified by 1 st century CE Latin poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses , the display of the human and nonhuman form pre-empts the approach validated in later display traditions. When displaying a body that traverses the line between human and nonhuman, object and subject, these categorical violations must be considered: display of the metamorphosised form in literature is the early origins of these discussions, such as the ...
Post a Comment
Read more