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The clitoris ((listen) or (listen)) is a female sex organ present in mammals, ostriches and a limited number of other animals. In humans, the visible portion - the glans - is at the front junction of the labia minora (inner lips), above the opening of the urethra. Unlike the penis, the male homologue (equivalent) to the clitoris, it usually does not contain the distal portion (or opening) of the urethra and is therefore not used for urination. The clitoris also usually lacks a reproductive function. While few animals urinate through the clitoris or use it reproductively, the spotted hyena, which has an especially large clitoris, urinates, mates, and gives birth via the organ. Some other mammals, such as lemurs and spider monkeys, also have a large clitoris.[1]

The clitoris is the human female's most sensitive erogenous zone and generally the primary anatomical source of human female sexual pleasure.[2] In humans and other mammals, it develops from an outgrowth in the embryo called the genital tubercle. Initially undifferentiated, the tubercle develops into either a penis or a clitoris, depending on the presence or absence of the protein tdf, which is codified by a single gene on the Y chromosome. The clitoris is a complex structure, and its size and sensitivity can vary. The glans (head) of the human clitoris is roughly the size and shape of a pea, and is estimated to have about 8,000 sensory nerve endings.[3]

Sexological, medical, and psychological debate have focused on the clitoris,[4] and it has been subject to social constructionist analyses and studies.[5] Such discussions range from anatomical accuracy, gender inequality, female genital mutilation, and orgasmic factors and their physiological explanation for the G-spot.[6] Although, in humans, the only known purpose of the clitoris is to provide sexual pleasure, whether the clitoris is vestigial, an adaptation, or serves a reproductive function has been debated.[7] Social perceptions of the clitoris include the significance of its role in female sexual pleasure, assumptions about its true size and depth, and varying beliefs regarding genital modification such as clitoris enlargement, clitoris piercing and clitoridectomy.[8] Genital modification may be for aesthetic, medical or cultural reasons.[8]

Knowledge of the clitoris is significantly impacted by cultural perceptions of the organ. Studies suggest that knowledge of its existence and anatomy is scant in comparison with that of other sexual organs, and that more education about it could help alleviate social stigmas associated with the female body and female sexual pleasure; for example, that the clitoris and vulva in general are visually unappealing, that female masturbation is taboo, or that men should be expected to master and control women's orgasms.[9]

The Oxford English Dictionary states that the word clitoris likely has its origin in the Ancient Greek , kleitoris, perhaps derived from the verb , kleiein, "to shut".[10] Clitoris is also Greek for the word key, "indicating that the ancient anatomists considered it the key" to female sexuality.[11][12] In addition to key, the Online Etymology Dictionary suggests other Greek candidates for the word's etymology include a noun meaning "latch" or "hook"; a verb meaning "to touch or titillate lasciviously", "to tickle" (one German synonym for the clitoris is der Kitzler, "the tickler"), although this verb is more likely derived from "clitoris"; and a word meaning "side of a hill", from the same root as "climax".[13] The Oxford English Dictionary also states that the shortened form "clit", the first occurrence of which was noted in the United States, has been used in print since 1958: until then, the common abbreviation was "clitty".[10]

The plural forms are clitorises in English and clitorides in Latin. The Latin genitive is clitoridis, as in "glans clitoridis". In medical and sexological literature, the clitoris is sometimes referred to as "the female penis" or pseudo-penis,[14] and the term clitoris is commonly used to refer to the glans alone;[15] partially because of this, there have been various terms for the organ that have historically confused its anatomy.

In mammals, sexual differentiation is determined by the sperm that carries either an X or a Y (male) chromosome.[16] The Y chromosome contains a sex-determining gene (SRY) that encodes a transcription factor for the protein tdf (testis determining factor) and triggers the creation of testosterone and Anti-Mllerian hormone for the embryo's development into a male.[17][18] This differentiation begins about eight or nine weeks after conception.[17] Some sources state that it continues until the twelfth week,[19] while others state that it is clearly evident by the thirteenth week and that the sex organs are fully developed by the sixteenth week.[20]

The clitoris develops from a phallic outgrowth in the embryo called the genital tubercle. Initially undifferentiated, the tubercle develops into either a clitoris or penis during development of the reproductive system depending on exposure to androgens (primarily male hormones). The clitoris forms from the same tissues that become the glans and shaft of the penis, and this shared embryonic origin makes these two organs homologous (different versions of the same structure).[21]

If exposed to testosterone, the genital tubercle elongates to form the penis. By fusion of the urogenital folds elongated spindle-shaped structures that contribute to the formation of the urethral groove on the belly aspect of the genital tubercle the urogenital sinus closes completely and forms the spongy urethra, and the labioscrotal swellings unite to form the scrotum.[21] In the absence of testosterone, the genital tubercle allows for formation of the clitoris; the initially rapid growth of the phallus gradually slows and the clitoris is formed. The urogenital sinus persists as the vestibule of the vagina, the two urogenital folds form the labia minora, and the labioscrotal swellings enlarge to form the labia majora, completing the female genitalia.[21] A rare condition that can develop from higher than average androgen exposure is clitoromegaly.[22]

The clitoris contains external and internal components. It consists of the glans, the body (which is composed of two erectile structures known as the corpora cavernosa), and two crura ("legs"). It has a hood formed by the labia minora (inner lips). It also has vestibular or clitoral bulbs. The frenulum of clitoris is a frenulum on the under-surface of the glans and is created by the two medial parts of the labia minora.[23] The clitoral body may be referred to as the shaft (or internal shaft), while the length of the clitoris between the glans and the body may also be referred to as the shaft. The shaft supports the glans, and its shape can be seen and felt through the clitoral hood.[24]

Research indicates that clitoral tissue extends into the vagina's anterior wall.[25] enayl et al. said that the histological evaluation of the clitoris, "especially of the corpora cavernosa, is incomplete because for many years the clitoris was considered a rudimentary and nonfunctional organ." They added that Baskin and colleagues examined the clitoris's masculinization after dissection and, using imaging software after Masson chrome staining, put the serial dissected specimens together; this revealed that the nerves of the clitoris surround the whole clitoral body (corpus).[26]

The clitoris, vestibular bulbs, labia minora, and urethra involve two histologically distinct types of vascular tissue (tissue related to blood vessels), the first of which is trabeculated, erectile tissue innervated by the cavernous nerves. The trabeculated tissue has a spongy appearance; along with blood, it fills the large, dilated vascular spaces of the clitoris and the bulbs. Beneath the epithelium of the vascular areas is smooth muscle.[27] As indicated by Yang et al.'s research, it may also be that the urethral lumen (the inner open space or cavity of the urethra), which is surrounded by spongy tissue, has tissue that "is grossly distinct from the vascular tissue of the clitoris and bulbs, and on macroscopic observation, is paler than the dark tissue" of the clitoris and bulbs.[28] The second type of vascular tissue is non-erectile, which may consist of blood vessels that are dispersed within a fibrous matrix and have only a minimal amount of smooth muscle.[27]

Highly innervated, the glans exists at the tip of the clitoral body as a fibro-vascular cap,[27] and is usually the size and shape of a pea, although it is sometimes much larger or smaller. The clitoral glans, or the entire clitoris, is estimated to have about 8,000 sensory nerve endings.[3] Research conflicts on whether or not the glans is composed of erectile or non-erectile tissue. Although the clitoral body becomes engorged with blood upon sexual arousal, erecting the clitoral glans, some sources describe the clitoral glans and labia minora as composed of non-erectile tissue; this is especially the case for the glans.[15][27] They state that the clitoral glans and labia minora have blood vessels that are dispersed within a fibrous matrix and have only a minimal amount of smooth muscle,[27] or that the clitoral glans is "a midline, densely neural, non-erectile structure".[15]

Other descriptions of the glans assert that it is composed of erectile tissue and that erectile tissue is present within the labia minora.[29] The glans may be noted as having glanular vascular spaces that are not as prominent as those in the clitoral body, with the spaces being separated more by smooth muscle than in the body and crura.[28] Adipose tissue is absent in the labia minora, but the organ may be described as being made up of dense connective tissue, erectile tissue and elastic fibers.[29]

The clitoral body forms a wishbone-shaped structure containing the corpora cavernosa a pair of sponge-like regions of erectile tissue which contain most of the blood in the clitoris during clitoral erection. The two corpora forming the clitoral body are surrounded by thick fibro-elastic tunica albuginea, literally meaning "white covering", connective tissue. These corpora are separated incompletely from each other in the midline by a fibrous pectiniform septum a comblike band of connective tissue extending between the corpora cavernosa.[26][27]

The clitoral body extends up to several centimeters before reversing direction and branching, resulting in an inverted "V" shape that extends as a pair of crura ("legs").[30] The crura are the proximal portions of the arms of the wishbone. Ending at the glans of the clitoris, the tip of the body bends anteriorly away from the pubis.[28] Each crus (singular form of crura) is attached to the corresponding ischial ramus extensions of the copora beneath the descending pubic rami.[26][27] Concealed behind the labia minora, the crura end with attachment at or just below the middle of the pubic arch.[N 1][32] Associated are the urethral sponge, perineal sponge, a network of nerves and blood vessels, the suspensory ligament of the clitoris, muscles and the pelvic floor.[27][33]

There is no identified correlation between the size of the clitoral glans, or clitoris as a whole, and a woman's age, height, weight, use of hormonal contraception, or being post-menopausal, although women who have given birth may have significantly larger clitoral measurements.[34] Centimeter (cm) and millimeter (mm) measurements of the clitoris show variations in its size. The clitoral glans has been cited as typically varying from 2mm to 1cm and usually being estimated at 4 to 5mm in both the transverse and longitudinal planes.[35]

A 1992 study concluded that the total clitoral length, including glans and body, is 16.04.3mm (0.630.17in), where 16mm is the mean and 4.3mm is the standard deviation.[36] Concerning other studies, researchers from the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital in London measured the labia and other genital structures of 50 women from the age of 18 to 50, with a mean age of 35.6., from 2003 to 2004, and the results given for the clitoral glans were 310mm for the range and 5.5 [1.7] mm for the mean.[37] Other research indicates that the clitoral body can measure 57 centimetres (2.02.8in) in length, while the clitoral body and crura together can be 10 centimetres (3.9in) or more in length.[27]

The clitoral hood projects at the front of the labia commissure, where the edges of the labia majora (outer lips) meet at the base of the pubic mound; it is partially formed by fusion of the upper part of the external folds of the labia minora (inner lips) and covers the glans and external shaft.[38] There is considerable variation in how much of the glans protrudes from the hood and how much is covered by it, ranging from completely covered to fully exposed,[36] and tissue of the labia minora also encircles the base of the glans.[39]

The vestibular bulbs are more closely related to the clitoris than the vestibule because of the similarity of the trabecular and erectile tissue within the clitoris and bulbs, and the absence of trabecular tissue in other genital organs, with the erectile tissue's trabecular nature allowing engorgement and expansion during sexual arousal.[27][39] The vestibular bulbs are typically described as lying close to the crura on either side of the vaginal opening; internally, they are beneath the labia majora. When engorged with blood, they cuff the vaginal opening and cause the vulva to expand outward.[27] Although a number of texts state that they surround the vaginal opening, Ginger et al. state that this does not appear to be the case and tunica albuginea does not envelop the erectile tissue of the bulbs.[27] In Yang et al.'s assessment of the bulbs' anatomy, they conclude that the bulbs "arch over the distal urethra, outlining what might be appropriately called the 'bulbar urethra' in women."[28]

The clitoris and penis are generally the same anatomical structure, although the distal portion (or opening) of the urethra is absent in the clitoris of humans and most other animals. The idea that males have clitorises was suggested in 1987 by researcher Josephine Lowndes Sevely, who theorized that the male corpora cavernosa (a pair of sponge-like regions of erectile tissue which contain most of the blood in the penis during penile erection) are the true counterpart of the clitoris. She argued that "the male clitoris" is directly beneath the rim of the glans penis, where the frenulum of prepuce of the penis (a fold of the prepuce) is located, and proposed that this area be called the "Lownde's crown." Her theory and proposal, though acknowledged in anatomical literature, did not materialize in anatomy books.[40] Modern anatomical texts show that the clitoris displays a hood that is the equivalent of the penis's foreskin, which covers the glans. It also has a shaft that is attached to the glans. The male corpora cavernosa are homologous to the corpus cavernosum clitoridis (the female cavernosa), the bulb of penis (also known as the bulb of the corpus spongiosum penis) is homologous to the vestibular bulbs beneath the labia minora, and the scrotum is homologous to the labia minora and labia majora.[41]

Upon anatomical study, the penis can be described as a clitoris that has been mostly pulled out of the body and grafted on top of a significantly smaller piece of spongiosum containing the urethra.[41] With regard to nerve endings, the human clitoris's estimated 8,000 or more (for its glans or clitoral body as a whole) is commonly cited as being twice as many as the nerve endings found in the human penis (for its glans or body as a whole), and as more than any other part of the human body.[3] These reports sometimes conflict with other sources on clitoral anatomy or those concerning the nerve endings in the human penis. For example, while some sources estimate that the human penis has 4,000 nerve endings,[3] other sources state that the glans or the entire penile structure have the same amount of nerve endings as the clitoral glans,[42] or discuss whether the uncircumcised penis has thousands more than the circumcised penis or is generally more sensitive.[43][44]

Some sources state that in contrast to the glans penis, the clitoral glans lacks smooth muscle within its fibrovascular cap and is thus differentiated from the erectile tissues of the clitoris and bulbs; additionally, bulb size varies and may be dependent on age and estrogenization.[27] While the bulbs are considered the equivalent of the male spongiosum, they do not completely encircle the urethra.[27]

The thin corpus spongiosum of the penis runs along the underside of the penile shaft, enveloping the urethra, and expands at the end to form the glans. It partially contributes to erection, which are primarily caused by the two corpora cavernosa that comprise the bulk of the shaft; like the female cavernosa, the male cavernosa soak up blood and become erect when sexually excited.[45] The male corpora cavernosa taper off internally on reaching the spongiosum head.[45] With regard to the Y-shape of the cavernosa crown, body, and legs the body accounts for much more of the structure in men, and the legs are stubbier; typically, the cavernosa are longer and thicker in males than in females.[28][46]

The clitoris has an abundance of nerve endings, and is the human female's most sensitive erogenous zone and generally the primary anatomical source of human female sexual pleasure.[2] When sexually stimulated, it may incite female sexual arousal. Sexual stimulation, including arousal, may result from mental stimulation, foreplay with a sexual partner, or masturbation, and may lead to orgasm.[47] The most effective sexual stimulation of the organ is usually manually or orally (cunnilingus), which is often referred to as direct clitoral stimulation; in cases involving sexual penetration, these activities may also be referred to as additional or assisted clitoral stimulation.[48]

Direct clitoral stimulation involves physical stimulation to the external anatomy of the clitoris glans, hood and the external shaft.[49] Stimulation of the labia minora (inner lips), due to its external connection with the glans and hood, may have the same effect as direct clitoral stimulation.[50] Though these areas may also receive indirect physical stimulation during sexual activity, such as when in friction with the labia majora (outer lips),[51] indirect clitoral stimulation is more commonly attributed to penile-vaginal penetration.[52][53] Penile-anal penetration may also indirectly stimulate the clitoris by the shared sensory nerves (especially the pudendal nerve, which gives off the inferior anal nerves and divides into two terminal branches: the perineal nerve and the dorsal nerve of the clitoris).[54]

Due to the glans's high sensitivity, direct stimulation to it is not always pleasurable; instead, direct stimulation to the hood or the areas near the glans are often more pleasurable, with the majority of women preferring to use the hood to stimulate the glans, or to have the glans rolled between the lips of the labia, for indirect touch.[55] It is also common for women to enjoy the shaft of the clitoris being softly caressed in concert with occasional circling of the clitoral glans. This might be with or without manual penetration of the vagina, while other women enjoy having the entire area of the vulva caressed.[56] As opposed to use of dry fingers, stimulation from fingers that have been well-lubricated, either by vaginal lubrication or a personal lubricant, is usually more pleasurable for the external anatomy of the clitoris.[57][58]

As the clitoris's external location does not allow for direct stimulation by sexual penetration, any external clitoral stimulation while in the missionary position usually results from the pubic bone area, the movement of the groins when in contact. As such, some couples may engage in the woman-on-top position or the coital alignment technique, a sex position combining the "riding high" variation of the missionary position with pressure-counterpressure movements performed by each partner in rhythm with sexual penetration, to maximize clitoral stimulation.[59][60] Lesbian couples may engage in tribadism for ample clitoral stimulation or for mutual clitoral stimulation during whole-body contact.[N 2][62][63] Pressing the penis in a gliding or circular motion against the clitoris (intercrural sex), or stimulating it by movement against another body part, may also be practiced.[64][65] A vibrator (such as a clitoral vibrator), dildo or other sex toy may be used.[64][66] Other women stimulate the clitoris by use of a pillow or other inanimate object, by a jet of water from the faucet of a bathtub or shower, or by closing their legs and rocking.[67][68][69]

During sexual arousal, the clitoris and the whole of the genitalia engorge and change color as the erectile tissues fill with blood (vasocongestion), and the individual experiences vaginal contractions.[70] The ischiocavernosus and bulbocavernosus muscles, which insert into the corpora cavernosa, contract and compress the dorsal vein of the clitoris (the only vein that drains the blood from the spaces in the corpora cavernosa) and the arterial blood continues a steady flow and, having no way to drain out, fills the venous spaces until they become turgid and engorged with blood. This is what leads to clitoral erection.[11][71]

The clitoral glans doubles in diameter upon arousal, and, upon further stimulation, it becomes less visible as it is covered by the swelling of tissues of the clitoral hood.[70][72] The swelling protects the glans from direct contact, as direct contact at this stage can be more irritating than pleasurable.[72][73] Vasocongestion eventually triggers a muscular reflex, which expels the blood that was trapped in surrounding tissues, and leads to an orgasm.[74] A short time after stimulation has stopped, especially if orgasm has been achieved, the glans becomes visible again and returns to its normal state,[75] with a few seconds (usually 510) to return to its normal position and 510 minutes to return to its original size.[N 3][72][77] If orgasm is not achieved, the clitoris may remain engorged for a few hours, which women often find uncomfortable.[59] Additionally, the clitoris is very sensitive after orgasm, making further stimulation initially painful for some women.[78]

General statistics indicate that 7080 percent of women require direct clitoral stimulation (consistent manual, oral or other concentrated friction against the external parts of the clitoris) to reach orgasm.[N 4][N 5][N 6][82] Indirect clitoral stimulation (for example, via vaginal penetration) may also be sufficient for female orgasm.[N 7][15][84] The area near the entrance of the vagina (the lower third) contains nearly 90percent of the vaginal nerve endings, and there are areas in the anterior vaginal wall and between the top junction of the labia minora and the urethra that are especially sensitive, but intense sexual pleasure, including orgasm, solely from vaginal stimulation is occasional or otherwise absent because the vagina has significantly fewer nerve endings than the clitoris.[85]

Prominent debate over the quantity of vaginal nerve endings began with Alfred Kinsey. Although Sigmund Freud's theory that clitoral orgasms are a prepubertal or adolescent phenomenon and that vaginal (or G-spot) orgasms are something that only physically mature females experience had been criticized before, Kinsey was the first researcher to harshly criticize the theory.[86][87] Through his observations of female masturbation and interviews with thousands of women,[88] Kinsey found that most of the women he observed and surveyed could not have vaginal orgasms,[89] a finding that was also supported by his knowledge of sex organ anatomy.[90] Scholar Janice M. Irvine stated that he "criticized Freud and other theorists for projecting male constructs of sexuality onto women" and "viewed the clitoris as the main center of sexual response". He considered the vagina to be "relatively unimportant" for sexual satisfaction, relaying that "few women inserted fingers or objects into their vaginas when they masturbated". Believing that vaginal orgasms are "a physiological impossibility" because the vagina has insufficient nerve endings for sexual pleasure or climax, he "concluded that satisfaction from penile penetration [is] mainly psychological or perhaps the result of referred sensation".[91]

Masters and Johnson's research, as well as Shere Hite's, generally supported Kinsey's findings about the female orgasm.[92] Masters and Johnson were the first researchers to determine that the clitoral structures surround and extend along and within the labia. They observed that both clitoral and vaginal orgasms have the same stages of physical response, and found that the majority of their subjects could only achieve clitoral orgasms, while a minority achieved vaginal orgasms. On that basis, they argued that clitoral stimulation is the source of both kinds of orgasms,[93] reasoning that the clitoris is stimulated during penetration by friction against its hood.[94] The research came at the time of the second-wave feminist movement, which inspired feminists to reject the distinction made between clitoral and vaginal orgasms.[86][95] Feminist Anne Koedt argued that because men "have orgasms essentially by friction with the vagina" and not the clitoral area, this is why women's biology had not been properly analyzed. "Today, with extensive knowledge of anatomy, with [C. Lombard Kelly], Kinsey, and Masters and Johnson, to mention just a few sources, there is no ignorance on the subject [of the female orgasm]," she stated in her 1970 article The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm. She added, "There are, however, social reasons why this knowledge has not been popularized. We are living in a male society which has not sought change in women's role."[86]

Supporting an anatomical relationship between the clitoris and vagina is a study published in 2005, which investigated the size of the clitoris; Australian urologist Helen O'Connell, described as having initiated discourse among mainstream medical professionals to refocus on and redefine the clitoris, noted a direct relationship between the legs or roots of the clitoris and the erectile tissue of the clitoral bulbs and corpora, and the distal urethra and vagina while using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology.[96][97] While some studies, using ultrasound, have found physiological evidence of the G-spot in women who report having orgasms during vaginal intercourse,[84] O'Connell argues that this interconnected relationship is the physiological explanation for the conjectured G-Spot and experience of vaginal orgasms, taking into account the stimulation of the internal parts of the clitoris during vaginal penetration. "The vaginal wall is, in fact, the clitoris," she said. "If you lift the skin off the vagina on the side walls, you get the bulbs of the clitoris triangular, crescental masses of erectile tissue."[15] O'Connell et al., having performed dissections on the female genitals of cadavers and used photography to map the structure of nerves in the clitoris, made the assertion in 1998 that there is more erectile tissue associated with the clitoris than is generally described in anatomical textbooks, and were thus already aware that the clitoris is more than just its glans.[98] They concluded that some females have more extensive clitoral tissues and nerves than others, especially having observed this in young cadavers compared to elderly ones,[98] and therefore whereas the majority of females can only achieve orgasm by direct stimulation of the external parts of the clitoris, the stimulation of the more generalized tissues of the clitoris via vaginal intercourse may be sufficient for others.[15]

French researchers Odile Buisson and Pierre Folds reported similar findings to that of O'Connell's. In 2008, they published the first complete 3D sonography of the stimulated clitoris, and republished it in 2009 with new research, demonstrating the ways in which erectile tissue of the clitoris engorges and surrounds the vagina. On the basis of their findings, they argued that women may be able to achieve vaginal orgasm via stimulation of the G-spot, because the highly innervated clitoris is pulled closely to the anterior wall of the vagina when the woman is sexually aroused and during vaginal penetration. They assert that since the front wall of the vagina is inextricably linked with the internal parts of the clitoris, stimulating the vagina without activating the clitoris may be next to impossible. In their 2009 published study, the "coronal planes during perineal contraction and finger penetration demonstrated a close relationship between the root of the clitoris and the anterior vaginal wall". Buisson and Folds suggested "that the special sensitivity of the lower anterior vaginal wall could be explained by pressure and movement of clitoris's root during a vaginal penetration and subsequent perineal contraction".[99][100]

Researcher Vincenzo Puppo, who, while agreeing that the clitoris is the center of female sexual pleasure and believing that there is no anatomical evidence of the vaginal orgasm, disagrees with O'Connell and other researchers' terminological and anatomical descriptions of the clitoris (such as referring to the vestibular bulbs as the "clitoral bulbs") and states that "the inner clitoris" does not exist because the penis cannot come in contact with the congregation of multiple nerves/veins situated until the angle of the clitoris, detailed by Kobelt, or with the roots of the clitoris, which do not have sensory receptors or erogenous sensitivity, during vaginal intercourse.[14] Puppo's belief contrasts the general belief among researchers that vaginal orgasms are the result of clitoral stimulation; they reaffirm that clitoral tissue extends, or is at least stimulated by its bulbs, even in the area most commonly reported to be the G-spot.[101]

The G-spot being analogous to the base of the male penis has additionally been theorized, with sentiment from researcher Amichai Kilchevsky that because female fetal development is the "default" state in the absence of substantial exposure to male hormones and therefore the penis is essentially a clitoris enlarged by such hormones, there is no evolutionary reason why females would have an entity in addition to the clitoris that can produce orgasms.[102] The general difficulty of achieving orgasms vaginally, which is a predicament that is likely due to nature easing the process of child bearing by drastically reducing the number of vaginal nerve endings,[103] challenge arguments that vaginal orgasms help encourage sexual intercourse in order to facilitate reproduction.[104][105] Supporting a distinct G-spot, however, is a study by Rutgers University, published in 2011, which was the first to map the female genitals onto the sensory portion of the brain; the scans indicated that the brain registered distinct feelings between stimulating the clitoris, the cervix and the vaginal wall where the G-spot is reported to be when several women stimulated themselves in a functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) machine.[100][106] Barry Komisaruk, head of the research findings, stated that he feels that "the bulk of the evidence shows that the G-spot is not a particular thing" and that it is "a region, it's a convergence of many different structures".[104]

Whether the clitoris is vestigial, an adaptation, or serves a reproductive function has also been debated.[107][108] Geoffrey Miller stated that Helen Fisher, Meredith Small and Sarah Blaffer Hrdy "have viewed the clitoral orgasm as a legitimate adaptation in its own right, with major implications for female sexual behavior and sexual evolution".[109] Like Lynn Margulis and Natalie Angier, Miller believes, "The human clitoris shows no apparent signs of having evolved directly through male mate choice. It is not especially large, brightly colored, specifically shaped or selectively displayed during courtship." He contrasts this with other female species such as spider monkeys and spotted hyenas that have clitorises as long as their male counterparts. He said the human clitoris "could have evolved to be much more conspicuous if males had preferred sexual partners with larger brighter clitorises" and that "its inconspicuous design combined with its exquisite sensitivity suggests that the clitoris is important not as an object of male mate choice, but as a mechanism of female choice."[109]

While Miller stated that male scientists such as Stephen Jay Gould and Donald Symons "have viewed the female clitoral orgasm as an evolutionary side-effect of the male capacity for penile orgasm" and that they "suggested that clitoral orgasm cannot be an adaptation because it is too hard to achieve",[109] Gould acknowledged that "most female orgasms emanate from a clitoral, rather than vaginal (or some other), site" and that his nonadaptive belief "has been widely misunderstood as a denial of either the adaptive value of female orgasm in general, or even as a claim that female orgasms lack significance in some broader sense". He said that although he accepts that "clitoral orgasm plays a pleasurable and central role in female sexuality and its joys," "[a]ll these favorable attributes, however, emerge just as clearly and just as easily, whether the clitoral site of orgasm arose as a spandrel or an adaptation". He added that the "male biologists who fretted over [the adaptionist questions] simply assumed that a deeply vaginal site, nearer the region of fertilization, would offer greater selective benefit" due to their Darwinian, summum bonum beliefs about enhanced reproductive success.[110]

Similar to Gould's beliefs about adaptionist views and that "females grow nipples as adaptations for suckling, and males grow smaller unused nipples as a spandrel based upon the value of single development channels",[110] Elisabeth Lloyd suggested that there is little evidence to support an adaptionist account of female orgasm.[105][108] Meredith L. Chivers stated that "Lloyd views female orgasm as an ontogenetic leftover; women have orgasms because the urogenital neurophysiology for orgasm is so strongly selected for in males that this developmental blueprint gets expressed in females without affecting fitness" and this is similar to "males hav[ing] nipples that serve no fitness-related function."[108]

At the 2002 conference for Canadian Society of Women in Philosophy, Nancy Tuana argued that the clitoris is unnecessary in reproduction; she stated that it has been ignored because of "a fear of pleasure. It is pleasure separated from reproduction. That's the fear." She reasoned that this fear causes ignorance, which veils female sexuality.[111] O'Connell stated, "It boils down to rivalry between the sexes: the idea that one sex is sexual and the other reproductive. The truth is that both are sexual and both are reproductive." She reiterated that the vestibular bulbs appear to be part of the clitoris and that the distal urethra and vagina are intimately related structures, although they are not erectile in character, forming a tissue cluster with the clitoris that appears to be the location of female sexual function and orgasm.[15][28]

Modifications to the clitoris can be intentional or unintentional. They include female genital mutilation (FGM), sex reassignment surgery (for trans men as part transitioning, which may also include clitoris enlargement), intersex surgery, and genital piercings.[26][112][113] Use of anabolic steroids by bodybuilders and other athletes can result in significant enlargement of the clitoris in concert with other masculinizing effects on their bodies.[114][115] Abnormal enlargement of the clitoris may also be referred to as clitoromegaly, but clitoromegaly is more commonly seen as a congenital anomaly of the genitalia.[22]

Those taking hormones or other medications as part of a transgender transition usually experience dramatic clitoral growth; individual desires and the difficulties of phalloplasty (construction of a penis) often result in the retention of the original genitalia with the enlarged clitoris as a penis analogue (metoidioplasty).[26][113] However, the clitoris cannot reach the size of the penis through hormones.[113] A surgery to add function to the clitoris, such as metoidioplasty, is an alternative to phalloplasty that permits retention of sexual sensation in the clitoris.[113]

In clitoridectomy, the clitoris may be removed as part of a radical vulvectomy to treat cancer such as vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia; however, modern treatments favor more conservative approaches, as invasive surgery can have psychosexual consequences.[116] Clitoridectomy more often involves parts of the clitoris being partially or completely removed during FGM, which may be additionally known as female circumcision or female genital cutting (FGC).[117][118] Removing the glans of the clitoris does not mean that the whole structure is lost, since the clitoris reaches deep into the genitals.[15]

In reduction clitoroplasty, a common intersex surgery, the glans is preserved and parts of the erectile bodies are excised.[26] Problems with this technique include loss of sensation, sexual function, and sloughing of the glans.[26] One way to preserve the clitoris with its innervations and function is to imbricate and bury the clitoral glans; however, enayl et al. state that "pain during stimulus because of trapped tissue under the scarring is nearly routine. In another method, 50percent of the ventral clitoris is removed through the level base of the clitoral shaft, and it is reported that good sensation and clitoral function are observed in follow up"; additionally, it has "been reported that the complications are from the same as those in the older procedures for this method".[26]

With regard to females who have the condition congenital adrenal hyperplasia, the largest group requiring surgical genital correction, researcher Atilla enayl stated, "The main expectations for the operations are to create a normal female anatomy, with minimal complications and improvement of life quality." enayl added that "[c]osmesis, structural integrity, and coital capacity of the vagina, and absence of pain during sexual activity are the parameters to be judged by the surgeon." (Cosmesis usually refers to the surgical correction of a disfiguring defect.) He stated that although "expectations can be standardized within these few parameters, operative techniques have not yet become homogeneous. Investigators have preferred different operations for different ages of patients".[26]

Gender assessment and surgical treatment are the two main steps in intersex operations. "The first treatments for clitoromegaly were simply resection of the clitoris. Later, it was understood that the clitoris glans and sensory input are important to facilitate orgasm," stated Atilla. The clitoral glans's epithelium "has high cutaneous sensitivity, which is important in sexual responses" and it is because of this that "recession clitoroplasty was later devised as an alternative, but reduction clitoroplasty is the method currently performed."[26]

What is often referred to as "clit piercing" is the more common (and significantly less complicated) clitoral hood piercing. Since clitoral piercing is difficult and very painful, piercing of the clitoral hood is more common than piercing the clitoral shaft, owing to the small percentage of people who are anatomically suited for it.[112] Clitoral hood piercings are usually channeled in the form of vertical piercings, and, to a lesser extent, horizontal piercings. The triangle piercing is a very deep horizontal hood piercing, and is done behind the clitoris as opposed to in front of it. For styles such as the Isabella, which pass through the clitoral shaft but are placed deep at the base, they provide unique stimulation and still require the proper genital build; the Isabella starts between the clitoral glans and the urethra, exiting at the top of the clitoral hood; this piercing is highly risky with regard to damage that may occur because of intersecting nerves.[112]

Persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) results in a spontaneous, persistent, and uncontrollable genital arousal in women, unrelated to any feelings of sexual desire.[119] Clitoral priapism, also known as clitorism, is a rare, potentially painful medical condition and is sometimes described as an aspect of PGAD.[119] With PGAD, arousal lasts for an unusually extended period of time (ranging from hours to days);[120] it can also be associated with morphometric and vascular modifications of the clitoris.[121]

Drugs may cause or affect clitoral priapism. The drug trazodone is known to cause male priapism as a side effect, but there is only one documented report that it may have caused clitoral priapism, in which case discontinuing the medication may be a remedy.[122] Additionally, nefazodone is documented to have caused clitoral engorgement, as distinct from clitoral priapism, in one case,[122] and clitoral priapism can sometimes start as a result of, or only after, the discontinuation of antipsychotics or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).[123]

Because PGAD is relatively rare and, as its own concept apart from clitoral priapism, has only been researched since 2001, there is little research into what may cure or remedy the disorder.[119] In some recorded cases, PGAD was caused by, or caused, a pelvic arterial-venous malformation with arterial branches to the clitoris; surgical treatment was effective in these cases.[124]

With regard to historical and modern perceptions of the clitoris and associated sexual stimulation, for more than 2,500 years there were scholars who considered the clitoris and the penis equivalent in all respects except their arrangement.[125] The clitoris was, however, subject to "discovery" and "rediscovery" through empirical documentation by male scholars, due to it being frequently omitted from, or misrepresented, in historical and contemporary anatomical texts.[126] The ancient Greeks, ancient Romans, and Greek and Roman generations up to and throughout the Renaissance, were aware that male and female sex organs are anatomically similar,[127][128] but prominent anatomists, notably Galen (129 c. 200 AD) and Vesalius (15141564), regarded the vagina as the structural equivalent of the penis, except for being inverted; Vesalius argued against the existence of the clitoris in normal women, and his anatomical model described how the penis corresponds with the vagina, without a role for the clitoris.[129]

Ancient Greek and Roman sexuality additionally designated penetration as "male-defined" sexuality. The term tribas, or tribade, was used to refer to a woman or intersex individual who actively penetrated another person (male or female) through use of the clitoris or a dildo. As any sexual act was believed to require that one of the partners be "phallic" and that therefore sexual activity between women was impossible without this feature, mythology popularly associated lesbians with either having enlarged clitorises or as incapable of enjoying sexual activity without the substitution of a phallus.[130][131]

In 1545, Charles Estienne was the first writer to identify the clitoris in a work based on dissection, but he concluded that it had a urinary function.[15] Following this study, Realdo Colombo (also known as Matteo Renaldo Colombo), a lecturer in surgery at the University of Padua, Italy, published a book called De re anatomica in 1559, in which he describes the "seat of woman's delight".[132] In his role as researcher, Colombo concluded, "Since no one has discerned these projections and their workings, if it is permissible to give names to things discovered by me, it should be called the love or sweetness of Venus.", in reference to the mythological Venus, goddess of erotic love.[133][134] Colombo's claim was disputed by his successor at Padua, Gabriele Falloppio (discoverer of the fallopian tube), who claimed that he was the first to discover the clitoris. In 1561, Falloppio stated, "Modern anatomists have entirely neglected it... and do not say a word about it... and if others have spoken of it, know that they have taken it from me or my students." This caused an upset in the European medical community, and, having read Colombo's and Falloppio's detailed descriptions of the clitoris, Vesalius stated, "It is unreasonable to blame others for incompetence on the basis of some sport of nature you have observed in some women and you can hardly ascribe this new and useless part, as if it were an organ, to healthy women." He concluded, "I think that such a structure appears in hermaphrodites who otherwise have well formed genitals, as Paul of Aegina describes, but I have never once seen in any woman a penis (which Avicenna called albaratha and the Greeks called an enlarged nympha and classed as an illness) or even the rudiments of a tiny phallus."[135]

The average anatomist had difficulty challenging Galen's or Vesalius's research; Galen was the most famous physician of the Greek era and his works were considered the standard of medical understanding up to and throughout the Renaissance (i.e. for almost two thousand years),[128][129] and various terms being used to describe the clitoris seemed to have further confused the issue of its structure. In addition to Avicenna's naming it the albaratha or virga ("rod") and Colombo's calling it sweetness of Venus, Hippocrates used the term columella ("little pillar'"), and Albucasis, an Arabic medical authority, named it tentigo ("tension"). The names indicated that each description of the structures was about the body and glans of the clitoris, but usually the glans.[15] It was additionally known to the Romans, who named it (vulgar slang) landica.[136] However, Albertus Magnus, one of the most prolific writers of the Middle Ages, felt that it was important to highlight "homologies between male and female structures and function" by adding "a psychology of sexual arousal" that Aristotle had not used to detail the clitoris. While in Constantine's treatise Liber de coitu, the clitoris is referred to a few times, Magnus gave an equal amount of attention to male and female organs.[15]

Like Avicenna, Magnus also used the word virga for the clitoris, but employed it for the male and female genitals; despite his efforts to give equal ground to the clitoris, the cycle of suppression and rediscovery of the organ continued, and a 16th-century justification for clitoridectomy appears to have been confused by hermaphroditism and the imprecision created by the word nymphae substituted for the word clitoris. Nymphotomia was a medical operation to excise an unusually large clitoris, but what was considered "unusually large" was often a matter of perception.[15] The procedure was routinely performed on Egyptian women,[137][138] due to physicians such as Jacques Dalchamps who believed that this version of the clitoris was "an unusual feature that occurred in almost all Egyptian women [and] some of ours, so that when they find themselves in the company of other women, or their clothes rub them while they walk or their husbands wish to approach them, it erects like a male penis and indeed they use it to play with other women, as their husbands would do... Thus the parts are cut".[15]

Caspar Bartholin, a 17th-century Danish anatomist, dismissed Colombo's and Falloppio's claims that they discovered the clitoris, arguing that the clitoris had been widely known to medical science since the second century.[139] Although 17th-century midwives recommended to men and women that women should aspire to achieve orgasms to help them get pregnant for general health and well-being and to keep their relationships healthy,[128] debate about the importance of the clitoris persisted, notably in the work of Regnier de Graaf in the 17th century[39][140] and Georg Ludwig Kobelt in the 19th.[15]

Like Falloppio and Bartholin, De Graaf criticized Colombo's claim of having discovered the clitoris; his work appears to have provided the first comprehensive account of clitoral anatomy.[141] "We are extremely surprised that some anatomists make no more mention of this part than if it did not exist at all in the universe of nature," he stated. "In every cadaver we have so far dissected we have found it quite perceptible to sight and touch." De Graaf stressed the need to distinguish nympha from clitoris, choosing to "always give [the clitoris] the name clitoris" to avoid confusion; this resulted in frequent use of the correct name for the organ among anatomists, but considering that nympha was also varied in its use and eventually became the term specific to the labia minora, more confusion ensued.[15] Debate about whether orgasm was even necessary for women began in the Victorian era, and Freud's 1905 theory about the immaturity of clitoral orgasms (see above) negatively affected women's sexuality throughout most of the 20th century.[128][142]

Towards the end of World War I, a maverick British MP named Noel Pemberton Billing published an article entitled "The Cult of the Clitoris", furthering his conspiracy theories and attacking the actress Maud Allan and Margot Asquith, wife of the prime minister. The accusations led to a sensational libel trial, which Billing eventually won; Philip Hoare reports that Billing argued that "as a medical term, 'clitoris' would only be known to the 'initiated', and was incapable of corrupting moral minds".[143] Jodie Medd argues in regard to "The Cult of the Clitoris" that "the female nonreproductive but desiring body [...] simultaneously demands and refuses interpretative attention, inciting scandal through its very resistance to representation."[144]

From the 18th 20th century, especially during the 20th, details of the clitoris from various genital diagrams presented in earlier centuries were omitted from later texts.[128][145] The full extent of the clitoris was alluded to by Masters and Johnson in 1966, but in such a muddled fashion that the significance of their description became obscured; in 1981, the Federation of Feminist Women's Health Clinics (FFWHC) continued this process with anatomically precise illustrations identifying 18 structures of the clitoris.[56][128] Despite the FFWHC's illustrations, Josephine Lowndes Sevely, in 1987, described the vagina as more of the counterpart of the penis.[146]

Concerning other beliefs about the clitoris, Hite (1976 and 1981) found that, during sexual intimacy with a partner, clitoral stimulation was more often described by women as foreplay than as a primary method of sexual activity, including orgasm.[147] Further, although the FFWHC's work significantly propelled feminist reformation of anatomical texts, it did not have a general impact.[97][148] Helen O'Connell's late 1990s research motivated the medical community to start changing the way the clitoris is anatomically defined.[97] O'Connell describes typical textbook descriptions of the clitoris as lacking detail and including inaccuracies, such as older and modern anatomical descriptions of the female human urethral and genital anatomy having been based on dissections performed on elderly cadavers whose erectile (clitoral) tissue had shrunk.[98] She instead credits the work of Georg Ludwig Kobelt as the most comprehensive and accurate description of clitoral anatomy.[15] MRI measurements, which provide a live and multi-planar method of examination, now complement the FFWHC's, as well as O'Connell's, research efforts regarding the clitoris, showing that the volume of clitoral erectile tissue is ten times that which is shown in doctors' offices and in anatomy text books.[39][97]

In Bruce Bagemihl's survey of The Zoological Record (19781997) which contains over a million documents from over 6,000 scientific journals 539 articles focusing on the penis were found, while 7 were found focusing on the clitoris.[149] In 2000, researchers Shirley Ogletree and Harvey Ginsberg concluded that there is a general neglect of the word clitoris in common vernacular. They looked at the terms used to describe genitalia in the PsycINFO database from 1887 to 2000 and found that penis was used in 1,482 sources, vagina in 409, while clitoris was only mentioned in 83. They additionally analyzed 57 books listed in a computer database for sex instruction. In the majority of the books, penis was the most commonly discussed body part mentioned more than clitoris, vagina, and uterus put together. They last investigated terminology used by college students, ranging from Euro-American (76%/76%), Hispanic (18%/14%), and African American (4%/7%), regarding the students' beliefs about sexuality and knowledge on the subject. The students were overwhelmingly educated to believe that the vagina is the female counterpart of the penis. The authors found that the students' belief that the inner portion of the vagina is the most sexually sensitive part of the female body correlated with negative attitudes toward masturbation and strong support for sexual myths.[150][151]

A 2005 study reported that, among a sample of undergraduate students, the most frequently cited sources for knowledge about the clitoris were school and friends, and that this was associated with the least amount of tested knowledge. Knowledge of the clitoris by self-exploration was the least cited, but "respondents correctly answered, on average, three of the five clitoral knowledge measures". The authors stated that "[k]nowledge correlated significantly with the frequency of women's orgasm in masturbation but not partnered sex" and that their "results are discussed in light of gender inequality and a social construction of sexuality, endorsed by both men and women, that privileges men's sexual pleasure over women's, such that orgasm for women is pleasing, but ultimately incidental." They concluded that part of the solution to remedying "this problem" requires that males and females are taught more about the clitoris than is currently practiced.[152]

In May 2013, humanitarian group Clitoraid launched the first annual International Clitoris Awareness Week, from May 6 to May 12. Clitoraid spokesperson Nadine Gary stated that the group's mission is to raise public awareness about the clitoris because it has "been ignored, vilified, made taboo, and considered sinful and shameful for centuries".[153][154]

In 2016, Odile Fillod created a 3D printable, open source, full-size model of the clitoris, for use in a set of sex education videos she had been commissioned to produce. This model, first designed with Sculpteo,[155] was subsequently exhibited at the Cit des Sciences et de l'Industrie, the largest science museum in Europe.[156] Fillod was interviewed by Stephanie Theobald, whose article in The Guardian stated that the 3D model would be used in French primary and secondary schools;[157] this was never the case, but the story went viral across the world, demonstrating, according to Fillod, the public's hunger for information about the clitoris.[158]

In 2012, New York artist Sophia Wallace started work on a multimedia project to challenge misconceptions about the clitoris. Based on O'Connell's 1998 research, Wallace's work emphasizes the sheer scope and size of the human clitoris. She says that ignorance of this still seems to be pervasive in modern society. "It is a curious dilemma to observe the paradox that on the one hand the female body is the primary metaphor for sexuality, its use saturates advertising, art and the mainstream erotic imaginary," she said. "Yet, the clitoris, the true female sexual organ, is virtually invisible." The project is called Cliteracy and it includes a "clit rodeo", which is an interactive, climb-on model of a giant golden clitoris, including its inner parts, produced with the help of sculptor Kenneth Thomas. "It's been a showstopper wherever it's been shown. People are hungry to be able to talk about this," Wallace said. "I love seeing men standing up for the clit [...] Cliteracy is about not having one's body controlled or legislated [...] Not having access to the pleasure that is your birthright is a deeply political act."[159]

In 2016, another project started in New York, street art that has since spread to almost 100 cities: Clitorosity, a "community-driven effort to celebrate the full structure of the clitoris", combining chalk drawings and words to spark interaction and conversation with passers-by, which the team documents on social media.[160][161]

Other projects listed by the BBC include Clito Clito, body-positive jewellery made in Berlin; Clitorissima, a documentary intended to normalize mother-daughter conversations about the clitoris; and a ClitArt festival in London, encompassing spoken word performances as well as visual art.[161] French art collective Les Infemmes (a pun on "infamous" and "women") published a fanzine whose title can be translated as "The Clit Cheatsheet".[156]

Significant controversy surrounds female genital mutilation (FGM),[117][118] with the World Health Organization (WHO) being one of many health organizations that have campaigned against the procedures on behalf of human rights, stating that "FGM has no health benefits" and that it is "a violation of the human rights of girls and women" and "reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes".[118] The practice has existed at one point or another in almost all human civilizations,[137] most commonly to exert control over the sexual behavior, including masturbation, of girls and women, but also to change the clitoris's appearance.[118][138][162] Custom and tradition are the most frequently cited reasons for FGM, with some cultures believing that not performing it has the possibility of disrupting the cohesiveness of their social and political systems, such as FGM also being a part of a girl's initiation into adulthood. Often, a girl is not considered an adult in a FGM-practicing society unless she has undergone FGM,[118][138] and the "removal of the clitoris and labia viewed by some as the male parts of a woman's body is thought to enhance the girl's femininity, often synonymous with docility and obedience".[138]

Female genital mutilation is carried out in several societies, especially in Africa, with 85 percent of genital mutilations performed in Africa consisting of clitoridectomy or excision,[138][163] and to a lesser extent in other parts of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, on girls from a few days old to mid-adolescent, often to reduce sexual desire in an effort to preserve vaginal virginity.[118][138][162] The practice of FGM has spread globally, as immigrants from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East bring the custom with them.[164] In the United States, it is sometimes practiced on girls born with a clitoris that is larger than usual.[117] Comfort Momoh, who specializes in the topic of FGM, states that FGM might have been "practiced in ancient Egypt as a sign of distinction among the aristocracy"; there are reports that traces of infibulation are on Egyptian mummies.[137] FGM is still routinely practiced in Egypt.[138][165] Greenberg et al. report that "one study found that 97% of married women in Egypt had had some form of genital mutilation performed."[165] Amnesty International estimated in 1997 that more than two million FGM procedures are performed every year.[138]

Although the clitoris exists in all mammal species,[149] few detailed studies of the anatomy of the clitoris in non-humans exist.[166] The clitoris is especially developed in fossas,[167] apes, lemurs, and, like the penis, often contains a small bone, the os clitoridis.[168] The clitoris exists in turtles,[169] ostriches,[170] crocodiles,[169] and in species of birds in which the male counterpart has a penis.[169] The clitoris erects in squirrel monkeys during dominance displays, which indirectly influences the squirrel monkeys' reproductive success.[171] In female galagos (bush babies), the clitoris is long and pendulous with a urethra extending through the tip for urination.[172][173] Some intersex female bears mate and give birth through the tip of the clitoris; these species are grizzly bears, brown bears, American black bears and polar bears. Although the bears have been described as having "a birth canal that runs through the clitoris rather than forming a separate vagina" (a feature that is estimated to make up 10 to 20 percent of the bears' population),[174] scientists state that female spotted hyenas are the only non-hermaphroditic female mammals devoid of an external vaginal opening, and whose sexual anatomy is distinct from usual intersex cases.[175] There are also several mole species with a peniform clitoris.[176][177]

In spider monkeys, the clitoris is especially developed and has an interior passage, or urethra, that makes it almost identical to the penis, and it retains and distributes urine droplets as the female spider monkey moves around. Scholar Alan F. Dixson stated that this urine "is voided at the bases of the clitoris, flows down the shallow groove on its perineal surface, and is held by the skin folds on each side of the groove".[178] Because spider monkeys of South America have pendulous and erectile clitorises long enough to be mistaken for a penis, researchers and observers of the species look for a scrotum to determine the animal's sex; a similar approach is to identify scent-marking glands that may also be present on the clitoris.[173]

The clitoris of bonobos is larger and more externalized than in most mammals;[179] Natalie Angier said that a young adolescent "female bonobo is maybe half the weight of a human teenager, but her clitoris is three times bigger than the human equivalent, and visible enough to waggle unmistakably as she walks".[180] Female bonobos often engage in the practice of genital-genital (GG) rubbing, which is the non-human form of tribadism that human females engage in. Ethologist Jonathan Balcombe stated that female bonobos rub their clitorises together rapidly for ten to twenty seconds, and this behavior, "which may be repeated in rapid succession, is usually accompanied by grinding, shrieking, and clitoral engorgement"; he added that, on average, they engage in this practice "about once every two hours", and as bonobos sometimes mate face-to-face, "evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk has suggested that the position of the clitoris in bonobos and some other primates has evolved to maximize stimulation during sexual intercourse".[179]

While female spotted hyenas are sometimes referred to as hermaphrodites or as intersex,[173] and scientists of ancient and later historical times believed that they were hermaphrodites,[173][175][181] modern scientists do not refer to them as such.[175][182] That designation is typically reserved for those who simultaneously exhibit features of both sexes;[182] the genetic makeup of female spotted hyenas "are clearly distinct" from male spotted hyenas.[175][182]

Female spotted hyenas have a clitoris 90percent as long and the same diameter as a male penis (171 millimeters long and 22 millimeters in diameter),[173] and this pseudo-penis's formation seems largely androgen-independent because it appears in the female fetus before differentiation of the fetal ovary and adrenal gland.[175] The spotted hyenas have a highly erectile clitoris, complete with a false scrotum; author John C. Wingfield stated that "the resemblance to male genitalia is so close that sex can be determined with confidence only by palpation of the scrotum".[171] The pseudo-penis can also be distinguished from the males' genitalia by its greater thickness and more rounded glans.[175] The female possesses no external vagina, as the labia are fused to form a pseudo-scrotum. In the females, this scrotum consists of soft adipose tissue.[171][175][183] Like male spotted hyenas with regard to their penises, the female spotted hyenas have small penile spines on the head of their clitorises, which scholar Catherine Blackledge said makes "the clitoris tip feel like soft sandpaper". She added that the clitoris "extends away from the body in a sleek and slender arc, measuring, on average, over 17 cm from root to tip. Just like a penis, [it] is fully erectile, raising its head in hyena greeting ceremonies, social displays, games of rough and tumble or when sniffing out peers".[184]

Due to their higher levels of androgen exposure, the female hyenas are significantly more muscular and aggressive than their male counterparts; social-wise, they are of higher rank than the males, being dominant or dominant and alpha, and the females who have been exposed to higher levels of androgen than average become higher-ranking than their female peers. Subordinate females lick the clitorises of higher-ranked females as a sign of submission and obedience, but females also lick each other's clitorises as a greeting or to strengthen social bonds; in contrast, while all males lick the clitorises of dominant females, the females will not lick the penises of males because males are considered to be of lowest rank.[183][186]

The urethra and vagina of the female spotted hyena exit through the clitoris, allowing the females to urinate, copulate and give birth through this organ.[171][175][184][187] This trait makes mating more laborious for the male than in other mammals, and also makes attempts to sexually coerce (physically force sexual activity on) females futile.[183] Joan Roughgarden, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist, said that because the hyena's clitoris is higher on the belly than the vagina in most mammals, the male hyena "must slide his rear under the female when mating so that his penis lines up with [her clitoris]". In an action similar to pushing up a shirtsleeve, the "female retracts the [pseudo-penis] on itself, and creates an opening into which the male inserts his own penis".[173] The male must practice this act, which can take a couple of months to successfully perform.[186] Female spotted hyenas exposed to larger doses of androgen have significantly damaged ovaries, making it difficult to conceive.[186] After giving birth, the pseudo-penis is stretched and loses much of its original aspects; it becomes a slack-walled and reduced prepuce with an enlarged orifice with split lips.[188] Approximately 15% of the females die during their first time giving birth, and over 60% of their species' firstborn young die.[173]

A 2006 Baskin et al. study concluded, "The basic anatomical structures of the corporeal bodies in both sexes of humans and spotted hyenas were similar. As in humans, the dorsal nerve distribution was unique in being devoid of nerves at the 12 o'clock position in the penis and clitoris of the spotted hyena" and that "[d]orsal nerves of the penis/clitoris in humans and male spotted hyenas tracked along both sides of the corporeal body to the corpus spongiosum at the 5 and 7 o'clock positions. The dorsal nerves penetrated the corporeal body and distally the glans in the hyena" and, in female hyenas, "the dorsal nerves fanned out laterally on the clitoral body. Glans morphology was different in appearance in both sexes, being wide and blunt in the female and tapered in the male".[187]

Researchers studying the peripheral and central afferent pathways from the feline clitoris concluded that "afferent neurons projecting to the clitoris of the cat were identified by WGA-HRP tracing in the S1 and S2 dorsal root ganglia. An average of 433 cells were identified on each side of the animal. 85percent and 15percent of the labeled cells were located in the S1 and S2 dorsal root ganglia, respectively. The average cross sectional area of clitoral afferent neuron profiles was 1.479627 m2." They also stated that light "constant pressure on the clitoris produced an initial burst of single unit firing (maximum frequencies 170255 Hz) followed by rapid adaptation and a sustained firing (maximum 40 Hz), which was maintained during the stimulation" and that further examination of tonic firing "indicate that the clitoris is innervated by mechano-sensitive myelinated afferent fibers in the pudental nerve which project centrally to the region of the dorsal commissure in the L7-S1 spinal cord".[189]

The external phenotype and reproductive behavior of 21 freemartin sheep and two male pseudohermaphrodite sheep were recorded with the aim of identifying any characteristics that could predict a failure to breed. The vagina's length and the size and shape of the vulva and clitoris were among the aspects analyzed. While the study reported that "a number of physical and behavioural abnormalities were detected," it also concluded that "the only consistent finding in all 23 animals was a short vagina which varied in length from 3.1 to 7.0 cm, compared with 10 to 14 cm in normal animals."[190]

In a study concerning the clitoral structure of mice, the mouse perineal urethra was documented as being surrounded by erectile tissue forming the bulbs of the clitoris.[166] The researchers stated, "In the mouse, as in human females, tissue organization in the corpora cavernosa of the clitoris is essentially similar to that of the penis except for the absence of a subalbugineal layer interposed between the tunica albuginea and the erectile tissue."[166]

Link:
Clitoris - Wikipedia

Dear Londoners:

‘She Healed Their Bodies With Her White Hot Passions’: The Role of the Nurse in Romantic Fiction with Natasha McEnroe: Illustrated lecture Natasha McEnroe, Director of the Florence Nightingale Museum

The Walking Dead in 1803: An Illustrated Lecture with Phil Loring,
Curator of Psychology at the Science Museum in London

© The Natural History Museum, London 2012. All Rights Reserved.

Photo courtesy of Tonya Hurley

From Blue Beads to Hair Sandwiches: Edward Lovett and London's Folk Medicine: An Illustrated lecture with Ross MacFarlane, Research Engagement Officer in the Wellcome Library

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-victorian-love-affair-with-death.html

I am delighted to announce a few recently added Morbid Anatomy events taking place this May and June. This Friday, May 17, I urge you not to miss London-based artist Chiara Ambrosio's talk on the enigmatic and fascinating Neapolitan "cult of the dead;" (more here). I am also excited to announce a brand new lecture by Morbid Anatomy favorite Michael Sappol of The National Library of Medicine who will be giving an illustrated lecture on Thursday, May 23rd entitled "The Apotheosis of the Dissected Plate: Spectacles of Layering and Transparency in 19th- and 20th-Century Anatomy" (see image above, "The Human Ear in Anatomical Transparencies, Elmsford, NY, 1946, Courtesy National Library of Medicine, photo by Mark Kessell.)

Following this, on Thursday, June 13, we will host Denny Daniel of The Museum of Interesting Things for a demonstration antique quack medical devices from his collection, while on Thursday, June 6 we will have an illustrated lecture with professor Eric G Wilson about the history and science of "morbid curiosity" (June 6). We also have a newly added Bat Dome Workshop (Sunday, June 16) as well as a variety of classes in taxidermy, Victorian mourning hair art, anthropomorphic insect shadow boxes, and Dance of Death linocuts, Also, for UK-based readers, don't miss our special 2-month series of events, workshops, special backstage tours, screenings and spectacles surveying the interstices of art and medicine, death and culture (June 2 - July 25) in London.

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The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead: An Illustrated Lecture with Chiara Ambrosio
 Date: Friday, May 17
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Naples is a unique city in which the sacred and the profane, Catholicism and paganism, beauty and decay blend and contrast in intriguing ways. No practice illustrates this tangle of ideas better than what is known as "The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead" in which devout Catholics--generally poor women--adopt anonymous skulls found in charnel houses and clean, care for, and sometimes house them, offering up prayers and offerings to shorten that soul's time in purgatory before reaching paradise, where, it is hoped, it will assist its earthbound caretaker with special favors. The macabre artifacts of this cult can be seen in the Cimitero delle Fontanelle (see above) and the crypt of the church of Saint Mary of Purgatory.In tonight's illustrated lecture, Italian artist and filmmaker Chiara Ambrosio will elucidate this curious and fascinating "Neapolitan Cult of the Dead" and situate it within a the rich death culture and storied history of Naples.

Chiara Ambrosio is a visual artist working with video and animation. Her work has included collaborations with performance artists, composers, musicians and writers, and has been shown in a number of venues including national and international film festivals, galleries and site specific events. She also runs The Light & Shadow Salon is a place for artists, writers and audience to meet and share ideas about the past, present and future of the moving image in all its forms.
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Quail - Bird Taxidermy with Rogue Taxidermist Katie Innamorato
Date: Saturday, May 18th
Time: 12 - 6.30
Admission: $250
***Maximum class size: 8 Students; Must RSVP to katie.innamorato [at] gmail.com
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

This class will introduce students to basic small bird taxidermy processes. As with other classes, this is only open to 6-8 students to allow for a more intimate one on one environment. Each student will be provided with their own quail which they will skin, flesh, and prep for mounting. Students will learn how to mount a bird using its skull and learn how to preserve the skin and pose it. Legalities of working with birds and bird parts will also be discussed. A copy of the MBTA will be brought to class and passed around to students.

Rogue taxidermist Katie Innamorato has a BFA in sculpture from SUNY New Paltz, has been featured on the hit TV show "Oddities," and has had her work featured at La Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles, California. She is self and professionally taught, and has won multiple first place ribbons and awards at the Garden State Taxidermy Association Competition. Her work is focussed on displaying the cyclical connection between life and death and growth and decomposition. Katie is a member of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, and with all M.A.R.T. members she adheres to strict ethical guidelines when acquiring specimens and uses roadkill, scrap, and donated skins to create mounts.

Her website and blogs-
http://www.afterlifeanatomy.com
http://www.afterlifeanatomy.tumblr.com
http://www.facebook.com/afterlifeanatomy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/afterlifeanatomy

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Anthropomorphic Mouse Taxidermy Class with Divya Anantharaman
Date: Saturday, May 18
Time: 1-5 PM
Admission: $110
***Please note: This class will be held offsite at Acme Studio : 63 N. 3rd Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Advance Tickets Required; Click here to purchase
Email divya.does.taxidermy at gmail dot com with questions or to be put on wait list
Class limit: 10
This class is part of the Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

Anthropomorphic taxidermy--in which taxidermied animals are posed into human attitudes and poses--was an artform made famous by Victorian taxidermist and museologist Walter Potter. In this class, students will learn to create--from start to finish--anthropomorphic mice inspired by the charming and imaginative work of Mr. Potter and his ilk. With the creative use of props and some artful styling, you will find that your mouse can take nearly whatever form you desire, from a bespectacled, whiskey swilling, top hat tipping mouse to a rodent mermaid queen of the burlesque world.

In this class, Divya Anantharaman--who learned her craft under the tutelage of famed Observatory instructor Sue Jeiven--will teach students everything involved in the production of a fully finished mount, including initial preparation, hygiene and sanitary measures, fleshing, tail stripping, and dry preservation. Once properly preserved, the mice will be posed and outfitted as the student desires. Although a broad selection of props and accessories will be provided by the instructor, students are also strongly encouraged to bring their own accessories and bases; all other materials will supplied. Each student will leave class with a fully finished piece, and the knowledge to create their own pieces in the future.

Also, some technical notes:

• We use NO harsh or dangerous chemicals.
• Everyone will be provided with gloves.
• All animals are disease free.
• Although there will not be a lot of blood or gore, a strong constitution is necessary; taxidermy is not for everyone
• All animals were already dead, nothing was killed for this class.
• Please do not bring any dead animals with you to the class.

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Dance of Death by Hans Holbein: A Linocut Workshop with Classically Trained Artist Lado Pochkua 
Dates: Tuesdays May 20, May 27 and June 4
Time: 7 - 10 PM
Admission: $60
***MUST RSVP to morbidanatomylibrary [at] gmail.com
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

The "dance of death" or "danse macabre" was a "medieval allegorical concept of the all-conquering and equalizing power of death, expressed in the drama, poetry, music, and visual arts of western Europe, mainly in the late Middle Ages. It is a literary or pictorial representation of a procession or dance of both living and dead figures, the living arranged in order of their rank, from pope and emperor to child, clerk, and hermit, and the dead leading them to the grave." (Encyclopedia Britannica). One of the best known expressions of this genre are a series of forty-two wood cuts by Hans Holbien published in 1538 under the title "Dance of Death."

In this class, students will learn the techniques of woodcuts and linocuts by creating a copy of one of Hans Holbein’s prints from the Dance of Death series. The class will follow the entire process from beginning to end: drafting a copy of the image, either a fragment or whole; transfer of the image to a linoleum block; cutting the image; printing the image on paper. Students will leave class with their own finished Dance of Death linocut and the skills to produce their own pieces in the future.

• Lesson 1: creating a copy of either a fragment or full image from the series on paper. The copy can either be freehand and stylized, or students can use a grid to copy more exactly.
• Lesson 2: transfer the drawing to linoleum.
• Lesson 3: correction of image, and beginning to cut the image.
• Lesson 4: finalizing the cut image.
• Lesson 5: Printing the image. Students will be able to use several colors and backgrounds to create the final image.

REQUIRED MATERIALS

• A block of linoleum: Blick Battleship Gray Linoleum, mounted or unmounted (details here)

OR

• Speedball Speedy-carve blocks, pink only (details here) Size: 9x12 or 8x10.

AND

• Linocutter set: Blick Lino Cutter Set (details here)Water soluble printing inks
• Printing paper
• Tracing paper
• Pencils
• Black markers (fine point)

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Lado Pochkhua was born in Sukhumi, Georgia in 1970. He received his MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Tbilisi State Art Academy in Georgia in 2001. He currently divides his time between New York and Tbilisi, Georgia.

Image: Image: “Melior est mors quam vita” to the aged woman who crawls gravewards with her bone rosary while Death makes music in the van." From Hans Holbein's "Dance of Death."

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The Apotheosis of the Dissected Plate: Spectacles of Layering and Transparency in 19th- and 20th-Century Anatomy
Presented by Michael Sappol, National Library of Medicine
Date: Thursday, May 23
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

This is a story about “topographical anatomy”— a tradition of slicing and sawing rather than cutting and carving — and its procedures for converting bodies from three dimensions to two dimensions and back again. In topographical cross-section anatomy, the frozen or mummified body was cut into successive layers that were then transcribed and reproduced as pages of a book or a sequence of prints or slides (sometimes with the original slices preserved as a sequence of specimens for the anatomical museum). The topographical method influenced, and was in turn influenced by, flap anatomy (the technique of cutting out printed anatomical parts on paper or cardboard and assembling the parts into a layered representation of the human body). In the 20th century, medical illustrators and publishers developed a new technique of three-dimensional anatomical layering: the anatomical transparency — an epistemological/heuristic device which in the postmodern era has come to enchant artists as well as anatomists. I will argue that these anatomical productions — artworks, but also, exhibitions, toys, gimmicks, and other objects of consumer desire — are meaningful to us because the oscillation between the dis-assembly and re-assembly of bodies as images and image-objects, rehearses our own ambivalent relation to the anatomical body. It also rehearses (perhaps more mysteriously) our ambivalent relation to the planearity of anatomical images which serve as an effigy of self and other, and to the Flatland universe of planearity in which we imaginatively dwell. This talk features astonishing photographs by Mark Kessell.

Michael Sappol is a historian in the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine (National Institutes of Health), Bethesda, MD. His scholarly work focuses on the body; the history of anatomy; the history of death; the history of medical illustration and display; and the history of medical film. He is the author of A Traffic of Dead Bodies (2002) and Dream Anatomy (2006), and editor of Hidden Treasure (Blast, 2012). PDFs of his selected works can be read or downloaded here. He currently lives in Washington, DC.

Mark Kessell, an Australian medical doctor and professional artist  based in New York City, focuses on the art and science of our species and its biology. His next exhibition, “Perfect Specimens”, a life cycle of Homo sapiens, opens at Last Rites Gallery, a renowned center of the tattoo-and-bod-mod subculture, in August 2013.

Image: Transparency. Artist: Gladys McHugh. McHugh, Polyak et al., The Human Ear in Anatomical Transparencies (Elmsford, NY, 1946). Courtesy National Library of Medicine. Photo: Mark Kessell.
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Class: The Victorian Art of Hair Jewelry with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann 

Morbid Curiosity, or Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck: Why We Can't Look Away
An Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with author Eric G. Wilson
Date: Thursday, June 6
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Produced by Morbid Anatomy

"Why can’t we look away? Whether we admit it or not, we’re fascinated by evil. Dark fantasies, morbid curiosities, Schadenfreude: As conventional wisdom has it, these are the symptoms of our wicked side, and we succumb to them at our own peril. But we’re still compelled to look whenever we pass a grisly accident on the highway, and there’s no slaking our thirst for gory entertainments like horror movies and police procedurals. What makes these spectacles so irresistible? Author Eric G. Wilson attempts to discover the source of our morbid fascinations, drawing on the findings of biologists, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, theologians, and artists. A professor of English with a penchant for Poe as well as a lifelong student of the macabre, Wilson believes there’s something nourishing in darkness. He believes that to repress death is to lose the feeling of life, and that a closeness to death discloses our most fertile energies.

Eric G Wilson is Thomas H. Pritchard Professor of English at Wake Forest University and author of several books that explore the power of life's darker sides, including Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck: Why We Can't Look Away; Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy; and The Mercy of Eternity: A Memoir of Depression and Grace. 

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"It Hurts When I Do This" An illustrated History of Quack Medicine through the Artifacts of The Museum of Interesting Things  
Antique Medical Device Demonstration with Denny Daniel, The Museum of Interesting Things
Date: Thursday, June 13
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

In the handful of centuries documented by mankind, medicine evolved through discovery and practice, with each era experimenting with the technology of its time in a quest to understand the human machine, suppress pain, and vanquish disease and, perhaps, death itself. Some of the techniques employed by our relentless ancestors now seem rather odd, inappropriate or, sometimes, just... brutal.

Tonight, join us for a night of bizarre health machinery hosted by Denny Daniel, proud collector and owner of The Museum of Interesting Things. Daniel will trace the evolution--or, sometimes, lack thereof!-- of medical devices advances via an interactive demonstration of objects from his own collection ranging from magnetic quack medical devices to prosthetics, glass eyes and civil war and early 20th century surgical tools, dental devices including tooth keys and 19th century foot pump dental drills, pill molds, and medicines that worked (or didn’t)!

Come see and feel actual items from the 1800’s and 1900’s. We will cure you of your ailments.

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Bat in Glass Dome Workshop

Part of DIY Wunderkammer Series: With Wilder Duncan (formerly of Evolution Shop, Soho) and Laetitia Barbier, head librarian at The Morbid Anatomy Library

With Wilder Duncan (formerly of Evolution Store, Soho) and Laetitia Barbier, head librarian at The Morbid Anatomy Library

Date: Sunday, June 16

Time: 1 – 6 PM

Admission: $200

*** MUST RSVP to morbidanatomylibrary [at] gmail.com

This class is part of the DIY Wunderkammer Series and The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

In this class, students will learn how to create an osteological preparation of a bat in the fashion of 19th century zoological displays. A bat skeleton, a glass dome, branches, glue, tools, and all necessary materials will be provided for each student, but one should feel welcome to bring small feathers, stones, dried flowers, dead insects, natural elements, or any other materials s/he might wish to include in his/her composition. Students will leave the class with a visually striking, fully articulated, “lifelike” bat skeleton posed in a 10” tall glass dome. This piece can, in conjunction with the other creations in the DIY Wunderkammer workshop series, act as the beginning of a genuine collection of curiosities!

This class is part of the DIY Wunderkammer workshop series, curated by Laetitia Barbier and Wilder Duncan for Morbid Anatomy as a creative and pluridisciplinary exploration of the Curiosity Cabinet. The classes will focus on teaching ancient methods of specimen preparation that link science with art: students will create compositions involving natural elements and, according to their taste, will compose a traditional Victorian environment or a modern display. More on the series can be found here.

Wilder Duncan is an artist whose work puts a modern-day spin on the genre of Vanitas still life. Although formally trained as a realist painter at Wesleyan University, he has had a lifelong passion for, and interest in, natural history. Self-taught rogue taxidermist and professional specimen preparator, Wilder worked for several years at The Evolution Store creating, repairing, and restoring objects of natural historical interest such as taxidermy, fossils, seashells, minerals, insects, tribal sculptures, and articulated skeletons both animal and human. Wilder continues to do work for private collectors, giving a new life to old mounts, and new smiles to toothless skulls.

Laetitia Barbier is the head librarian at The Morbid Anatomy Library. She is working on a master's thesis for the Paris Sorbonne on painter Joe Coleman. She writes for Atlas Obscura and Morbid Anatomy.

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Squirrel Taxidermy and the Ancient Technique of Wrapped Body with Rogue Taxidermist Katie Innamorato
Date: Sunday, June 23
Time: 12 - 6.30
Admission: $275
***Maximum class size: 8 Students; Must RSVP to katie.innamorato [at] gmail.com
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

This class will introduce students to basic taxidermy processes. As with other classes, this is only open to 8 students to allow for a more intimate one on one environment. Each student will be provided with their own squirrel which they will skin, flesh, and prep for mounting. Students will be taught how to wrap bodies for the animals using the carcasses for reference. Wrapping is an old school traditional taxidermy process that many taxidermists do not bother with today. Pre-sculpted head forms will be available for students, but if they are feeling more adventurous they can carve their own! Students will be able to pose their squirrels however they want and are encouraged to bring in any props they may want to dress the animal up in, and items to secure their mounts on. Animal remains will be collected at the end of class and either the students can take them with them, or the instructor will dispose of them.

Rogue taxidermist Katie Innamorato has a BFA in sculpture from SUNY New Paltz, has been featured on the hit TV show "Oddities," and has had her work featured at La Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles, California. She is self and professionally taught, and has won multiple first place ribbons and awards at the Garden State Taxidermy Association Competition. Her work is focussed on displaying the cyclical connection between life and death and growth and decomposition. Katie is a member of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, and with all M.A.R.T. members she adheres to strict ethical guidelines when acquiring specimens and uses roadkill, scrap, and donated skins to create mounts.

Her website and blogs-
http://www.afterlifeanatomy.com
http://www.afterlifeanatomy.tumblr.com
http://www.facebook.com/afterlifeanatomy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/afterlifeanatomy

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Morbid Anatomy Presents at London's Last Tuesday Society this June and July
A series of London-based events, workshops, special tours, screenings and spectacles surveying the interstices of art and medicine, death and culture curated by Observatory's Morbid Anatomy
Date: June 2 - July 25
Time: Variable, but most lectures begin at 7 PM
Location: The Last Tuesday Society at 11 Mare Street, London, E8 4RP map here) unless otherwise specified

The series will feature Morbid Anatomy's signature mix of museum professionals, professors, librarians, artists, rogue scholars, and autodidacts--many flown in direct from Morbid Anatomy's base in Brooklyn, New York--to elucidate on a wide array of topics including (but not limited to!) The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead; "human zoos;" "speaking reliquaries;" why music drives women mad; eccentric folk medicine collections; Santa Muerte (or "Saint Death); dissection and masturbation; dissection and magic; Victorian memorial hair jewelry; the "hot nurse" in popular fiction; The Danse Macabre; "a cinematic survey of The Vampires of London;" and anatomical waxworks and death.

There will be also two special backstage tours: one of the legendary Blythe House, home of the vast and incredible collection of Henry Wellcome and the other of the Natural History Museum's zoological collection, featuring the famously gorgeous Blaschka invertebrate glass model collection; a special magic lantern show featuring "the weirdest, most inappropriate and completely baffling examples of lantern imagery" conjured by collector and scholar Professor Heard, author of Phantasmagoria- The Secret Life of the Magic Lantern; a screening of rare short films from the BFI National Archive documenting folk music, dance, customs and sport; and workshops in the creation of Victorian hair work, lifelike wax wounds, and bat skeletons in glass domes.

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Wax Wound Workshop with medical artist Eleanor Crook
Sunday, June 2, 2013 at 1:00 - 5:00 PM
More here

Let acclaimed sculptor Eleanor Crook guide you in creating your very own wax wound. Crook has lent her experience to professionals ranging from forensic law enforcement officers to plastic surgeons, so is well placed to help you make a horrendously lifelike scar, boil or blister.
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Art, Wax, Death and Anatomy : Illustrated lecture with art historian Roberta Ballestriero
Monday, June 3, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

Wax modelling, or ceroplastics, is of ancient origin but was revived in 14th century Italy with the cult of Catholic votive objects, or ex votos.  Art Historian Roberta Ballestriero will discuss the art and history of wax modeling sacred and profane; she will also showcase many of its greatest masterworks.
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Music Driving Women Mad: The History of Medical Fears of its Effects on Female Bodies and Minds: Illustrated lecture with Dr. James Kennaway
Tuesday, June 4, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

Over the past few centuries, countless physicians and writers have asserted that music could cause very serious medical problems for the 'weaker sex'. Not only could it bring on symptoms of nervousness and hysteria, it could also cause infertility, nymphomania and even something called 'melosexualism'. This talk will give an outline of this strange debate, using the raciest stories to be found in gynaecological textb
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Solitary vice? Sex and Dissection in Georgian London With Dr Simon Chaplin
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

In this lavishly illustrated lecture, Simon Chaplin explores the sexual undertones of the anatomy schools of Georgian London, in which students dissected grave-robbed bodies in the back-rooms of their teachers' houses, while their masters explored new strategies for presenting their work to polite audiences through museums and lectures.
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Heartthrobs of the Human Zoo: Ethnographic Exhibitions and Captive Celebrities of Turn of the Century America: An Illustrated Lecture with Betsy Bradley
Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

From ransomed Congolese pygmies to winsome Eskimo babies, the American world's fairs and patriotic expositions  present history with a number of troubling ethnographic celebrities, and their stories offer a rare glimpse inside the psychology and culture of imperial America at the turn of a new century.
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The Astounding Collection of Henry Wellcome: Blythe House Backstage Tour with Selina Hurley, Assistant Curator of Medicine, The Science Museum
Friday, June 7, 2013 at 3:00pm
More here

Henry Wellcome (1853 - 1936)----early pharmaceutical magnate and man behind the Wellcome Trust, Collection, and Library--was the William Randolph Hearst of the medical collecting world. That collection, possibly the finest medical collection in the world, now resides in Blythe House, kept in trust by The Science Museum on permanent loan from the Wellcome Trust. Today, a lucky fifteen people will get a rare chance to see this collection, featuring many artifacts of which have never before been on public view, in this backstage tour led Selina Hurley, Assistant Curator of Medicine at The Science Museum.
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Neapolitan Cult of the Dead with Chiara Ambrosio
Monday, June 10, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

In tonight's illustrated lecture, Italian artist and filmmaker Chiara Ambrosio will elucidate this curious and fascinating "Neapolitan Cult of the Dead" and situate it within a the rich death culture and storied history of Naples.
  
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A Vile Vaudeville of Gothic Attractions: Illustrated lecture by Mervyn Heard, author of Phantasmagoria- The Secret Life of the Magic Lantern
Tuesday, June 11, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

An illustrated talk in which writer and showman 'Professor' Mervyn Heard waxes scattergun- sentimental over some of the more bizarre, live theatrical experiences of the 18th, 19th and early 20th century - from the various ghastly manifestations of the phantasmagoria to performing hangmen, self-crucifiers and starving brides.

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Professor Heard's Most Extraordinary Magic Lantern Show with Mervyn Heard
Wednesday, June 12, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

Professor Heard is well known to patrons of the Last Tuesday Lecture programme for his sell-out magic lantern entertainments. In this latest assault on the eye he summons up some of the weirdest, most inappropriate and completely baffling examples of lantern imagery, lantern stories and optical effects by special request of Morbid Anatomy.

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"Speaking Reliquaries" and Christian Death Rituals: Part One of "Hairy Secrets" Series With Karen Bachmann
Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann will focus on what are termed "speaking" reliquaries: the often elaborate containers which house the preserved body parts--or relics--of saints and martyrs with shapes which reflect that of the body-part contained within.

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Hair Art Workshop Class: The Victorian Art of Hair Jewellery With Karen Bachmann
Friday, June 14, 2013 at 1:00pm
More here

Hair jewellery was an enormously popular form of commemorative art that began in the late 17th century and reached its zenith during the Victorian Era. Hair, either of someone living or deceased, was encased in metal lockers or woven to enshrine the human relic of a loved one. This class will explore a modern take on the genre.

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The History of the Memento Mori and Death's Head Iconography: Part Two of "Hairy Secrets" Series Illustrated lecture with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
Friday, June 14, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

In tonight's lecture--the second in a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann will explore the development of the memento mori,objects whose very raison d'être is to remind the beholder that they, too, will die.

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Hair Art Workshop Class: The Victorian Art of Hair Jewellery With Karen Bachmann
Saturday, June 15, 2013 at 1:00pm (More here)
Sunday, June 16, 2013 at 1:00pm (More here)

Hair jewellery was an enormously popular form of commemorative art that began in the late 17th century and reached its zenith during the Victorian Era. Hair, either of someone living or deceased, was encased in metal lockers or woven to enshrine the human relic of a loved one. This class will explore a modern take on the genre.

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The Victorian Love Affair with Death and the Art of Mourning Hair Jewelry: Illustrated lecture with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
Monday, June 17, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

The Victorians had a love affair with death which they expressed in a variety of ways, both intensely sentimental and macabre. Tonight's lecture-the last in a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry-will take as its focus the apex of the phenomenon of hair jewelry fashion in the Victorian Era as an expression of this passion.

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Dissection and Magic with Constanza Isaza Martinez
Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

This lecture examines images of human corpses in Early Modern European art in relation to two specific themes: the practice of 'witchcraft' or 'magic'; and the emergent medical profession, particularly anatomical dissection.
  
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Future Death. Future Dead Bodies. Future Cemeteries Illustrated lecture by Dr. John Troyer, Deputy Director of the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath
Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

Dr. John Troyer, from the Centre for Death & Society, University of Bath, will discuss three kinds of postmortem futures: Future Death, Future Dead Bodies, and Future Cemeteries. Central to these Futures is the human corpse and its use in new forms of body disposal technology, digital technology platforms, and definitions of death.

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‘She Healed Their Bodies With Her White Hot Passions’: The Role of the Nurse in Romantic Fiction with Natasha McEnroe Illustrated lecture Natasha McEnroe, Director of the Florence Nightingale Museum
Sunday, June 23, 2013 at 7:00pm
https://www.facebook.com/events/478987722156193/

Victorian portrayals of the nurse show either a drunken and dishonest old woman or an angelic and devoted being, which changes to a 20th-century caricature just as pervasive - that of the 'sexy nurse'. In this talk, Natasha McEnroe will explore the links between the enforced intimacy of the sickroom and the handling of bodies for more recreational reasons.

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Face lift or face reconstruction? Redesigning the Museum Vrolik, Amsterdam's anatomical museum An illustrated lecture with Dr. Laurens de Rooy, curator of the Museum Vrolik in Amsterdam
Monday, June 24, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

Counting more than five thousand preparations and specimens, the Museum Vrolikianum, the private collection of father Gerard and his son Willem Vrolik was an amazing object of interest one hundred and fifty years ago. In the 1840s and 50s this museum, established in Gerard's stately mansion on the river Amstel, grew into a famous collection that attracted admiring scientists from both the Netherlands and abroad. In this talk, Museum Vrolik curator Dr Laurens de Rooy will take you on a guided tour of the new museum, and give an overview of all the other aspects of the 'new' Museum Vrolik.

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The Walking Dead in 1803: An Illustrated Lecture with Phil Loring, Curator of Psychology at the Science Museum in London
Tuesday, June 25, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

A visiting Italian startled Londoners at the turn of the 19th century by making decapitated animals and executed men open their eyes and move around, as if on the verge of being restored to life. This was not magic but the power of electricity from the newly invented Galvanic trough, or battery. This talk will discuss a variety of historical instruments from the Science Museum's collections that figured in these re-animation experiments, including the apparatus used by Galvani himself in his laboratory in Bologna.
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The Influencing Machine: James Tilly Matthews and the Air Loom with Mike Jay
Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

Confined in Bedlam in 1797 as an incurable lunatic, James Tilly Matthews' case is one of the most bizarre in the annals of psychiatry. He was the first person to insist that his mind was being controlled by a machine: the Air Loom, a terrifying secret weapon whose mesmeric rays and mysterious gases were brainwashing politicians and plunging Europe into revolution, terror and war. But Matthews' case was even stranger than his doctors realised: many of the incredible conspiracies in which he claimed to be involved were entirely real.

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A Waxen France: Madame Tussaud’s Representations of the French: Illustrated Lecture by Pamela Pilbeam Emeritus Professor of French History, Royal Holloway, University of London and author of Madame Tussaud and the History of Waxworks
Thursday, June 27, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

Madame Tussaud's presentation of French politics and history did much to inform and influence the popular perception of France among the British. This lecture will explore that view and how it changed during the nineteenth century.

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Backstage Tour of the Zoological Collection of the Natural History Museum with Miranda Lowe
Friday, June 28, 2013 at 3:00pm
More here

Today, ten lucky people will get to join Miranda Lowe, Collections Manager of the Aquatic Invertebrates Division, for a special backstage tour of The Natural History Museum of London. The tour will showcase the zoological spirit collections in the Darwin Centre, some of Darwin's barnacles and the famed collection of glass marine invertebrate models crafted by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka in the 19th and early 20th century.
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Bat in Glass Dome Workshop: Part of DIY Wunderkammer Series With Wilder Duncan (formerly of Evolution Store, Soho) and Laetitia Barbier, head librarian at The Morbid Anatomy Library
Saturday, June 29, 2013 at 1:00pm (more here)
Sunday, June 30, 2013 at 1:00pm (more here)

In this class, students will learn how to create an osteological preparation of a bat in the fashion of 19th century zoological displays. A bat skeleton, a glass dome, branches, glue, tools, and all necessary materials will be provided for each student.  The classes will focus on teaching ancient methods of specimen preparation that link science with art: students will create compositions involving natural elements and, according to their taste, will compose a traditional Victorian environment or a modern display.
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The Coming of Age of the Danse Macabre on the Verge of the Industrial Age with Alexander L. Bieri Illustrated lecture with Alexander L. Bieri
Tuesday, July 9, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

The lecture not only discusses Schellenberg's danse macabre in detail, but also gives an insight into the current fascination with vanitas and its depictions, especially focusing on the artistic exploitation of the theme and takes into consideration the history of anatomical dissection and preparation.
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"Viva la Muerte: The Mushrooming Cult of Saint Death" Illustrated lecture and book signing with Andrew Chesnut
Wednesday, July 10, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

The worship of Santa Muerte, a psuedo Catholic saint which takes the form of a personified and clothed lady death, is on the rise and increasingly controversial in Mexico and the United States. Literally translating to "Holy Death" or "Saint Death," the worship of Santa Muerte-like Day of the Dead-is a popular form of religious expression rooted in a rich syncretism of the beliefs of the native Latin Americans and the colonizing Spanish Catholics.
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From Blue Beads to Hair Sandwiches: Edward Lovett and London's Folk Medicine: An Illustrated lecture with Ross MacFarlane, Research Engagement Officer in the Wellcome Library
Monday, July 15, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

During his life Edward Lovett (1852-1933) amassed one of the largest collections of objects pertaining to 'folk medicine' in the British Isles.  Lovett particularly focused his attention on objects derived from contemporary, working class Londoners, believing that the amulets, charms and mascots he collected - and which were still being used in 20th century London - were 'survivals' of antiquated, rural practices.
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The Vampires of London: A Cinematic Survey with William Fowler (BFI) and Mark Pilkington (Strange Attractor)
Thursday, July 18, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

This heavily illustrated presentation and film clip selection explores London's Highgate Cemetery as a locus of horror in the 1960s and 1970s cinema, from mondo and exploitation to classic Hammer horror.
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"Here's a Health to the Barley Mow: a Century of Folk Customs and Ancient Rural Games" Screenings of Short Films from the BFI Folk Film Archives with William Fowler
Wednesday, July 24, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

Tonight, the British Film Institute's William Fowler will present a number of rare and beautiful short films from the BFI National Archive and Regional Film Archives showing some of our rich traditions of folk music, dance, customs and sport. Highlights include the alcoholic folk musical Here's a Health to the Barley Mow (1955), Doc Rowe's speedy sword dancing film and the Padstow Mayday celebration Oss Oss Wee Oss (Alan Lomax/Peter Kennedy 1953).
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Of Satyrs, Horses and Camels: Natural History in the Imaginative Mode: illustrated lecture by Daniel Margócsy, Hunter College, New York
Thursday, July 25, 2013 at 7:00pm
More here

From its beginnings, science was (and still is) an imaginative and speculative enterprise, just like the arts. This talk traces the exchange of visual information between the major artists of the Renaissance and the leading natural historians of the scientific revolution. It shows how painters' and printmakers' fictitious images of unicorns, camels and monkfish came to populate the botanical and zoological encyclopedias of early modern Europe.

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You can find out more about all events here.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/05/apotheosis-of-dissected-platemorbid.html

This June and July, Morbid Anatomy is delighted to announce a second series of London-based events, workshops, special tours, screenings and spectacles surveying the interstices of art and medicine, death and culture produced for Hackney's own Wunderkammer The Last Tuesday Society.

The series will feature Morbid Anatomy's signature mix of museum professionals, professors, librarians, artists, rogue scholars, and autodidacts--many flown in direct from Morbid Anatomy's base in Brooklyn, New York--to elucidate on a wide array of topics including (but not limited to!) The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead; "human zoos;" "speaking reliquaries;" why music drives women mad; eccentric folk medicine collections; Santa Muerte (or "Saint Death); dissection and masturbation; dissection and magic; Victorian memorial hair jewelry; the "hot nurse" in popular fiction; The Danse Macabre; "a cinematic survey of The Vampires of London;" and anatomical waxworks and death.

There will be also two special backstage tours: one of the legendary Blythe House, home of the vast and incredible collection of Henry Wellcome and the other of the Natural History Museum's zoological collection, featuring the famously gorgeous Blaschka invertebrate glass model collection; a special magic lantern show featuring "the weirdest, most inappropriate and completely baffling examples of lantern imagery" conjured by collector and scholar Professor Heard, author of Phantasmagoria- The Secret Life of the Magic Lantern; a screening of rare short films from the BFI National Archive documenting folk music, dance, customs and sport; and workshops in the creation of Victorian hair work, lifelike wax wounds, and bat skeletons in glass domes.

Our wide range of esteemed presenters include wax artist Eleanor Crook; Simon Chaplin and Ross Macfarlane of The Wellcome Library; James Kennaway of Oxford University; Mervyn Heard, author of Phantasmagoria-The Secret Life of the Magic Lanterns; Mike Jay, author of High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture; Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor; Will Fowler of The British Film Instutute; The Florence Nightingale Museum's Natasha McEnroe; Laurens de Rooy of Amsterdam's Vrolik Anatomical Museum; The Science Museum's Phil Loring; Deputy Director of the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath John Troyer; Betsy Bradley, author of Knickerbocker: The Myth Behind New York; Patricia Philbeam, author of Madame Tussaud and the History of Waxwork; and CUNY's Daniel Margócsy.

The schedule as it now stands follows; there might very well be more additions as we near our launch date, so keep checking back here and here--and on this blog--for updates.
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Bubonic Plague by workshop teacher Eleanor Crook

Wax Wound Workshop with medical artist Eleanor Crook
2nd June 2013
1 to 5pm
Ticket price £120 - all materials included; Tickets here

Let acclaimed sculptor Eleanor Crook guide you in creating your very own wax wound. Crook has lent her experience to professionals ranging from forensic law enforcement officers to plastic surgeons, so is well placed to help you make a horrendously lifelike scar, boil or blister. More details to be confirmed shortly.

Eleanor Crook trained in sculpture at Central St Martins and the Royal Academy and makes figures and effigies in wax, carved wood and lifelike media. She has also made a special study of anatomy and has sculpted anatomical and pathological waxworks for the Gordon Museum of Pathology at Guy's Hospital, London's Science Museum, and the Royal College of Surgeons of England. She exhibits internationally in both fine art and science museum contexts. In the interest of making figures more lifelike than the living, using a generous grant from the Wellcome Trust she developed the incorporation of electronic animatronics systems into the sculptures so that her moribund and macabre creations now can twitch and mutter. She is artist in residence at the Gordon Museum of Pathology, a member of the Medical Artists' Association, runs a course in Anatomy drawing at the Royal College of Art and lectures on the M. A. Art and Science course at Central St Martins School of Art in London.

More here.
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Image: Wax Head by Clemente Susini; Copyright: University of Cagliari, Italy

Art, Wax, Death and Anatomy : Illustrated lecture with art historian Roberta Ballestriero
3rd June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

Wax modelling, or ceroplastics, is of ancient origin but was revived in 14th century Italy with the cult of Catholic votive objects, or ex votos. With the rise of Neoclassicism this art became repulsive to artistic sensibilities; it did, however, continue to survive in a scientific environment, where it flourished in the study of normal and pathological anatomy, obstetrics, zoology and botany. Interest in anatomical wax models spread throughout Europe during the eighteenth century leading to the creation of beautiful collections where art and death harmonically cohabit. In today's illustrated lecture, Art Historian Roberta Ballestriero will discuss the art and history of wax modeling sacred and profane; she will also showcase many of its greatest masterworks, such as the anatomical head by Clemente Susini (1754-1814) seen above.

Roberta Ballestriero is an associate lecturer in History of Art for the Open University, in U.K. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, and had her a European PhD for the Complutense University of Madrid. Her research concerns the history of Ceroplastic and wax figures throughout the centuries, (with emphasis on the ‘body of wax’). She started her research on the art of ceroplastics in 1995 and since 2004 she has presented at numerous conferences and has published several articles on her thesis subjects.

More here.
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Music Driving Women Mad: The History of Medical Fears of its Effects on Female Bodies and Minds: Illustrated lecture with Dr. James Kennaway
4th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

For many doctors since the eighteenth century, women's supposedly weak nerves made them especially vulnerable to over-stimulation, which could lead to a variety of complaints from the vapours to neurasthenia. One surprisingly common focus of these concerns was music. Over the past few centuries, countless physicians and writers have asserted that music could cause very serious medical problems for the 'weaker sex'. Not only could it bring on symptoms of nervousness and hysteria, it could also cause infertility, nymphomania and even something called 'melosexualism'. This talk will give an outline of this strange debate, using the raciest stories to be found in gynaecological textbooks.

Dr James Kennaway is a lecturer in the History of Medicine at the University of Oxford. He has previously held posts at Stanford University, the University of Vienna and the University of Durham. His book "Bad Vibrations: The History of the Idea of Music as a Cause of Disease" was published last summer.

More here.
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Solitary vice? Sex and Dissection in Georgian London Illustrated Lecture with Dr Simon Chaplin
5th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

In his watercolour of a 'Persevering Surgeon' (see left), the British artist Thomas Rowlandson made no bones about the darkly erotic nature of anatomical dissection. Poised over the body of a naked woman, erect knife in hand, Rowlandson's anatomist conjured images of the other solitary vice that consumed later 18th century moralists and medical men. But like Rowlandson - who combined popular satirical illustration with a more discreet trade in pornographic imagery - anatomists maintained a delicate balance between personal pursuits and public propriety. In this lavishly illustrated lecture, Simon Chaplin explores the sexual undertones of the anatomy schools of Georgian London, in which students dissected grave-robbed bodies in the back-rooms of their teachers' houses, while their masters explored new strategies for presenting their work to polite audiences through museums and lectures.

Dr Simon Chaplin is Head of the Wellcome Library in London. Before joining the Wellcome he was Director of the Hunterian Museum in London, one of the world's oldest anatomy collections. His research interests include the history of anatomy, surgery and museums, and his doctoral thesis explored the relationship between dissection and display through the work of the Hunterian Museum's founder, the surgeon John Hunter (1728-1793).

More here.
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Heartthrobs of the Human Zoo: Ethnographic Exhibitions and Captive Celebrities of Turn of the Century America: An Illustrated Lecture with Betsy Bradley
6th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

The ethnographic exhibitions that became popular in late Victorian Europe gave white visitors the chance to gaze upon entire villages of naturmenschen, temporarily imported from distant (usually colonial) lands and going about their daily lives in recreated habitats, much like their animal counterparts at the zoo. The Busby Berkeley scale of these colonial show-and-tells was designed to make a statement: instead of one displayed person, here were tribes of them, "villages negres," to quote the French. But the pointed anonymity of these living diorama could not prevent the media and the public from making stars out of their favorite "savages," particularly in the United States. From ransomed Congolese pygmies to winsome Eskimo babies, the American world's fairs and patriotic expositions  present history with a number of troubling ethnographic celebrities, and their stories offer a rare glimpse inside the psychology and culture of imperial America at the turn of a new century.

Betsy Bradley is a Brooklyn-based writer whose interests include the hidden histories of New York City and the intersection of literature, science, and American popular culture. She is the author of Knickerbocker: The Myth Behind New York, and a contributor to the Cambridge Companion to the Literature of New York, among other anthologies. She has written for Edible Manhattan, Edible Brooklyn, Bookforum, and The New York Times.  Bradley is the author of a forthcoming guidebook about New York to be published by Reaktion Books (UK) and is at work on a history of eugenics and its impact on American society, from sideshows to compulsory sterilization.

More here.
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The Astounding Collection of Henry Wellcome: Blythe House Backstage Tour with Selina Hurley, Assistant Curator of Medicine, The Science Museum
7th June 2013
This event is limited to only 15 participants and will begin at 15:00 at Blythe House, 23 Blythe Road, West Kensington
Ticket price £20; Tickets here

Henry Wellcome (1853 – 1936)----early pharmaceutical magnate and man behind the Wellcome Trust, Collection, and Library--was the William Randolph Hearst of the medical collecting world. Upon his death, he had collected over one million objects--many still in unopened crates in far-flung warehouses--related in the broadest sense to the history of medicine. His curators reduced that number by around to around 100,000 keeping only the very best. That collection, possibly the finest medical collection in the world, now resides in Blythe House, kept in trust by The Science Museum on permanent loan from the Wellcome Trust.

Today, a lucky fifteen people will get a rare chance to see this collection, featuring many artifacts of which have never before been on public view, in this backstage tour led Selina Hurley, Assistant Curator of Medicine at The Science Museum.

More here.
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Neapolitan Cult of the Dead with Chiara Ambrosio
10th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

.. Naples, the most macabre of cities. Naples, the mouth of Hades. The dead are played with there like big dolls...
--The Necrophiliac, Gabrielle Wittkop

Naples is a unique city in which the sacred and the profane, Catholicism and paganism, beauty and decay blend and contrast in intriguing ways. No practice illustrates this tangle of ideas better than what is known as "The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead" in which devout Catholics--generally poor women--adopt anonymous skulls found in charnel houses and clean, care for, and sometimes house them, offering up prayers and offerings to shorten that soul's time in purgatory before reaching paradise, where, it is hoped, it will assist its earthbound caretaker with special favors. The macabre artifacts of this cult can be seen in the Cimitero delle Fontanelle (see above) and the crypt of the church of Saint Mary of Purgatory.

In tonight's illustrated lecture, Italian artist and filmmaker Chiara Ambrosio will elucidate this curious and fascinating "Neapolitan Cult of the Dead" and situate it within a the rich death culture and storied history of Naples.

Chiara Ambrosio is a visual artist working with video and animation. Her work has included collaborations with performance artists, composers, musicians and writers, and has been shown in a number of venues including national and international film festivals, galleries and site specific events. She also runs The Light and Shadow Salon is a place for artists, writers and audience to meet and share ideas about the past, present and future of the moving image in all its forms.

More here.
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I am Amazed and Know Not What to Say! - A Vile Vaudeville of Gothic Attractions: Illustrated lecture by Mervyn Heard, author of Phantasmagoria- The Secret Life of the Magic Lantern
11th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

An illustrated talk in which writer and showman ‘Professor’ Mervyn Heard waxes scattergun- sentimental over some of the more bizarre, live theatrical experiences of the 18th, 19th and early 20th century – from the various ghastly manifestations of the phantasmagoria to performing hangmen, self-crucifiers and starving brides.

Mervyn Heard is the author of Phantasmagoria- The Secret Life of the Magic Lantern (2006), was responsible for designing the phantasmagoria intallation for the Tate Britain’s Gothic Nightmare (2006), and has staged bespoke magic lantern performances worldwide in playhouses, cinemas, department stores, museums, tents and dissecting theatres.

More here.
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Professor Heard's Most Extraordinary Magic Lantern Show with Mervyn Heard
12th June 2013
First performance begins at 7pm
Second performance begins at 9pm
Ticket price £10; Tickets here

Professor Heard is well known to patrons of the Last Tuesday Lecture programme for his sell-out magic lantern entertainments. In this latest assault on the eye he summons up some of the weirdest, most inappropriate and completely baffling examples of lantern imagery, lantern stories and optical effects by special request of Morbid Anatomy. These he will present on a magnificent mahogany and brass magic lantern projector perfectly suited for the purpose.

Mervyn Heard is the author of Phantasmagoria-The Secret Life of the Magic Lantern (2006), was responsible for designing the phantasmagoria installation for the Tate Britain’s Gothic Nightmare (2006), and has staged bespoke magic lantern performances worldwide in playhouses, cinemas, department stores, museums, tents and dissecting theatres.

More here.
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"Speaking Reliquaries" and Christian Death Rituals: Part One of "Hairy Secrets" Series With Karen Bachmann
13th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

In this 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann will focus on what are termed "speaking" reliquaries: the often elaborate containers which house the preserved body parts--or relics--of saints and martyrs with shapes which reflect that of the body-part contained within. Bachmann will examine these fascinating objects from an art historical perspective, and discuss their relationship to concepts of human body parts as icons of the immortal. They will be put into the larger context of Christian death rituals, in particular the veneration of saints body parts as sacred and magical relics. Also discussed will be the extremely odd proclivities of a variety of renaissance saints, such as Catherine of Sienna who drank pus from open sores. This will serve as the genesis in our further discussions of human hair, teeth, and nails as icons of the immortal.

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany and Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art and Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled “Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry”. In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

More here.
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Hair Art Workshop Class: The Victorian Art of Hair Jewellery With Karen Bachmann
14th, 15th, and 16th June 2013 from 1 - 5pm
Ticket price £50; Tickets here (14th June), here (15th June), and here (16th June)

Hair jewellery was an enormously popular form of commemorative art that began in the late 17th century and reached its zenith during the Victorian Era. Hair, either of someone living or deceased, was encased in metal lockers or woven to enshrine the human relic of a loved one. This class will explore a modern take on the genre. The technique of "palette working" or arranging hair in artful swoops and curls will be explored and a variety of ribbons, beads, wire and imagery of mourning iconography will be supplied for potential inclusion. A living or deceased person or pet may be commemorated in this manner. Students are requested to bring with them to class their own hair, fur, or feathers; all other necessary materials will be supplied. Hair can be self-cut, sourced from barber shops or hair salons (who are usually happy to provide you with swept up hair), from beauty supply shops (hair is sold as extensions), or from wig suppliers. Students will leave class with their own piece of hair jewelry and the knowledge to create future projects. 

More here.
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The History of the Memento Mori and Death's Head Iconography: Part Two of "Hairy Secrets" Series: Illustrated lecture with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
14th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

In tonight's lecture--the second in a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann will explore the development of the memento mori,objects whose very raison d'être is to remind the beholder that they, too, will die. Bachman will trace the symbolism and iconography of the memento mori and death's head imagery in both Medieval and Renaissance art, focusing on jewelry. She will also discuss the development of the "portable relic" -- a wearable form of body part reliquary, will be the focus of this lecture. The importance of hair in contemporaneous art of the period will be addressed, as well as the development of bereavement jewelry with hair.

More here. 
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The Victorian Love Affair with Death and the Art of Mourning Hair Jewelry and Part Three of “Hairy Secrets” Series: Illustrated lecture with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
17th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

The Victorians had a love affair with death which they expressed in a variety of ways, both intensely sentimental and macabre. Tonight’s lecture–the last in a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry–will take as its focus the apex of the phenomenon of hair jewelry fashion in the Victorian Era as an expression of this passion. Nineteenth century mourning rituals will be discussed, with a particular focus on Victorian hairwork jewelry, both palette worked and table worked. Also discussed will be the historical roots of the Victorian fascination with death, such as high mortality rates for both adults and children, the rise of the park cemetery, and the death of Queen Victoria’s beloved Prince Albert and her subsequent fashion-influencing 40-year mourning period. Historical samples of hair art and jewelry from the lecturer’s personal collection will also be shown.

More here.
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Dissection and Magic with Constanza Isaza Martinez
18th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

This lecture examines images of human corpses in Early Modern European art in relation to two specific themes: the practice of ‘witchcraft’ or ‘magic’; and the emergent medical profession, particularly anatomical dissection. As the images demonstrate, the two practices were closely linked during this period, and the corpses were a source - albeit fraught with anxieties - of power and knowledge for the figures of the witch and the anatomist.

Constanza Isaza Martinez is an artist, photographer, and independent researcher. She gained her BA in Photographic Arts from the University of Westminster, and her MA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute. Both her art and her research have frequently explored themes of mortality, mutability, death, and decay. For more information, please visit http://www.constanzaisaza.com.

More here.
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‘She Healed Their Bodies With Her White Hot Passions’: The Role of the Nurse in Romantic Fiction with Natasha McEnroe: Illustrated lecture Natasha McEnroe, Director of the Florence Nightingale Museum
19th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

“She stood by, handing him the required instruments while he stitched up an ice-pick stabbing that had by some miracle barely missed a woman’s heart. She heard the woman’s thick voice as she went under the anaesthetic: ‘My man didn’t really mean to hurt me, Doc. He was just mad account of I didn’t have him a meat supper when he got home from work.’” [Society Nurse, 1962].

Under such dramatic circumstances, it is no wonder that passion flares between the beautiful young nurse and her handsome doctor colleague. The figure of the nurse in romance fiction is a powerful one, her starched white apron covering a breast heaving with suppressed emotion. Victorian portrayals of the nurse show either a drunken and dishonest old woman or an angelic and devoted being, which changes to a 20th-century caricature just as pervasive – that of the ‘sexy nurse’. In this talk, Natasha McEnroe will explore the links between the enforced intimacy of the sickroom and the handling of bodies for more recreational reasons.

Natasha McEnroe is the Director of the Florence Nightingale Museum. Her previous post was Museum Manager of the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy and Curator of the Galton Collection at University College London. From 1997 – 2007, she was Curator of Dr Johnson’s House in London’s Fleet Street, and has also worked for the National Trust and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Natasha has lectured widely at venues including the Royal Society, the British Museum and the Hunterian Museum.

More here.
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Future Death. Future Dead Bodies. Future Cemeteries: Illustrated lecture by Dr. John Troyer, Deputy Director of the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath
20th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

Approximately 1500 people die every day across the United Kingdom, roughly one person a minute. And unless you are a person who works in a profession connected to the dying, chances are good you rarely (if ever) see any of these 1500 dead bodies. More importantly-- do you and your next of kin know what you want done with your dead body when you die? In the future, of course, since it's easier to think that way. Dr. John Troyer, from the Centre for Death & Society, University of Bath, will discuss three kinds of postmortem futures: Future Death, Future Dead Bodies, and Future Cemeteries. Central to these Futures is the human corpse and its use in new forms of body disposal technology, digital technology platforms, and definitions of death.

Dr. John Troyer is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. His interdisciplinary research focuses on contemporary memorialisation practices, concepts of spatial historiography, and the dead body?s relationship with technology. Dr. Troyer is also a theatre director and installation artist with extensive experience in site-specific performance across the United States and Europe. He is a co-founder of the Death Reference Desk website and a frequent commentator for the BBC. His forthcoming book, Technologies of the Human Corpse (published by the University of North Carolina Press), will appear in 2013.

More here.
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Face lift or face reconstruction? Redesigning the Museum Vrolik, Amsterdam's anatomical museum: An illustrated lecture with Dr. Laurens de Rooy, curator of the Museum Vrolik in Amsterdam
24th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

Copies of the book Forces of Form: The Vrolik Museum will be available for sale and signing.

Two skeletons of dwarfs, rare Siamese twins, cyclops and sirens, dozens of pathologically deformed bones, the giant skull of a grown man with hydrocephalus, the skeleton of the lion once owned by king Louis Napoleon, as well as the organs of a babirusa, Tasmanian devil and tree kangaroo – rare animals that died in the Amsterdam zoo ‘Artis’ shortly before their dissection. Counting more than five thousand preparations and specimens, the Museum Vrolikianum, the private collection of father Gerard (1775-1859) and his son Willem Vrolik (1801-1863), was an amazing object of interest one hundred and fifty years ago. In the 1840s and 50s this museum, established in Gerard’s stately mansion on the river Amstel, grew into a famous collection that attracted admiring scientists from both the Netherlands and abroad. After the Vrolik era, the museum was expanded with new collections by succeeding anatomists and the museum now houses more than 10,000 anatomical specimens.

Since 1984, the museum has been located in the academic Hospital of the University of Amsterdam. In 2009 the museum collections were portrayed by the photographer Hans van den Bogaard for the book Forces of Form. This book was the starting point for the creation of a new 'aesthetic' of the museum and its collection, eventually resulting in the grand reopening of the renovated and redesigned permanent exhibition in September 2012. For the first time since the death of father and son Vrolik, all of their scientific interests - the animal anatomy, the congenital malformations and the pathologically deformed human skeletons can all be viewed together, thus giving an impression of what that mid-19th century anatomy was all about. In this talk, Museum Vrolik curator will take you on a guided tour of the new museum, and give an overview of all the other aspects of the 'new' Museum Vrolik.

Dr. Laurens de Rooy (b. 1974) works as a curator of the Museum Vrolik in the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam. He studied Medical Biology, specializing in the history of science and museology. during his internship he researched the collection of father and son Vrolik. In 2009 he obtained his PhD in medical history.

More here.
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The Walking Dead in 1803: An Illustrated Lecture with Phil Loring,
Curator of Psychology at the Science Museum in London
25th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

A visiting Italian startled Londoners at the turn of the 19th century by making decapitated animals and executed men open their eyes and move around, as if on the verge of being restored to life. This was not magic but the power of electricity from the newly invented Galvanic trough, or battery. It was also the dawn of the modern neurosciences, as the thrust behind these macabre experiments was to understand the energy that moved through the nerves and linked our wills to our bodies. This talk will discuss a variety of historical instruments from the Science Museum's collections that figured in these re-animation experiments, including the apparatus used by Galvani himself in his laboratory in Bologna. This will be a partial preview of an upcoming Science Museum exhibition on nerve activity, to open in December 2013.

Phil Loring is BPS Curator of Psychology at the Science Museum in London. He has a Master's degree in Medical Anthropology from Harvard University and is currently completing his Ph.D. in the History of Science, also from Harvard, with a dissertation on psycho-linguists in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after the Second World War. Phil has been at the Science Museum since 2009, and during that time he has been particularly committed to sharing artefacts related to psychology and psychiatry with adult audiences. He's currently preparing an exhibition on the history of nerves, to open in December 2013.

More here. 

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The Influencing Machine: James Tilly Matthews and the Air Loom with Mike Jay
26th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

Confined in Bedlam in 1797 as an incurable lunatic, James Tilly Matthews’ case is one of the most bizarre in the annals of psychiatry. He was the first person to insist that his mind was being controlled by a machine: the Air Loom, a terrifying secret weapon whose mesmeric rays and mysterious gases were brainwashing politicians and plunging Europe into revolution, terror and war. But Matthews’ case was even stranger than his doctors realised: many of the incredible conspiracies in which he claimed to be involved were entirely real. Caught up in high-level diplomatic intrigues in the chaos of the French revolution, he found himself betrayed by both sides, and in possession of a secret that no-one would believe…

Mike Jay is an author, historian and curator who has written widely on the history of science and medicine, and particularly on drugs and madness. As well as The Influencing Machine, he is the author of Emperors of Dreams: Drugs in the Nineteenth Century and High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture, which accompanied the exhibition he curated at Wellcome Collection.

More here.
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A Waxen France: Madame Tussaud’s Representations of the French: Illustrated Lecture by Pamela Pilbeam  Emeritus Professor of French History, Royal Holloway, University of London and author of Madame Tussaud and the History of Waxworks
27th June 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

`You perceive that this is some sort of holy of holiest, the nearest Victorians got to a Cathedral, with its saints enniched within’. The chief saint in Madame Tussaud’s exhibition was Bonaparte, the chief villains were Robespierre and his revolutionary colleagues. When she arrived in Britain in 1802 for a short tour that lasted until she died in 1850, her exhibition was an exploration of the evils of the French Revolution. She had modelled the guillotined revolutionaries, as well as Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, from their severed heads- and brought a model of a guillotine and the Bastille fortress to expose the short comings of the French. The British, busily at war with their nearest neighbour, loved this critical exposure. Later the focus of her collection became her `Shrine to Napoleon’ consisted of two rooms dedicated to the Emperor. Napoleon had always had a leading role in her touring company, but in 1834, when she was a well-established figure in the world of entertainment and about to open a permanent museum in Baker Street, Madame. Tussaud began to amass large quantities of Napoleonic memorabilia. She built up a collection which Napoleon III acknowledged, when he tried abortively to buy it from the Tussauds, to be the best in the world. Madame Tussaud’s presentation of French politics and history did much to inform and influence the popular perception of France among the British. This paper will explore that view and how it changed during the nineteenth century.

Pamela Pilbeam is Emeritus Professor of French History, Royal Holloway, University of London.   She is the author of Madame Tussaud and the History of Waxworks.

More here.
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© The Natural History Museum, London 2012. All Rights Reserved.

Backstage Tour of the Zoological Collection of the Natural History Museum with Miranda Lowe
28th June 2013
Limited to 10 participants; Time 3:00 - 4:00
Ticket price £20; Tickets here

Today, ten lucky people will get to join Miranda Lowe, Collections Manager of the Aquatic Invertebrates Division, for a special backstage tour of The Natural History Museum of London. The tour will showcase the zoological spirit collections in the Darwin Centre, some of Darwin’s barnacles and the famed collection of glass marine invertebrate models crafted by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka in the 19th and early 20th century.

Miranda Lowe is the Collections Manager of the Aquatic Invertebrates Division, Life Sciences Department, The Natural History Museum (NHM), London. Within Zoology Miranda specifically manages the Crustacea collections as well as the team of curators responsible for the Invertebrate collections. Darwin barnacles and the Blaschka marine invertebrate glass models are amongst some of the historical collections that are her interests and under her care. In 2006, she was part of the organising committee and invited speaker at the 1st international Blaschka congress held in Dublin. Miranda collaborated with the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK in 2008 to exhibit some of the Museum’s Blaschka collection alongside contemporary Blaschka inspired art. She also has an interest in photography, natural history - past and present serving on a number of committees including the Society for the History of Natural History (SHNH) and the Natural Sciences Association (NatSCA).

More here. 
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Bat in Glass Dome Workshop: Part of DIY Wunderkammer Series : With Wilder Duncan (formerly of Evolution Store, Soho) and Laetitia Barbier, head librarian at The Morbid Anatomy Library
29th June and 30th June 2013, 1 to 5pm
Ticket price £200; Tickets here (29th) and here (30th)

In this class, students will learn how to create an osteological preparation of a bat in the fashion of 19th century zoological displays. A bat skeleton, a glass dome, branches, glue, tools, and all necessary materials will be provided for each student, but one should feel welcome to bring small feathers, stones, dried flowers, dead insects, natural elements, or any other materials s/he might wish to include in his/her composition. Students will leave the class with a visually striking, fully articulated, “lifelike” bat skeleton posed in a 10” tall glass dome. This piece can, in conjunction with the other creations in the DIY Wunderkammer workshop series, act as the beginning of a genuine collection of curiosities! This class is part of the DIY Wunderkammer workshop series, curated by Laetitia Barbier and Wilder Duncan for Morbid Anatomy as a creative and pluridisciplinary exploration of the Curiosity Cabinet. The classes will focus on teaching ancient methods of specimen preparation that link science with art: students will create compositions involving natural elements and, according to their taste, will compose a traditional Victorian environment or a modern display. More on the series can be found here.

Wilder Duncan is an artist whose work puts a modern-day spin on the genre of Vanitas still life. Although formally trained as a realist painter at Wesleyan University, he has had a lifelong passion for, and interest in, natural history. Self-taught rogue taxidermist and professional specimen preparator, Wilder worked for several years at The Evolution Store creating, repairing, and restoring objects of natural historical interest such as taxidermy, fossils, seashells, minerals, insects, tribal sculptures, and articulated skeletons both animal and human. Wilder continues to do work for private collectors, giving a new life to old mounts, and new smiles to toothless skulls.

Laetitia Barbier is the head librarian at The Morbid Anatomy Library. She is working on a master’s thesis for the Paris Sorbonne on painter Joe Coleman. She writes for Atlas Obscura and Morbid Anatomy.

More here (29th) and here (30th).
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The Coming of Age of the Danse Macabre on the Verge of the Industrial Age: Illustrated lecture with Alexander L. Bieri
9th July 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

During the middle ages, the danse macabre developed into an independent art form, most often in the shape of murals which adorned the walls of cemeteries. These depictions of death followed a strict rulebook and generally were a representation of the class system of the time, which was based on nobility or – to be more precise – the estate-based society. The advent of the bourgeois during the 1700s and the upcoming industrialisation put a question mark not only behind the societal system, but quite naturally also behind many of the established art forms. The danse macabre was widely regarded to be an outdated concept and a discussion evolved whether the skeleton still was the appropriate epitome for death. One of the proponents of this discussion was the Swiss artist Johann Rudolf Schellenberg, who created the first modern danse macabre in 1785, far away from the old class system, a work of art which still has an uncanny actuality and addresses many of the modern fears still extant in society at present. His trailblazing work updated the genre overnight and can be seen as the master source of all similar works of art to follow. A complete set of the plates is held by the Roche Historical Collection and Archive in Basel, which also holds one of the world’s oldest anatomical collections. The lecture not only discusses Schellenberg’s danse macabre in detail, but also gives an insight into the current fascination with vanitas and its depictions, especially focusing on the artistic exploitation of the theme and takes into consideration the history of anatomical dissection and preparation.

Alexander L. Bieri (*1976) is the curator of the Roche Historical Collection and Archive, a department within Roche Group Holdings. He assumes this position since 1999. Based in Basel, Switzerland but active as a consultant throughout the world, he has published many books and articles both on Roche-related and other themes. He also is responsible for a variety of Roche in-house museums and curated special exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad. In his capacity as an expert for 20th century architecture and design, he is a member of ICOMOS. In 2012, he was appointed lecturer for exhibition design at the Basel University.

More here.
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Photo courtesy of Tonya Hurley

Viva la Muerte: The Mushrooming Cult of Saint Death": Illustrated lecture and book signing with Andrew Chesnut
10th July 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

The worship of Santa Muerte, a psuedo Catholic saint which takes the form of a personified and clothed lady death, is on the rise and increasingly controversial in Mexico and the United States. Literally translating to “Holy Death” or “Saint Death,” the worship of Santa Muerte–like Day of the Dead–is a popular form of religious expression rooted in a rich syncretism of the beliefs of the native Latin Americans and the colonizing Spanish Catholics. Worshippers of "The Bony Lady" include the very poor, prostitutes, drug dealers, transvestites, prison inmates and others for whom traditional religion has not served, and for whom the possibility of unpredictable and violent death is a very real part of everyday life. In the view of her worshippers, Santa Muerte is simply a branch of Catholicism which takes at its central figure the most powerful of all saints--Saint Death herself, the saint all must, after all, one day answer to.The Catholic Church sees it, however, as, at best, inadvertent devil worship, with the worship of death--and the manifestation of a saint from a concept rather than an individual--as heretical to its core tenants. Tonight, R. Andrew Chesnut, author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint and Chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, will detail his research into the history and ongoing development of this fascinating "new religion."

Copies of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Sain will be available for sale and signing.

Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut earned his Ph.D degree in Latin American History from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1995 and joined the History Department faculty at the University of Houston in 1997 where he quickly became an internationally recognized expert on Latin American religious history. His most recent book is Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint (Oxford University Press, 2012). It is the first in-depth study of the Mexican folk saint in English.

More here. 
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From Blue Beads to Hair Sandwiches: Edward Lovett and London's Folk Medicine: An Illustrated lecture with Ross MacFarlane, Research Engagement Officer in the Wellcome Library
15th July 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

During his life Edward Lovett (1852-1933) amassed one of the largest collections of objects pertaining to 'folk medicine' in the British Isles.  Lovett particularly focused his attention on objects derived from contemporary, working class Londoners, believing that the amulets, charms and mascots he collected - and which were still being used in 20th century London - were 'survivals' of antiquated, rural practices. Lovett, however, was a marginal figure in folklore circles, never attaining the same degree of influence as many of his peers.  Whilst he hoped in his lifetime to establish a 'National Museum of Folklore', Lovett's sizeable collection is now widely dispersed across many museums in the UK, including Wellcome Collection, the Science Museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Cuming Museum.  This paper will offer an overview of the range of healing objects Lovett collected, the collecting practices he performed and recent efforts to rehabilitate his reputation.

Ross MacFarlane is Research Engagement Officer in the Wellcome Library, where he is heavily involved in promoting the Library's collections, particularly to academic audiences.  He has researched and given public talks on such topics as the history of early recorded sound and the collecting activities of Henry Wellcome and his members of staff.  Ross is a frequent contributor to the Wellcome Library's blog and has had led guided walks around London on the occult past of Bloomsbury and the intersection of medicine, science and trade in Greenwich and Deptford.

More here.
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The Vampires of London: A Cinematic Survey with William Fowler (BFI) and Mark Pilkington (Strange Attractor)
18th July 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

This heavily illustrated presentation and film clip selection explores London's Highgate Cemetery as a locus of horror in the 1960s and 1970s cinema, from mondo and exploitation to classic Hammer horror.

William Fowler is curator of artists' moving image at the BFI National Archive and co-programmes the cult cinema strand at Flipside at BFI Southbank.

Mark Pilkington runs Strange Attractor Press and is the author of 'Mirage Men' and 'Far Out: 101 Strange Tales from Science's Outer Edge'. 

More here. 
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"Here's a Health to the Barley Mow: a Century of Folk Customs and Ancient Rural Games" Screenings of Short Films from the BFI Folk Film Archives with William Fowler
24th July 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

Tonight, the British Film Institute's William Fowler will present a number of rare and beautiful short films from the BFI National Archive and Regional Film Archives showing some of our rich traditions of folk music, dance, customs and sport. Highlights include the alcoholic folk musical Here's a Health to the Barley Mow (1955), Doc Rowe’s speedy sword dancing film and the Padstow Mayday celebration Oss Oss Wee Oss (Alan Lomax/Peter Kennedy 1953).

The programme provides a taste of the BFI's 6-hour DVD release 'Here's a Health to the Barley Mow: a Century of Folk Customs and Ancient Rural Games', a rich and wide-ranging collection of archive films from around the UK.

William Fowler is curator of artists' moving image at the BFI National Archive and co-programmes the cult cinema strand at Flipside at BFI Southbank.

More here.
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Of Satyrs, Horses and Camels: Natural History in the Imaginative Mode: illustrated lecture by Daniel Margócsy, Hunter College, New York
25th July 2013
Doors at 6:30 / Talk begins at 7:00 pm
Ticket price £7; Tickets here

This talk argues that the creative imagination played a crucial role in the development of science during the scientific revolution. Modern, natural knowledge emerged from the interaction of painters, printmakers, artisans, cartographers, and natural historians. All these practitioners carefully observed, pictured and cataloged all the exotic naturalia that flooded Europe during the Columbian exchange. Yet their collaboration did not end there. They also engaged in a joint, conjectural guesswork as to what other, as yet unknown plants and animals might hide in the forests of New England, the archipelago of the Caribbean, the unfathomable depths of the Northern Sea, or even in the cavernous mountains of the Moon. From its beginnings, science was (and still is) an imaginative and speculative enterprise, just like the arts. This talk traces the exchange of visual information between the major artists of the Renaissance and the leading natural historians of the scientific revolution. It shows how painters’ and printmakers’ fictitious images of unicorns, camels and monkfish came to populate the botanical and zoological encyclopedias of early modern Europe. The leading naturalists of the age, including Conrad Gesner, Carolus Clusius and John Jonstonus, constantly consulted the oeuvre of Dürer, Rubens and Hendrick Goltzius, among others, as an inspiration to hypothesize how unknown, and unseen, plants and animals might look like.

Daniel Margocsy is assistant professor of history at Hunter College – CUNY. In 2012/3, he is the Birkelund Fellow of the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. He has co-edited States of Secrecy, a special issue of the British Journal for the History of Science on scientific secrecy, and published articles in the Journal of the History of Ideas, Annals of Science, and the Netherlands Yearbook of Art History.

More here.
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All talks and workshops take place at The Last Tuesday Society at 11 Mare Street, London, E8 4RP map here) unless otherwise specified; please click here to buy tickets. More on all events can be found here. Click on images to see larger versions.Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/03/morbid-anatomy-presents-in-london-this_30.html