Death Mask of William Burke
Dublin Core
Title
Death Mask of William Burke
Subject
anatomy, crime, nineteenth century, romanticism, murder, head, medicine, anatomy
Description
A plaster mold of the head of William Burke after his public execution in 1829 for the "anatomy murders." Burke was named by his accomplices as the head of the body-snatching, black-market trade that supplied the Edinburgh's medical school with corpses dug up from graves or freshly murdered for the occasion. Burke was hanged and publicly dissected. This death mask was in the collection of Dr. Robert Knox—the surgeon who benefitted the most from Burke's dark trade. While speculation remains regarding the extent of Knox's complicity, he still managed to continue in his career and had several of Burke's postmortem specimens.
Creator
Unknown; Burke was dissected by Dr. Alexander Monro
Source
Original- Private Collection of Dr. Robert Knox; Current - Surgeons' Hall Museum, Edinburgh
Date
circa 1829
Contributor
Rachel Seiler Smith
Rights
Surgeons' Hall Museum, Edinburgh
Relation
"Cranial Nerves," Charle Bell
Format
Plaster; Still Image
Language
English; N/A
Type
Plaster Mold
Identifier
Coverage
nineteenth century criminal anatomy
Files
Citation
Unknown; Burke was dissected by Dr. Alexander Monro, “Death Mask of William Burke,” Enlightenmens, accessed February 7, 2023, http://enlightenmens.lmc.gatech.edu/items/show/4.