Survey and Help wanted
I am writing a new book, my forty-fourth, continuing my studies of medical photography and popular culture.
(working title) Stiffs Skulls and Skeletons: Medical Photography and Symbolism will explore the use of images of the dead and body parts in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
I am looking for nineteenth century photographs of doctors posing with skulls and or bones, autopsy and dissection photographs as well as images of indigenous peoples using skulls and or bones in ceremonies or as decorations.
I know these kinds of images were not popular with the medical profession in Great Britain as British physicians were university trained. I have only one image of an English physician posing with a skull. But I am trying to ascertain if there are any others. Any rite of passage --dissection photos?? Autopsy images ?? I believe the Jack the Ripper images of crime scenes
Please send jpegs or other info to burns@inch.com and/or discuss in this forum.
Thanks for your help
Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS
The Burns Archive NY
Replies
Marcel Safier said:
Hi Stanley, the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney holds a very unusual daguerreotype of 5 skulls. Call Number DL Pa 51. The photographer and location are unknown. Cheers! Marcel