Burke & Hare

On January 28th, for the 1st time in its 127-year history, the Anatomy Museum at the University of Edinburgh will open its doors to the public - and will continue to do so from 10am-4pm on the last Saturday of every month. The date is of particular importance, since it is the 183rd anniversary of William Burke’s execution. If you know about the history of anatomy, the name will need no further explanation, and is forever linked to his accomplice William Hare. The pair are infamous 19th c. bodysnatchers who committed at least 15 (and possibly as many as 30) murders for the money they could make supplying Scottish anatomists, including Dr. Robert Knox (1791-1862), immortalized in rhyme. While most of their fellow "resurrectionists" were exhuming newly-buried bodies from their graves to be used as cadavers, Burke and Hare found it easier to lure victims to their deaths (by smothering) and thereby a) ensure the freshness of their products and b) avoid the mess entailed in harvesting them from the ground. Though equally culpable for the appalling crimes, the 2 Williams suffered very different fates and are therefore represented by contrasting specimens in the museum:

William Burke
(1792- 1829)
After arrest, Burke was tried in Dec. 1828 for the murder of one of the victims, found guilty, and sentenced to death and public dissection. “Burke's body is to be dissected, and his Skeleton to be preserved, in order that posterity may keep in remembrance his atrocious crimes,” read the handbill that circulated at the time. He was hanged before a crowd of 20,000 on Jan. 28th, 1829, and his body was brought to Dr. Alexander Monro tertius (1773-1859), Dr. Knox’s rival. During his dissection, the anatomist made a death mask, the cast of which was recently found in storage at Inveraray jail in Argyll (1st image, held by Director of the Anatomy Department Dr. Gordon Findlater). After some 24,000 people filed past Burke's mutilated body, his skeleton (2nd image) was processed and his skin was tanned so that it could be crafted into souvenirs.

William Hare
(1792/1804 - ?)
Because there was insufficient evidence to secure a conviction against he and his partner, Hare was convinced to turn King's evidence and testify against Burke. His fate after his release is unclear. Some believe he left Edinburgh for Dumfries and was afterward seen in Carlisle. Others think he made his way to London, was blinded after being thrown into a lime pit, and spent the rest of his life on the street as a beggar. All that remains is speculation, an illustration, and a life mask (3rd image).

Those curious about the history of anatomy and dissection may wish to preorder my 6th book, Dissection on Display, which has now been announced for publication this spring/summer!

Thanks, Sue!

Death masks

Making a plaster death mask, New York, c. 1908. George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress.


A plaster cast of the face and hands of theologian and religious reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546), made shortly after his death and now on exhibit at Luthers Sterbehaus [Luther's Death House] in Eisleben, Germany, where he spent the last few weeks of his life.

Cast of death mask of Australian wife-murderer Frederick Bailey Deeming, hanged at Old Melbourne Gaol in 1892. The shape of Deeming's skull was held by phrenologists to indicate that he was an innate criminal, but the judge in his case rejected his plea of insanity.

Death mask with wounds added, used as a visual aid to demonstrate the characteristics of incisions, lacerations, and stab wounds, c. 1965. New York City Medical Examiner's Collection, National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.

It is easier to make plaster molds of the faces of the dead than the living - they don't move and they don't require straws in the nostrils through which to breathe. I came across the top photo yesterday on one of my favorite blogs, Morbid Anatomy, in reference to the article "Death Doesn't Lie." Then began a lengthy search for more information about death masks, starting with the book cited in the comments to the Morbid Anatomy post. In Portraits in Plaster, American essayist and critic Laurence Hutton (1843-1904) documents his extensive collection of life and death masks - but in A Pictorial Guide by John Delaney, Princeton University Library has kindly digitized the entire array (click on the alphabet). Note that the cast of Abraham Lincoln's face - often mistakenly assumed to be made after his death, is correctly identified as a life mask, as is further explained on a blog called Project Death Mask. There are plenty of death masks to be found on the web - politicians, scientists, artists, writers, and particularly musicians - but they are also available for sale from Teardrop Memories if you want to hold one in your hands. I chose the images above to represent the reasons death masks have been made: not just sentimental, but historical, pseudoscientific, and forensic. They are the direct imprint of the human face, predating and paralleling photography. Hutton writes:

The value of a plaster cast as a portrait of the dead or living face cannot for a moment be questioned. It must, of necessity be absolutely true to nature. It cannot flatter; it cannot caricature. It shows the subject as he was, not only as others saw him, in the actual flesh, but as he saw himself. And in the case of the death-mask particularly, it shows the subject often as he permitted no one but himself to see himself. He does not pose; he does not "try to look pleasant." In his mask he is seen, as it were, with his mask off!

They may be so unflattering, in fact, that posterity prefers a print or photographic portrait...

Samuel Pickering

My favorite professor while at the University of Connecticut was Samuel Pickering, who still teaches in the English Department. He is a prolific essayist and an inspiration for the Robin Williams character in the film Dead Poets Society. I reestablished contact with him several years ago and sent occasional e-mails about my progress toward my M.A. When I told him I was writing about anthropodermic books and that the trial transcript of William Corder--bound in his own hide--was on display, his response included a quote from “Anchorite,” an unpublished essay of his about the museum at the back of Surgeons’ Hall in Edinburgh:

Displayed in a separate case along with historical matter describing William Burke’s malevolent doings was a pocketbook, the cover of which had been fashioned from Burke’s skin. “Skin from his forearms,” a volunteer told me…In Edinburgh Burke’s skin has the status of a relic, demonic but still a relic worthy of display.

William Burke and his partner in crime William Hare were notorious bodysnatchers and it was thought quite fitting that Burke's sentence for his multiple murders to supply doctors with bodies for dissection was to be anatomized himself. Today, his skeleton (pictured above) and death mask are also on display.

Anthropodermic binding

William Corder (1803-1828) was convicted and executed for Suffolk, England's infamous Murder in the Red Barn. The judge passed sentence as follows:

Nothing remains now for me to do but to pass upon you the awful sentence of the law, and that sentence is - That you be taken back to the prison from whence you came, and that you be taken from thence, on Monday next, to a place of Execution, and that you there be hanged by the Neck until you are Dead ; and that your body shall afterwards be dissected and anatomized ; and may the Lord God Almighty, of his infinite goodness, have mercy on your soul!

So my first solid stab at researching public dissection is to look further into this case. I had studied it from another angle during graduate school, because in addition to Corder's body being anatomized, his skin was tanned and used to bind a transcript of his trial. Pictured above--along with a portrait, his death mask, and an illustration of his hanging--it can still be seen today. It was one of the many anthropodermic bindings I wrote and made presentations about. Another, which I had a look at when I was in Boston, is The Highwayman.