Category Archives: Anatomy

Remorse is for the Dead, 2008

We Live No More, 2007

Hellbound, 2008

Heaven Beside You, 2009

The Pot, 2008

I am loving the work by Los Angeles based illustrator, Alex Cherry.  His linework, use of texture, and ink splatter bring an urban vibe to a lot of his pieces.  Alex’s finds inspiration in music and if you take a close look, the titles of his pieces actually come from song titles from bands like Tool, Radiohead, Converge, and more.  See more of Alex’s work on his portfolio site ofsoundandvision.com.

[spotted by Ryan Jones and Peter Balla]

Oddities--the previously discussed reality show [sic] based on my favorite store in the world, Obscura Antiques and Oddities--premiered last night on The Discovery Channel. I am very happy to report that I actually quite liked the show, which came to me as some surprise as I am, in general, no fan reality television. Oddites is actually a television show I would--and will!--watch, and I am so proud of all my friends whose knowledgeable, thoughtful, and non-histrionic participation is elevating it well above the usual reality television fare!

You can view my favorite clip from last night's episode--which stars a very charismatic playwright and Obscura regular named Edgar and his encounter with a straitjacket--by clicking here. Note: you will have to sit through an obligatory commercial to get to the good stuff, but it is definitely worth it.

Oddities will be airing Thursday nights at 8:00 PM on the Discovery Channel; I highly highly highly recommend you find a way to check it out (I surely will be...). You can find out more--and view many more clips!--on the Oddities home page (pictured above) by clicking here.

Next Saturday, November 13th, join American Museum of Natural History archivist (and friend of Morbid Anatomy) Barbara Mathé for an illustrated presentation about the museum's vast collection of magic lantern slides as part of the Margaret Mead Festival. Entitled "Lantern Slides: Looking Glass through History," the presentation will, in the words of the press release, "share the behind-the-scenes history of the lantern slides, photographs of Museum employees painting the original slides, and [detail] the fascinating story of their journey from AMNH to a basement in Staten Island and back again."

Having been so fortunate as to be allowed a tiny peek at the riches of the archives of AMNH--where I once had the honor of working--I simply cannot wait for this presentation and the opportunity to find out more about this seriously incredible collection!

Full details follow; hope very much to see you there!

Lantern Slides: Looking Glass through History
Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
American Museum of Natural History, New York City
November 13, 2010 | 1:30 pm
Kaufmann Theater
$12 General admission / $10 Members, students, seniors

Join the Mead for an urban dig through the American Museum of Natural History’s library archives. Once the foundation of a long-running and wildly popular series of lectures by zoologist and AMNH founder Albert Bickmore, the Museum’s collection of more than 40,000 glass lantern slides were used as an educational tool starting in the late 1800s and were later circulated throughout New York City’s public school system. Often hand-colored these slides depict myriad subjects, such as landscapes, scientific specimens, and field expeditions captured around the world by the Museum’s own scientists. In celebration of the recovery of about 20,000 of these rare artifacts, the Festival presents the opportunity to view these unique historical documents and stunning works of art through the eyes of in-house archivist Barbara Mathé. She will share the behind-the-scenes history of the lantern slides, photographs of Museum employees painting the original slides, and the fascinating story of their journey from AMNH to a basement in Staten Island and back again. Historian Constance Areson Clarke and media historian Alison Griffiths will also be on hand to discuss the wider history of lantern slides and educational media.

Co-presented by International Center of Photography and the New York Stereoscopic Society.

For more information--and to find out about other offerings of this year's Mead festival--go to amnh.org/mead.

Dermographisme [aka dermographism, dermatographismm or "skin writing] - Démence précoce catatonique, from Nouvelle Iconographie de la Salpêtrière, Paris, 1904.

From the Wellcome Collection Skin exhibition website (which featured this image):

Démence Précoce Catatonique Dermographisme. L Trepsat, 1893. From 'Nouvelle Iconographie de la Salpêtrière', 1904.

During the second hald of the 19th century, the belief spread that the phenomenon of dermatographism (or 'dermographism', or 'skin writing') was linked to hysteria and other mental or nervous disorders. Here a female patient at the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris has had her diagnosis 'Démence précoce' (dementia praecox) 'written' on her back.

Click on image to see larger version.

Via Rrosehobart Tumblr.

Thanks so much to my friend Megan for letting me know about the super exciting looking exhibition that will be on view at Versailles Palace in France through February of next year.

The show--entitled "Science and Curiosities at the Court of Versailles"--will tell the story of scientific inquiry, rational amusement, and natural and artificial curiosities at the grand royal court of Versailles. To illustrate this worthy topic, the exhibition will gather and display--for the first time ever--a variety of artifacts that once comprised part of the monolithic "royal collection" and are now--post French Revolution and disciplinary divides--housed in a variety of anatomical, anthropological, natural historical, and art museums around France.

The artifacts will reveal "a new, unexpected face of Versailles as a place of scientific inquiry in its most various forms," trace the stories of the relationship between natural philosophers and the royal court, and bring "together works and instruments from the old royal collections, spectacular achievements of beauty and intelligence, for the first time."

Good stuff!

Here is the full description from the website:

[Science and Curiosities at the Court of Versailles] reveals a new, unexpected face of Versailles as a place of scientific inquiry in its most various forms: the Hall of Mirrors electricity experiment, Marley Machine on the banks of the Seine, burning mirror solar power demonstration, etc. It brings together works and instruments from the old royal collections, spectacular achievements of beauty and intelligence, for the first time.

Versailles is the place where control over science was exercised. At the urging of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's "prime minister", the royal authority became aware of the benefits of scientific research. In 1666 Colbert founded the Academy of Science, establishing a new contract between the government and scientists. Many "natural philosophers", as they were known at the time, including some of the most famous, assiduously frequented the Court as physicians, army engineers, tutors, etc. The physicists Benjamin Franklin and Abbot Nollet compared their theories in front of the king and the encyclopaedists Diderot and D’Alembert met in the office of Dr. Quesnay, physician to Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's favourite. Some courtiers were real experts.

The Château de Versailles offered many research resources. Anatomists and zoologists could study the menagerie's ostriches, pelicans, rhinoceroses and other rare animals, botanists and agronomists the plants on the grounds of the Trianon and "hippiatrists", the forerunners to veterinarians, the horses in the Grand Stables.

Educators developed new teaching methods using cutting-edge tools for the royal children and the kings' personal practice. While Louis XIV considered himself a protector of the arts and sciences without practicing them, his successors, Louis XV and Louis XVI, became true connoisseurs. A presentation to the king or demonstration before the Court was the highest honour, equivalent to winning a Nobel Prize. Many people know about the first hot-air balloon flight, but numerous other events have fallen into oblivion, such as the burning mirror demonstration in front of Louis XIV or the electricity experiment in the Hall of Mirrors under his successor's reign.

You can find out more on the exhibition website--which will be on view until February of next year--by clicking here. You can see the Tympanum Player Automaton in full automaton action by pressing play on the Youtube viewer above.

If anyone makes it to this exhibition, I would love to see images/hear a report!

Top two images are installation views of the exhibition from the Corbis Images Blog. The rest of the images from the exhibition website and are captioned, top to bottom:

• The Tympanum Player Automaton; Peter Kintzing (1745-1816) and David Roentgen (1743-1807)
• Rhinoceros gifted in 1769 to King Louis XV by the French governor of Chandernagore
• Waxen Indian head from the Cabinet of the Marquis de Sérent; originally on display in a window of the Marquis de Sérent's ethnographical cabinet in Rue des Réservoirs at Versailles acquired for the princes' education.
• 18th C Artwork depicting Étienne de Montgolfier's aerostatic experiment at Versailles
• Watercolour drawing by Philippe-Etienne Lafosse (1738-1820), intended for the study of Farriery, or the art of treating the ailments of horses

Via my wonderful friend Megan Fitzpatrick who found it via Jezebel.

Wow. Its for real.

"Oddities," the new reality TV show (that's right, REALITY TV SHOW) based on Morbid Anatomy's favorite shop Obscura Antiques and Oddities in New York City's East Village. Seen above, in moving images and sound, in the just-released trailer. The show features shop proprietors and good friends Evan Michelson (aka Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence) and Mike Zohn, who recently dignified us with a wonderful lecture on Automata at Observatory.

Wow. Wow! Somehow I did not expect to see so many familiar faces.

"Oddities" premieres Nov. 4 at 9:30 p.m. on Discovery Channel; after the launch, it will air Thursdays at 8 PM. You can find out more about Obscura Antiques and Oddities by clicking here; you can see a recent MA Post on the story by clicking here. For more on the show--including a link to a story in the New York Post--see this recent post.