the odd collection @theoddcollection - Tumblr Blog

Fischfamilie from Daniel and Geo Fuchs’ series of photographs “Conserving”

#conservation #wetspecimen #specimen #preserved specimen #preservation #curiosities

theoddcollection

Body scan of 250 pound woman and 120 pound woman.

#medical #medicalcuriosities #anatomy #bodyscan #doctorsstuff

theoddcollection

Bone cancer on human skull. This gives me shivers.

#medical #medicalcuriosities #medicaloddities #oddities #curiosities #anatomy

theoddcollection

Carl Tanzler and Elena Hoyos.

Carl was a radiologist who met Elena in 1930 before she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He became infatuated with the pretty young Cuban and attempted to cure her. Alas, she died a year later in 1931. Proving that love has no bounds, Carl stole her corpse two years after Elenas death, carting it through the cemetery after dark on a toy wagon, and transporting it to his home.

He attached the corpse’s bones together with wire and coat hangers, and fitted the face with glass eyes. As the skin of the corpse decomposed, Tanzler replaced it with silk cloth soaked in wax. As the hair fell out of the decomposing scalp, Tanzler fashioned a wig from Hoyos’s hair that had been collected by her mother and given to Tanzler not long after her burial in 1931. Tanzler filled the corpse’s abdominal and chest cavity with rags to keep the original form, dressed Hoyos’s remains in stockings, jewelry, and gloves, and kept the body in his bed. Tanzler also used copious amounts of perfume, disinfectants, and preserving agents, to mask the odor and forestall the effects of the corpse’s decomposition.

He kept the corpse in his bed for 7 years before his secret has been discovered.

Separated from his obsession, Tanzler used a death mask to create a life-sized effigy of Hoyos, and lived with it until his death on July 3, 1952.

Source: Wikipedia

theoddcollection

bringing back this oldie because i just saw about it on tv and got chilllls

#creepy #CarlTanzler #elenahoyos #preservation

In the backroom.

Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Rouen, Backroom, Rouen, France von Morbid Anatomy posted on Flickr: Photo © Joanna Ebenstein, from The Secret Museum Exhibition, Observatory, 2010. Image may not be reproduced in printed form without express written permission. 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.

The Sisterhood of the skulls.

Excerpt from Morbid Anatomys blogspot (link below) on The Fontanelle, The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead.

“In this vast underground ossuary you will find, among the usual piles of bones, tiny stuctures--some with text engraved, others draped in rosaries and embellished with prayer cards--enshrining chosen skeletal bits. To the uninitiated, their meanings are unclear.One invaluable source in trying to decipher the meaning here was the work of author/scholar/photographer Paul Koudounaris of Empire of Death fame; he explains the cult thusly in his Fortean Times article "Sisterhood of the Skulls" (excerpted below; click here to read article in its entirety):

“...One of [Naples'] greatest enigmas was a strange cult, composed almost exclusively of elderly women who communed with the dead, lavishing their attention on, and even making offerings to, human skulls. The cult was centred on a cemetery known as the Fontanelle... A curious cult dedicated to the remains began to evolve around the site, especially after 1872. In that year, Father Gaetano Barbati had large deposits of bones exhumed, and the skulls were cleaned and placed on racks or in troughs, where they took on the role of devotional items for this death-obsessed group. There was no formal organisation to this cult, but it rapidly grew popular with older women, especially widows or those with little or no family. They claimed to receive messages from the deceased in their dreams, and would then “adopt” whichever skull they believed had belonged to the spirit that had contacted them, becoming in effect a kind of caretaker of not just the remains but also the soul of the dead person. They would clean and care for their skulls, even constructing engraved marble shrines for them. These boxes might enclose a single skull, or multiples if the same person adopted more than one. “ ”

Read the whole thing here: bit.ly/WAJDsO

fontanelle007.jpg von Morbid Anatomy Über Flickr: Cimitero delle Fontanelle and "The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead" or "The Neapolitan Skull Cult" of Naples, Italy;

#skull #naples #religion #ritual #Cimitero delle Fontanelle The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead The Neapolitan Skull Cult morbid anatomy #cult #sisterhood #occult #oddities #skullandbones

fontanelle019.jpg von Morbid Anatomy via Flickr: Cimitero delle Fontanelle and "The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead" or "The Neapolitan Skull Cult" of Naples, Italy; Full story on Morbid Anatomy here: bit.ly/WAJDsO

#skull #naples #religion #ritual #Cimitero delle Fontanelle The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead The Neapolitan Skull Cult morbid anatomy #bones #skeleton

fontanelle020.jpg von Morbid Anatomy posted on Flickr: Cimitero delle Fontanelle and "The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead" or "The Neapolitan Skull Cult" of Naples, Italy; Full story on Morbid Anatomy here: bit.ly/WAJDsO

#skull #naples #religion #ritual #Cimitero delle Fontanelle The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead The Neapolitan Skull Cult morbid anatomy #bones #skeleton

IMG_7394.jpg von Morbid Anatomy posted on Flickr: Museo di Anatomia Patologica dell'Universitá degli Studi di Firenze; Full story on Morbid Anatomy here: bit.ly/WH5Cyh

#anatomy #medical #medical anomaly #medicaloddities #preservation #specimen #wetspecimen

All packed up.

PittRivers20.jpg by Morbid Anatomy

#pitt rivers #museum #oxford #offbeat #quirky #oddities #preservation

The Morbid Anatomy Library in Brooklyn, New York by Morbid Anatomy (posted on Flickr)

#oddities #curiosities #morbidanatomy #museum #medical

From the South America Collection by Morbid Anatomy (posted on Flickr)

#books #antique #antiques #booklover #library

Carnivora Display, UCL, Grant Museum of Zoology/Matt Clayton

#preservation #specimen

sixpenceee

ahaze

viα sixpenceee: Bejeweling Skeleton The ultimate treatment for human remains is bejeweling the entire skeleton. This was popular during the 17th and 18th centuries in parts of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and remains of people thought to be holy would be treated in this way. This particular skeleton, in Waldsassen, Germany, was discovered in the Roman catacombs and believed to be that of a martyr — he was sent to Germany, covered in jewels, and set into an altar to inspire faith. (Source)

#oddities #history