Joanna Ebenstein presents Anatomical Venuses at the Dittrick tonight

March 1, 2011

In April 2007 Joanna Ebenstein created a fascinating blog, Morbid Anatomy, where she has since been "surveying the interstices of art and medicine, death and culture." Medical museum and collections, like the Dittrick, provide much of the content for Morbid Anatomy. But Ebenstein has cast her net still further, exploring arcane museums and curious collections across Europe and the UK.



I've known Joanna for some time now (seen here in Paris in 2009) and followed Morbid Anatomy with constant interest and fascination. Join us tonight for her presentation at 6:00PM, in the Powell Room of the Allen Medical Library, followed by a reception at 7:00PM in the Dittrick Museum.

Jim Edmonson

Guest blogging on Biomedicine on display

Autoanalyzer, by Leonard T. Skeggs, c.1960. From Dittrick collection.

As a longtime follower of Thomas Söderqvist’s blog, Biomedicine on Display, I have learned more there about contemporary medicine than from any other source I consult. Thomas has been in a privileged circumstance, having spent several years, along with his team of postdocs, documenting biomedical innovations, 1955-2005. Along the way he has relayed the joys and thrills, as well as trial and tribulations of collecting modern “stuff” for the Medical Museion in Copehagen.

I commented on Thomas’ blog often enough to start a friendly correspondence, offering input from an American perspective -- specifically, musings on what drives our approach to health care and medical technology. The result: he officially invited me to be a guest blogger on contemporary medicine. My first posting reflects upon consumer driven demand for expensive medical technology, as reported in a recent NYT piece on robotic surgery by Gina Kolata. Check it out, but more important, pay a regular visit to Biomedicine on Display.

Jim Edmonson

A curator’s Paris journal : Musée des moulages - II

Musée des moulages de l'hôpital Saint-Louis 1 avenue Claude-Vellefaux 75475 Paris

As mentioned in my previous post on the Musée des moulages, there is ample interest in moulages in museum collections, as demonstrated by the proliferation of scholarly works, exhibitions, conferences, and web postings. But I don't think that I gave much serious thought to just how these things were created and what issues that process raised. That changed when I read a recent article by Mary Hunter, "'Effroyable réalisme': Wax, Femininity, and Realist Fantsies," that appeared in RACAR-Canadian Art Review in 2008 (Vol. 33, Nos. 1-2: 43-58).

Edouard Dantan, Une Moulage sur Nature. 1887. Gotebords Konstmuseum, Sweden.

Professor Hunter explored the moulages at the hôpital Saint-Louis, and particularly the physicians who commissioned them and the artists (mouleurs) that crafted the moulages. Many of the moulages depicted syphilis and gonorrhea, and therefore involved taking casts directly from afflicted male and female genitalia. Got my attention now. Hunter writes, “…casting was an invasive and uncomfortable process as it demanded that wet plaster be applied to open sores, rash-covered skin, and the body’s most sensitive openings. The exhaustive touching of bodes is particularly evident in Péan’s collection of moulages of diseased genitalia.” She raises many issues barely hinted at in the presentation at the hôpital Saint-Louis, particularly the relationship between doctors and female patients, including prostitutes. I commend Hunter’s fascinating and enlightening article whole-heartedly; you’ll never look at moulages in the same light again.

For those who can’t visit the hôpital Saint-Louis, there’s hope. The Musée des moulages website provides online access to a portion of the collection. The site hosts a database of digital images of 998 moulages out of a total of 2500. They include moulages of venereal diseases, like the secondary syphilis seen here. To search the moulages, select "recherche avancée" (advanced search) and then "Moulages Hôpital St Louis" in the "Collection" dialog box.

Additionally, there are at least two online inventories of moulages in the works. As noted in Morbid Anatomy last December, at the Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum, Thomas Schnalke and colleagues have started the Archiv für medizinische Wachsbilder (Moulagen) [Archive of medical waxes (moulages)] and offer a version in English. In Brussels, Chloe Pirson of the Musée de Médecine (Université libre de Bruxelles - Belgique), has created Le Centre International de Recherche sur les Modèles Anatomiques (CIRMA). Neither site is fully operational but we’ll revisit them from time to time to monitor their progress.

In my next, and concluding, post on the Musée des moulages de l'hôpital Saint-Louis, I'll turn to the use of photography to depict dermatological afflictions. Therein lies an intriguing connection between Cleveland and Paris, and between the collections of the Dittrick and the Musée des moulages...

Jim Edmonson

A curator's Paris journal : Librairie Alain Brieux

International networking with medical museums has been important to the Dittrick since Howard Dittrick first visited Henry Wellcome’s curator, C. J. S. Thompson, in London in 1928. I’ve been active in the European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences (EAMHMS) since 1984, and that’s been a key venue for learning what’s happening in our field. I now serve on the Association’s governing council and that took me to Paris last fall. I set aside time to seek out some museums of medicine and science that I hadn’t yet seen. I thought I’d offer a series of postings on these off-the-beaten-track places, which you won’t find in Fodor’s, Frommer’s, or Rick Steves’ Europe through the back door. So here goes…

Librairie Alain Brieux 48, rue Jacob - 75006 Paris

Any visit to Paris today by collectors or curators would be incomplete without a visit to the Librairie Alain Brieux, the premier rare book shop that features medical antiques as well. Located in Saint Germain-des-Prés, just a stone’s throw from the Sorbonne’s medical school, Brieux’s shop resembles a museum with its collection on sale. While there Dara Asken Teste showed us a c.1750 anatomical atlas featuring color plates by Gautier d’Agoty (price only $85,000).


Not too long ago, the Dittrick bought from Alain Brieux a 1902 lithograph of a striking dissection scene, Une Fin À l’École Pratique [An End At the Practical School] by Camille Félix Bellanger (1853-1923). I first saw this work in the Brieux window after hours on a Saturday night, and it really surprised me. I thought that I had just about seen most images depicting dissection over the years, but Bellanger’s work was totally unknown and fresh. A phone call once back in the States secured this beautiful lithograph for the Dittrick, happily. Read more about it in the Spring 2008 Newsletter of the Cleveland Medical Library Association.

Tout à l'heure

Jim Edmonson