Tonight is night four of the Congress for Curious People! To celebrate, come to the Coney Island Museum at 7:00 PM to see Pat Morris--British biologist, collector, and self-publisher of several books on taxidermy--as he parses the world of taxidermy and asks, in a heavily illustrated lecture "is taxidermy art, science, or bad taste?"

Pat Morris is a specialist on taxidermy of all sorts, and has literally written the book on Walter Potter, my favorite Victorian taxidermist, who's incredible tableaux "The Kitten Tea Party" and "The Death of Cock Robin (top and third down, respectively) you see above. Tonight his lecture will focus on the work and curiosity collection of Mr. Potter; he will also be selling (and signing, if you wish!) his difficult-to-come-by and amazing heavily-illustrated books about Potter's work, life, and curiosity collection. Also, there will be half-price drinks at the bar till 7!

Do you need further enticing to get you down to Coney Island tonight?

Full details follow; hope to see you there!

A History of Taxidermy: Art, Science and Bad Taste
An Illustrated Presentation By Dr. Pat Morris, Royal Holloway, University of London
Date: Thursday, April 15th
Time: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: The Coney Island Museum
Should taxidermy be viewed as art, science, or bad taste? And why is it so interesting? Dr. Pat Morris’ illustrated lecture “A History of Taxidermy: Art, Science and Bad Taste” will explore these topics and more. His talk will range over the history of stuffed animals, considering how a small-time taxidermist business operated in the 19th century and exploring the many diverse and amusing uses of taxidermy and the taxidermist’s products ranging from major museum exhibits to stuffed pets, hunting trophies, animal furniture, kitten weddings (see above, Walter Potter, circa 1890s), frogs eating spaghetti and squirrels playing cards. He will discuss in detail the work of anthropomorphic taxidermist Walter Potter and his eponymous “Museum of Curiosities,” as detailed in his own lavishly illustrated book on that topic, which will be available for sale at the lecture.

Dr. Pat Morris is a retired staff member of Royal Holloway College (University of London), where he taught biology undergraduates and supervised research on mammal ecology. In that capacity he has published many books and scientific papers and featured regularly in radio and TV broadcasts. The history of taxidermy has been a lifelong hobby interest and he has published academic papers and several books on the subject. With his wife Mary he has travelled widely, including most of Europe and the USA, seeking interesting taxidermy specimens and stories. They live in England where their house is home to the largest collection and archive of historical taxidermy in Britain.

To find out more about this event and the larger Congress of Curious Peoples--including nightly performances and the epic opening night party--click here. For more about the Congress for Curious People, click here. Click on image or click here to download a hi-res copy of the above broadside. For information about the Coney Island Museum--including address and directions--click here.

This shirt is pretty rad, love the colors going on, and it’s up for grabs for 10 bucks on shirt woot! Her site has some sweet line-work on it as well. I love the Roam shirt, buffalo win!

[thanks for the link Aman]

I have a huge appreciation for designers and artists who pay attention to the small details in their work. North Carolina based, Raleigh Denim is a small jean shop that makes all their jeans under one roof with local material and resources only.  They even use vintage machines. RD had a local print shop, Ahpeele, custom print these hip bone x-rays on the inside pockets of their Edmund style jeans.  It’s that small detail that makes these handmade jeans all the more unique.  More info on these jeans can be found here!

[submitted by Jason]

Rest your anatomy on this anatomy pillow by Heather Lins.  Hand-sewn, 100% wool, and made of eco-friendly materials! $176 bucks here!

Tonight is night three of the Congress for Curious People! To celebrate, come to the Coney Island Museum at 7:00 PM to see Mike Zohn--of the inimitable Obscura Antiques and Oddities-- as he demonstrates and explains the workings of his 19th Century bird-taxidermy automaton, which aficionados might remember from last Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest; (see bottom image to jog your memory).

To accompany the demonstration, Mike will give an illustrated lecture about the fascinating, surprising, and sometimes nefarious history of automata. And--added bonus--there will also be half-price drinks at the bar till 7! Full details follow; hope to see you there!

A Brief History of Automata
An Illustrated Lecture and Demonstration by Mike Zohn, Obscura Antiques and Oddities
Date: Wednesday, April 14th (Tonight!)
Time: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: The Coney Island Museum
In this illustrated lecture, Obscura Antique and Oddities‘ Mike Zohn will demonstrate his 19th Century taxidermy automata, as featured in last year’s Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest. He will explain its curious mechanisms, and, in an illustrated lecture, will introduce us to the history of these fascinating uncanny machines, tracing their trajectory from tools of religious coercion to prince’s plaything to Disney’s imagineering experiments.

Mike Zohn is co-proprietor of Obscura Antique and Oddities. He fixes automata in his spare time.

For information about the Coney Island Museum--including address and directions--click here. For more about the Congress for Curious People--under whose auspices this event is included--click here. To find out more about the larger Congress of Curious Peoples click here. Click here to download a hi-res copy of the broadside invitation.

Bottom image: Mike Zohn with his Bird Automaton at the Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest; from the Flickr page of tenebrouskate; click here to see more.

Brian Danaher has been posted before for his creative usage of the human heart. Here’s another cool Gigposter he’s created for Vampire Weekend.  3 color screenprint, 18 x 24, and can be purchased here!

From the outside, it's an unremarkable industrial warehouse, home to Duke's Auction House. But the stench of turpentine marks it out from the other buildings on the Grove Industrial Estate in Dorchester, Dorset. It's the first clue that inside lurks a haven of Victorian taxidermy.

Step in, and you'll see a Bengali tiger on its hind legs, 8ft tall, lunging claws-first (and canines first) towards you. Behind him is a peacock, glorious tail splayed behind it.

To the right are three zebras, a camel, baby rhinoceros and seven lions, the lioness twisted on the ground, sinking her incisors into a bloodied antelope. All in all, there are 250 animals, many of which are the treasures of an eccentric 19th-century professor and explorer.

Elsewhere are grotesque figures: shrunken monkey heads on spikes, Siamese lambs conjoined at the head, a velvet coffin with the body of a 16-year-old Congolese boy (complete with an elephant's head stitched to his corpse), and dozens of glass-eyed waxworks with liver- spotted skin or daggers plunging into their chests.

Oh, and a blue dress once worn by Princess Diana.

Today's auction--marking the dispersal of the Brading Experience, a former museum on the Isle of Wight in England and handled by Duke's auction house in Dorset--will also include scores of waxworks featured at the museum for decades, among them "a waxwork of a whitehaired tramp wearing loose fitting rags" and "a half-length waxwork of a torso with a knife plunged into his chest," not to mention the epic taxidermy you see above, and much, much more.

The above quote and images are from the Daily Mail, which featured a well-illustrated article about the auction; You can read the full article--"Yetis, unicorns and even flying kittens: Inside the worlds zaniest zoo"--by clicking here. You can view the entire catalog of sale items--prepare to be astounded!--here. You can find out more about Duke's auction house by clicking here.

Wish I lived in England right now...

P.S. If this topic interests you, then you won't want to miss tonight's lecture by Robert Marbury at the Coney Island Museum, entitled "A Rogue’s Approach to Stuffing It: Taxidermy in Contemporary Pop, Art and Sub-Cultures" at 7:00 PM! Click here for details.

"Betty Boop's Snow White" (1933) is undoubtedly Fleischer's masterpiece as lapse, particularily its final sequence in an underworld--both an Orphean journey (i.e. the myth of Orpheus), and an Orphic journey (a silly dance of death set to music.)...the evil queen turns Koko the Clown into a shapeshifting ghost, while her mirror keeps sprouting hands; and a blackface to tell her who is the fairest of them all. At the same time, Koko as ghost is rotoscoped from a clip of Cab Calloway...

Koko sings "St. James Infirmary," while turning into a twenty dollar gold piece, then into a "shot of that of booze." At the same time,. to illustrate the line of "crap shootin' pallbearers," the walls behind him is lined with murals of skulls and cows together, gambling. That bears scrutiny, usually requires a few viewings: it is intentionally traced like the wall of a Coney Island Mystery Cave Ride. It is also traced out of a collective imaginary (at least the collective of animators). The skulls of African Americans reenact the greasy underworld of back-alley saloon life and in Harlem. But not Harlem as blacks knew it--this is Harlem as the white male Fleischer animators saw it....
--The Vatican to Vegas: A History of Special Effects, Norman Klein, 2004

You can find out more about this wonderful book--which contains countless gems such as this--by clicking here. Thanks to my good friend Ben for introducing me to this book, which has been captivating me for the past few weeks.

Animal Canon designed this 3 color screen print for The Antlers. 19″ x 25″ and only 90 were made. Buy it here for $20.

Irina Sidorova created this project as an interpretation of Hippocrates Theory of the 4 humours. She says that

He [Hippocrates] stated that human behavior depends on the number and density of fluids in human body, initial liquids were blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm.  Furthermore, fluids were located in different parts of the body, these were: head, gall bladder, spleen and lungs.  His theory was a foundation for the modern temperament theory.  Temperaments are known now as sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic.

I really like how she used colors to represent the 4 humours and then overlayed them in a geometrical pattern on the anatomical illustrations.

Which one are you?

Morbid Anatomy presents at Observatory next Tuesday, July 20th. Hope to see you there!

Morbid Ink: Field Notes on the Human Memorial Tattoo
An Illustrated lecture with Dr. John Troyer, Deputy Director, Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath
Date: Tuesday July 20th
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

In 1891, Samuel F. O’Reilly of New York, NY patented the first “…electromotor tattooing-machine,” a modern and innovative device that permanently inserted ink into the human skin. O’Reilly’s invention revolutionized tattooing and forever altered the underlying concept behind a human tattoo, i.e., the writing of history on the body. Tattooing of the body most certainly predates the O’Reilly machine (by several centuries) but one kind of human experience remains constant in this history: the memorial tattoo.

Memorial tattooing is, as Marita Sturken discusses the memorialization of the dead, a technology of memory. Yet the tattoo is more than just a representation of the dead. It is a historiographical practice in which the living person seeks to make death intelligible by permanently altering his or her own body. In this way, memorial tattooing not only establishes a new language of intelligibility between the living and the dead, it produces a historical text carried on the historian’s body. A memorial tattoo is an image but it is also (and most importantly) a narrative.

Human tattoos have been described over the centuries as speaking scars and/or the true writing of savages; cut from the body and then collected by Victorian era gentlemen. These intricately inked pieces of skin have been pressed between glass and then hidden away in museum collections, waiting to be re-discovered by the morbidly curious. The history of tattooing is the story of Homo sapiens’ self-invention and unavoidable ends.

Tattoo artists have a popular saying within their profession: Love lasts forever but a tattoo lasts six months longer.

And so too, I will add, does death

Dr. John Troyer is the Death and Dying Practices Associate and RCUK Fellow at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. He received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society in May 2006. From 2007-2008 he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies at The Ohio State University teaching the cultural studies of science and technology. Within the field of Death Studies, he analyzes the global history of science and technology and its effects on the dead body. He is a co-founder of the Death Reference Desk website and his first book, Technologies of the Human Corpse, will appear in spring 2011.

You can find out more about this presentation here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

This just in! Tia, proprietor of the wonderful Case of Curiosities website, is selling off a variety of curiosities from her incredible personal collection (as seen above) today, tomorrow and Sunday in San Fransisco, California. I have seen this woman's collection and, I promise you, it will have your mind reeling in wonder and delight. If I lived in California, I would be there in a flash!

Full details follow:

You can find out more by visiting A Case of Curiosities by clicking here. Thanks, Ronni, for the photos and the reportage!

Jason Holley is a very unique and talented illustrator, fine artist, and musician who’s work has been printed in numerous magazines like RollingStone, and Communication Arts. He often uses elements of anatomy and nature in his works, inspired by his environment in Sierra Madre, California. Themes of political unrest, global warming, and pop culture often appear in his personal and commercial work.  Check more out here!

On Thursday, August 5th, please join Morbid Anatomy in welcoming good friend and fellow traveler Lord Whimsy at Observatory as he delivers an illustrated lecture on "the botanical oddities found in the ancient Ice Age bogs of the New Jersey Pine Barrens."

Whimsy will augment his lecture with the display of a variety of live plant specimens illustrating the diversity of this region, a demonstration on building and and maintaining your own container gardens, and plant care sheets to guide you in cultivating a variety of indigenous carnivorous plants. Copies of his book, The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Volume One will also be available for sale and signing.

Herr Whimsy is a wonderful speaker and a fascinating thinker. I promise, this is one event you won't want to miss! Full details follow; hope to see you there!

Nature as Miniaturist: An Illustrated Survey of the Bogs of Southern New Jersey
An Illustrated lecture and specimen demonstration with author, artist, and Gentleman Naturalist Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy
Date: Thursday, August 5th
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5 Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Tonight, author, artist and Gentleman Naturalist Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy will be giving an illustrated lecture on the botanical oddities found in the ancient, Ice Age bogs of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. These tiny, alien worlds are home to rare orchids, carnivorous plants, and bizarre species of plants and animals–some of which are found nowhere else on Earth. Whimsy, a lifelong resident of the Pine Barrens, will also give a demonstration of how to build and maintain your own container garden for these strange, wonderful plants. Live specimens of these plants will be on display, and care sheets for carnivorous plants like Venus Flytrap will also be made available. Whimsy’s book The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Volume One will also be available for sale and signing.

Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy (aka V. Allen Crawford III) is an artist, designer, author, failed dandy, bushwhacking aesthete, and middle-aged dilettante. Whimsy is the author of The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Volume One (Bloomsbury), which has been optioned for film by Johnny Depp’s production company, Infinitum Nihil. He and his wife are proprietors of Plankton Art Co., an illustration and design studio. Their most notable project to date is the collection of 400 species identification illustrations that are on permanent display at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Ocean Life.

You can find out more about this presentation here. You can visit Lord Whimsy's website by clicking here, and find out more about his book by clicking here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

We’ve finally started a Facebook fanpage so we can see and chat with our dedicated audience!  Post comments, throw out questions, see exclusive content, and share photos of anatomical work all in one place.  It’s a great way to see the latest updates on Street Anatomy for those of us who compulsively check FB.  Become a fan here!

We’ve been on Twitter for a while now, but we’ve finally started updating it more frequently for our fans.  Follow us here!

So there you have it, TWO more ways to get your daily fill of anatomy in pop culture!

This is an amazing 100% knitted cotton bodysuit.  To own this, you need to pay £500.00 from GoodHoodStore.  Imagine how cool you’d look!

Don’t treat Diabetes to your kidneys.
About 10 to 40 percent of patients with Type 2 Diabetes will eventually suffer from kidney failure. So, visit your doctor regularly and ensure healthy kidneys.

Here’s a public announcement effort by Greenroom Advertising Mumbai, India in educating those with Type 2 Diabetes to keep up their doctor visits to ensure healthy organs.  I wish the execution was more realistic…

[via adsoftheworld]

A viewer recently submitted this incredible arm tattoo on one of her students at City College of San Francisco.

Looks like it’s based on Juan Valverde de Amusco’s Anatomia del corpo humano, which was most likely originally drawn by Gaspar Becerra (1520?-1568?), a contemporary of Michelangelo.

See more anatomy tattoos in our Anatomy Tattoo Group on Flickr!

Hi all! Just a reminder that tonight is the opening party for my new exhibition at Observatory "The Secret Museum," an exploration of the poetics of hidden, untouched and curious collections from around the world in photographs and artifacts." This show is produced in conjunction with the Congress for Curious People, which encompasses a slew of exciting events and begins this Monday!

Full details follow. Hope to see you there!

Exhibition: "The Secret Museum"
Opening party: Saturday April 10th, 7-10 PM
On view from April 10th-May 16th
Admission: Free

An exhibition exploring the poetics of hidden, untouched and curious collections from around the world in photographs and artifacts, by Joanna Ebenstein, co-founder of Observatory and creator of Morbid Anatomy.

Photographer and blogger Joanna Ebenstein has traveled the Western world seeking and documenting untouched, hidden, and curious collections, from museum store-rooms to private collections, cabinets of curiosity to dusty natural history museums, obscure medical museums to hidden archives. The exhibition “The Secret Museum” will showcase a collection of photographs from Ebenstein’s explorations–including sites in The Netherlands, Italy, France, Austria, England and the United States–which document these spaces while at the same time investigating the psychology of collecting, the visual language of taxonomies, notions of “The Specimen” and the ordered archive, and the secret life of objects and collections, with an eye towards capturing the poetry, mystery and wonder of these liminal spaces. In tandem with this exhibition, Ebenstein has organized a 2 week “Collector’s Cabinet” at the The Coney Island Museum, which will showcase astounding objects held in private collections, including artifacts featured in her Private Cabinet photo series of 2009.

To download press release, which includes sample images, please click here.

ASSOCIATED LECTURES AND EVENTS
Congress for Curious People at the Coney Island Museum
2-day symposium exploring the idea of collecting curiosities in the 21st century as well as the politics, history, and changing methodology of collecting and collections. Also on view will be “The Collector’s Cabinet,” an installation of astounding artifacts held in private collections. A week of themed lectures at the Coney Island Museum will precede the symposium:

The Saddest Object in the World
An Illustrated Meditation by Evan Michelson, Obscura Antiques and Oddities, Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in residence
Date: Monday, April 12th
Time: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: * Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn

Taxidermy in the Fine ArtsRobert Marbury of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists
Date: Tuesday, April 13th
Time: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: * Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn

A Brief History of Automate
An Illustrated Lecture and Demonstration by Mike Zohn, Obscura Antiques and Oddities
Date: Wednesday, April 14th
Time: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: * Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn

A History of Taxidermy: Art, Science and Bad Taste
An Illustrated Presentation By Dr. Pat Morris, Royal Holloway, University of London
Date: Thursday, April 15th
Time: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: * Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn

Charles Wilson Peale and the Birth of the American Museum
An Illustrated Presentation by Samuel Strong Dunlap, PhD, Descendant of Charles Wilson Peale
Date: Friday, April 16th
Time: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: * Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn

Museums, Monsters and the Moral Imagination
An Illustrated lecture with Professor Stephen Asma, author of Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads and On Monsters.
Date: Thursday, April 22
Time: 8:00 PM
LOCATION: * Observatory, Brooklyn

Experimenting with Death: An Introduction to Terror Management Theory
An Illustrated Lecture by Michael Johns, Former Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Wyoming
Time: 8:00 PM
Date: Friday, May 7
LOCATION: * Observatory, Brooklyn

You can find out more by clicking here. You can get directions to Observatory by clicking here. You can find out more about the "Congress for Curious People" by clicking here. You can get on our mailing list by clicking here can join Observatory on Facebook by clicking here.

Image credits: Images 1-3: Tim Knox and Todd Longstaffe-Gowan Collection, London. Image 4: Archives 2009-015, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. Image 5: Natural History Museum Store-room; Image 6: Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Rouen, Store-room; Image 7: "Femme à barbe," Musée Orfila. Courtesy of Paris Descartes University.

Flat Surgery is a collection of anatomical rugs by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur commissioned by the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London.

Mapping out domestic space using the organs of the human body: Flat Surgery #1 (Digestive System) for eating space, Flat Surgery #2 (brain) for home office, Flat Surgery #3 (genitalia) for bedroom.

I would’ve gone for a heart in the bedroom, but I suppose genitalia will have to do…