Many moons ago (in 2016) I filmed an autopsy for a TV show called Obesity: The Post Mortem. The idea was to also make other episodes like Alcohol: The Post Mortem and smoking etc but unfortunately it never happened. It was a very interesting and insightful programme, but also very divisive. You can still see it in BBC iPlayer in the UK, it was on Netflix Canada and US at one point, and I’m sure it’s even on YouTube. I’ll put the link in my Linktree, above, and you can let me know your thoughts (Cadaver was donated for the purpose etc, of course) #autopsy #autopsytechnician #pathology #obesitythepostmortem
Many moons ago (in 2016) I filmed an autopsy for a TV show called Obesity: The Post Mortem. The idea was to also make other episodes like Alcohol: The Post Mortem and smoking etc but unfortunately it never happened. It was a very interesting and insightful programme, but also very divisive. You can still see it in BBC iPlayer in the UK, it was on Netflix Canada and US at one point, and I’m sure it’s even on YouTube. I’ll put the link in my Linktree, above, and you can let me know your thoughts (Cadaver was donated for the purpose etc, of course) #autopsy #autopsytechnician #pathology #obesitythepostmortem
Many moons ago (in 2016) I filmed an autopsy for a TV show called Obesity: The Post Mortem. The idea was to also make other episodes like Alcohol: The Post Mortem and smoking etc but unfortunately it never happened. It was a very interesting and insightful programme, but also very divisive. You can still see it in BBC iPlayer in the UK, it was on Netflix Canada and US at one point, and I’m sure it’s even on YouTube. I’ll put the link in my Linktree, above, and you can let me know your thoughts (Cadaver was donated for the purpose etc, of course) #autopsy #autopsytechnician #pathology #obesitythepostmortem
Many moons ago (in 2016) I filmed an autopsy for a TV show called Obesity: The Post Mortem. The idea was to also make other episodes like Alcohol: The Post Mortem and smoking etc but unfortunately it never happened. It was a very interesting and insightful programme, but also very divisive. You can still see it in BBC iPlayer in the UK, it was on Netflix Canada and US at one point, and I’m sure it’s even on YouTube. I’ll put the link in my Linktree, above, and you can let me know your thoughts (Cadaver was donated for the purpose etc, of course) #autopsy #autopsytechnician #pathology #obesitythepostmortem
Many moons ago (in 2016) I filmed an autopsy for a TV show called Obesity: The Post Mortem. The idea was to also make other episodes like Alcohol: The Post Mortem and smoking etc but unfortunately it never happened. It was a very interesting and insightful programme, but also very divisive. You can still see it in BBC iPlayer in the UK, it was on Netflix Canada and US at one point, and I’m sure it’s even on YouTube. I’ll put the link in my Linktree, above, and you can let me know your thoughts (Cadaver was donated for the purpose etc, of course) #autopsy #autopsytechnician #pathology #obesitythepostmortem
Many moons ago (in 2016) I filmed an autopsy for a TV show called Obesity: The Post Mortem. The idea was to also make other episodes like Alcohol: The Post Mortem and smoking etc but unfortunately it never happened. It was a very interesting and insightful programme, but also very divisive. You can still see it in BBC iPlayer in the UK, it was on Netflix Canada and US at one point, and I’m sure it’s even on YouTube. I’ll put the link in my Linktree, above, and you can let me know your thoughts (Cadaver was donated for the purpose etc, of course) #autopsy #autopsytechnician #pathology #obesitythepostmortem
Many moons ago (in 2016) I filmed an autopsy for a TV show called Obesity: The Post Mortem. The idea was to also make other episodes like Alcohol: The Post Mortem and smoking etc but unfortunately it never happened. It was a very interesting and insightful programme, but also very divisive. You can still see it in BBC iPlayer in the UK, it was on Netflix Canada and US at one point, and I’m sure it’s even on YouTube. I’ll put the link in my Linktree, above, and you can let me know your thoughts (Cadaver was donated for the purpose etc, of course) #autopsy #autopsytechnician #pathology #obesitythepostmortem
Many moons ago (in 2016) I filmed an autopsy for a TV show called Obesity: The Post Mortem. The idea was to also make other episodes like Alcohol: The Post Mortem and smoking etc but unfortunately it never happened. It was a very interesting and insightful programme, but also very divisive. You can still see it in BBC iPlayer in the UK, it was on Netflix Canada and US at one point, and I’m sure it’s even on YouTube. I’ll put the link in my Linktree, above, and you can let me know your thoughts (Cadaver was donated for the purpose etc, of course) #autopsy #autopsytechnician #pathology #obesitythepostmortem
Many moons ago (in 2016) I filmed an autopsy for a TV show called Obesity: The Post Mortem. The idea was to also make other episodes like Alcohol: The Post Mortem and smoking etc but unfortunately it never happened. It was a very interesting and insightful programme, but also very divisive. You can still see it in BBC iPlayer in the UK, it was on Netflix Canada and US at one point, and I’m sure it’s even on YouTube. I’ll put the link in my Linktree, above, and you can let me know your thoughts (Cadaver was donated for the purpose etc, of course) #autopsy #autopsytechnician #pathology #obesitythepostmortem
🎉 Cause for CELEBRATION! 🎉 To say the last 2 years have been a nightmare in many ways is an understatement. Following COVID I was made redundant, survived an overdose, managed to claw back my job with a grant, then experienced the death of my only sibling (my little brother, in his 30s) to Ewing’s Sarcoma, then faced redundancy AGAIN once the grant ran out. I’ve finally been told I’m no longer redundant and in fact the job I have at the pathology museum – a job I’ve had for 10 years exactly this October 31st – is safe! And it’s not only safe for a year, but at least 3 YEARS!! I’m over the moon, and that’s definitely an understatement 🎉 Those who know me know I took the place from absolutely nothing to what became a thriving location for filming, talks, taxidermy classes, heart preservation workshops, podcasts and more… before COVID hit. I’m thrilled to be able to stay for a while to get the museum back to what it was before my year of maternity leave (which began the museum’s re-decline) and the pandemic, which was nearly the nail in its coffin. I’m celebrating with this pic of my day showing Henry Rollins around, which is my favourite of all the days I’ve had in the last decade at Bart’s Pathology Museum, not only because it was a dream come true at the time, but because Henry still stays in contact and even gets in touch to offer me free seats for his London shows. It makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world and I’m so grateful that my teenage dreams all came true at this museum, my 2nd home. I hope to see as many of you as possible there now that I’m staying and capacity limitations have been lifted, and really trying to organise one workshop before Christmas. Watch this space!!! (Enquire at [email protected]) #bartspathologymuseum #london #pathologymuseum #medicalmuseum #henryrollins
❤️ Jeepers Creepers, where’d you get those peepers? From the Netherlands at a cost of about $3000, that’s where…👀 This is an image of an extraocular implant; a very apt little heart! Willing participant for this *then* experimental process, Deborah Boer, had a platinum heart inserted within the superficial inerpalpebral conjunctiva of the eye. The procedure was first carried out, on 6 people in total, at Netherland’s Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery (NIOS) in 2002 as a new form of body modification. The process is now trademark (™️) as “Jewel Eye” and includes many shapes as well as hearts, such as stars, four-leaf clovers and more! I have to say, it’s not for me, although I think I’d choose this over having my sclera injected with ink, a la the lovely @graceneautral 🤦♀️ But it’s heart shaped and it involves anatomy so it makes my Valentine theme ❤️ #remains2beseen #anatomy #valentinesday #bloodyvalentine #heart #valentine #eyepiercing #eyejewelry #eyejewellery #valentinecountdown
💀🫀 Happy Valentine’s Day! For the special day, here is the skull of St Valentine. The day we all know and ‘love’ as a day for romantic celebration is called St Valentine’s Day yet there may have been more than one version of Valentine or Valentinus. However the two main stories, concerning Valentine of Terni and Valentine of Rome, could also refer to the same person. Scholars are still undecided. What is known is that around AD 200 Valentine, Bishop of Terni, was imprisoned, tortured, beaten with clubs (aha! Not spades, diamonds or hearts…🥁 Sorry…) and beheaded in Rome for his Christianity by the Emperor Claudius. His skull, pictured, is in the Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin, Rome, and is a rather more gruesome reminder of the martyred Saint than a fluffy teddy bear holding a heart. Further relics include “a vessel tinged with his blood” at Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin; parts housed at The Birmingham Oratory and his forearm in Blessed John Duns Scotus’ Church, Glasgow, in a wooden chest inscribed “Corpus Valentini Martyris.” It wasn’t until circa AD 500 that Pope Gelasius declared 14th February St Valentine’s Day, a Christian feast day. It’s been theorised that the date wasn’t arbitrary: it was placed during the already established Roman/Pagan Feast of Lupercalia, a fertility festival held over 13th to 15th Feb, during which men violently thrashed naked women with goat-skin whips to “improve fertility” which is pretty much a typical Valentine’s Day for me 😉💀🫀 #humanremains #stvalentine #relic #holyrelic #skull #valentine #valentinus #bloodyvalentine #valentinecountdown #valentinesday #skull #mybloodyvalentine #anatomicalheart
💀🫀 Happy Valentine’s Day! For the special day, here is the skull of St Valentine. The day we all know and ‘love’ as a day for romantic celebration is called St Valentine’s Day yet there may have been more than one version of Valentine or Valentinus. However the two main stories, concerning Valentine of Terni and Valentine of Rome, could also refer to the same person. Scholars are still undecided. What is known is that around AD 200 Valentine, Bishop of Terni, was imprisoned, tortured, beaten with clubs (aha! Not spades, diamonds or hearts…🥁 Sorry…) and beheaded in Rome for his Christianity by the Emperor Claudius. His skull, pictured, is in the Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin, Rome, and is a rather more gruesome reminder of the martyred Saint than a fluffy teddy bear holding a heart. Further relics include “a vessel tinged with his blood” at Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin; parts housed at The Birmingham Oratory and his forearm in Blessed John Duns Scotus’ Church, Glasgow, in a wooden chest inscribed “Corpus Valentini Martyris.” It wasn’t until circa AD 500 that Pope Gelasius declared 14th February St Valentine’s Day, a Christian feast day. It’s been theorised that the date wasn’t arbitrary: it was placed during the already established Roman/Pagan Feast of Lupercalia, a fertility festival held over 13th to 15th Feb, during which men violently thrashed naked women with goat-skin whips to “improve fertility” which is pretty much a typical Valentine’s Day for me 😉💀🫀 #humanremains #stvalentine #relic #holyrelic #skull #valentine #valentinus #bloodyvalentine #valentinecountdown #valentinesday #skull #mybloodyvalentine #anatomicalheart
💀🫀 Happy Valentine’s Day! For the special day, here is the skull of St Valentine. The day we all know and ‘love’ as a day for romantic celebration is called St Valentine’s Day yet there may have been more than one version of Valentine or Valentinus. However the two main stories, concerning Valentine of Terni and Valentine of Rome, could also refer to the same person. Scholars are still undecided. What is known is that around AD 200 Valentine, Bishop of Terni, was imprisoned, tortured, beaten with clubs (aha! Not spades, diamonds or hearts…🥁 Sorry…) and beheaded in Rome for his Christianity by the Emperor Claudius. His skull, pictured, is in the Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin, Rome, and is a rather more gruesome reminder of the martyred Saint than a fluffy teddy bear holding a heart. Further relics include “a vessel tinged with his blood” at Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin; parts housed at The Birmingham Oratory and his forearm in Blessed John Duns Scotus’ Church, Glasgow, in a wooden chest inscribed “Corpus Valentini Martyris.” It wasn’t until circa AD 500 that Pope Gelasius declared 14th February St Valentine’s Day, a Christian feast day. It’s been theorised that the date wasn’t arbitrary: it was placed during the already established Roman/Pagan Feast of Lupercalia, a fertility festival held over 13th to 15th Feb, during which men violently thrashed naked women with goat-skin whips to “improve fertility” which is pretty much a typical Valentine’s Day for me 😉💀🫀 #humanremains #stvalentine #relic #holyrelic #skull #valentine #valentinus #bloodyvalentine #valentinecountdown #valentinesday #skull #mybloodyvalentine #anatomicalheart
💀🫀 Happy Valentine’s Day! For the special day, here is the skull of St Valentine. The day we all know and ‘love’ as a day for romantic celebration is called St Valentine’s Day yet there may have been more than one version of Valentine or Valentinus. However the two main stories, concerning Valentine of Terni and Valentine of Rome, could also refer to the same person. Scholars are still undecided. What is known is that around AD 200 Valentine, Bishop of Terni, was imprisoned, tortured, beaten with clubs (aha! Not spades, diamonds or hearts…🥁 Sorry…) and beheaded in Rome for his Christianity by the Emperor Claudius. His skull, pictured, is in the Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin, Rome, and is a rather more gruesome reminder of the martyred Saint than a fluffy teddy bear holding a heart. Further relics include “a vessel tinged with his blood” at Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin; parts housed at The Birmingham Oratory and his forearm in Blessed John Duns Scotus’ Church, Glasgow, in a wooden chest inscribed “Corpus Valentini Martyris.” It wasn’t until circa AD 500 that Pope Gelasius declared 14th February St Valentine’s Day, a Christian feast day. It’s been theorised that the date wasn’t arbitrary: it was placed during the already established Roman/Pagan Feast of Lupercalia, a fertility festival held over 13th to 15th Feb, during which men violently thrashed naked women with goat-skin whips to “improve fertility” which is pretty much a typical Valentine’s Day for me 😉💀🫀 #humanremains #stvalentine #relic #holyrelic #skull #valentine #valentinus #bloodyvalentine #valentinecountdown #valentinesday #skull #mybloodyvalentine #anatomicalheart
💀🫀 Happy Valentine’s Day! For the special day, here is the skull of St Valentine. The day we all know and ‘love’ as a day for romantic celebration is called St Valentine’s Day yet there may have been more than one version of Valentine or Valentinus. However the two main stories, concerning Valentine of Terni and Valentine of Rome, could also refer to the same person. Scholars are still undecided. What is known is that around AD 200 Valentine, Bishop of Terni, was imprisoned, tortured, beaten with clubs (aha! Not spades, diamonds or hearts…🥁 Sorry…) and beheaded in Rome for his Christianity by the Emperor Claudius. His skull, pictured, is in the Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin, Rome, and is a rather more gruesome reminder of the martyred Saint than a fluffy teddy bear holding a heart. Further relics include “a vessel tinged with his blood” at Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin; parts housed at The Birmingham Oratory and his forearm in Blessed John Duns Scotus’ Church, Glasgow, in a wooden chest inscribed “Corpus Valentini Martyris.” It wasn’t until circa AD 500 that Pope Gelasius declared 14th February St Valentine’s Day, a Christian feast day. It’s been theorised that the date wasn’t arbitrary: it was placed during the already established Roman/Pagan Feast of Lupercalia, a fertility festival held over 13th to 15th Feb, during which men violently thrashed naked women with goat-skin whips to “improve fertility” which is pretty much a typical Valentine’s Day for me 😉💀🫀 #humanremains #stvalentine #relic #holyrelic #skull #valentine #valentinus #bloodyvalentine #valentinecountdown #valentinesday #skull #mybloodyvalentine #anatomicalheart
♀️ For International Women’s Day, Frances Glessner Lee, someone I jokingly describe as the ‘Real Life Miss Marple’ but who’s frequently called ‘The Mother of Forensic Science’. Born in 1878 to a wealthy industrialist she was home schooled, and whereas her brother was allowed to go on to study medicine at Harvard, she was not. It therefore wasn’t until her father died and she came into her inheritance at age 52 that she followed her forensic science dreams. She financed and created 20 incredible, tiny dollhouse crime scenes called The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death c.1940s, 18 of which are still in use as a teaching tool by the police department in Baltimore. (They were the inspiration for miniature crime scenes on TV shows such as CSI and Father Brown). In 1931, Glessner Lee endowed the Harvard Department of Legal Medicine—the first such department in the country—and her gifts would later establish the George Burgess Magrath Library, a chair in legal medicine, and the Harvard Seminars in Homicide Investigation. She also endowed the Harvard Associates in Police Science, a national organization for the furtherance of forensic science; it has a division dedicated to her, called the Frances Glessner Lee Homicide School. See www.deathindiorama.com for more, or read the book “18 Tiny Deaths’ by Bruce Goldfarb. #missmarple #fatherbrown #csi #forensics #forensicscience #crimescene #crimescenes #thenutshellstudies #brucegoldfarb #18tinydeaths #internationalwomensday
♀️ For International Women’s Day, Frances Glessner Lee, someone I jokingly describe as the ‘Real Life Miss Marple’ but who’s frequently called ‘The Mother of Forensic Science’. Born in 1878 to a wealthy industrialist she was home schooled, and whereas her brother was allowed to go on to study medicine at Harvard, she was not. It therefore wasn’t until her father died and she came into her inheritance at age 52 that she followed her forensic science dreams. She financed and created 20 incredible, tiny dollhouse crime scenes called The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death c.1940s, 18 of which are still in use as a teaching tool by the police department in Baltimore. (They were the inspiration for miniature crime scenes on TV shows such as CSI and Father Brown). In 1931, Glessner Lee endowed the Harvard Department of Legal Medicine—the first such department in the country—and her gifts would later establish the George Burgess Magrath Library, a chair in legal medicine, and the Harvard Seminars in Homicide Investigation. She also endowed the Harvard Associates in Police Science, a national organization for the furtherance of forensic science; it has a division dedicated to her, called the Frances Glessner Lee Homicide School. See www.deathindiorama.com for more, or read the book “18 Tiny Deaths’ by Bruce Goldfarb. #missmarple #fatherbrown #csi #forensics #forensicscience #crimescene #crimescenes #thenutshellstudies #brucegoldfarb #18tinydeaths #internationalwomensday
♀️ For International Women’s Day, Frances Glessner Lee, someone I jokingly describe as the ‘Real Life Miss Marple’ but who’s frequently called ‘The Mother of Forensic Science’. Born in 1878 to a wealthy industrialist she was home schooled, and whereas her brother was allowed to go on to study medicine at Harvard, she was not. It therefore wasn’t until her father died and she came into her inheritance at age 52 that she followed her forensic science dreams. She financed and created 20 incredible, tiny dollhouse crime scenes called The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death c.1940s, 18 of which are still in use as a teaching tool by the police department in Baltimore. (They were the inspiration for miniature crime scenes on TV shows such as CSI and Father Brown). In 1931, Glessner Lee endowed the Harvard Department of Legal Medicine—the first such department in the country—and her gifts would later establish the George Burgess Magrath Library, a chair in legal medicine, and the Harvard Seminars in Homicide Investigation. She also endowed the Harvard Associates in Police Science, a national organization for the furtherance of forensic science; it has a division dedicated to her, called the Frances Glessner Lee Homicide School. See www.deathindiorama.com for more, or read the book “18 Tiny Deaths’ by Bruce Goldfarb. #missmarple #fatherbrown #csi #forensics #forensicscience #crimescene #crimescenes #thenutshellstudies #brucegoldfarb #18tinydeaths #internationalwomensday
My ‘Bloody Valentine’ countdown continues with this perfect artefact! 🫀 This is a dessicated (dried) human heart in a heart shaped lead case, called a ‘cist’, which was found in a wooden box in Christchurch, Cork, Ireland, in 1863. The person who found it was General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers of ‘Pitt Rivers Museum’ which is in Oxford in the UK, but it was originally sent to Bethan Green Museum in London as the centre-piece of their “Human Superstition” exhibition. (I’m not sure why it’s ok to remove a boxed artefact in the basement of Cork’s oldest Church, so some say “found” also means “stole” and I guess but that’s a debate for another time.) Heart burials were popular in Europe for a while because the heart was where the soul was believed to reside, so often if the body had to be disposed of the heart would be kept. Sometimes if lovers died apart their hearts were brought together and buried in the same place. Awwww, romantic 🫀⚰️🫀 #humanremains #remains2beseen #anatomy #valentinesday #heart #valentinescountdown #hearts #bloodyvalentine #humanheart #valentinesday2024 #valloween #mybloodyvalentine
It was so lovely to spend an afternoon with Alan Carr @chattyman recently, filming for a Channel 4 show (I believe it’s on TV in summer). Whenever I film these things it’s really interesting to see how much gets left in the final edit because with the specimens in the museum there’s definitely a tendency to…get distracted, let’s say. For example there’s a whole hour or so of myself and historian @d_a_n_jones discussing bubonic plague in a testicle that never made it into ‘London: 2000 Years of History’ a couple of years ago but is still somewhere in archives giving people a laugh! #agathachristiesforensics #agathachristie #vintage #museum #histmed #historyofcrime #forensichistory
It was so lovely to spend an afternoon with Alan Carr @chattyman recently, filming for a Channel 4 show (I believe it’s on TV in summer). Whenever I film these things it’s really interesting to see how much gets left in the final edit because with the specimens in the museum there’s definitely a tendency to…get distracted, let’s say. For example there’s a whole hour or so of myself and historian @d_a_n_jones discussing bubonic plague in a testicle that never made it into ‘London: 2000 Years of History’ a couple of years ago but is still somewhere in archives giving people a laugh! #agathachristiesforensics #agathachristie #vintage #museum #histmed #historyofcrime #forensichistory
Sound on 🎧: I’ve had a few days off from posting due to food poisoning (that’s what I get for bragging about all the oysters I’ve been eating!) but really want to continue with February’s ‘heart/love/sex’ theme. These gorgeous anatomical hearts are part of the ‘Palpitations’ series by my lovely friend @iluahauckdasilva. The hearts themselves are made of glass, and the plates are antiques dating from anywhere between 1890 and 1990. You can get more info from Ilua’s feed and website, and I really hope to be able to have them displayed in an exhibition at our pathology museum at some point. If you can’t wait that long, then head to @century_soho to see her solo show ‘Viscerae’ 🫀 #heartofglass #anatomicalheart #anatomy #hearts #bloodyvalentine #centurysoho
As well as being Valentine’s Day/Valloween tomorrow, Feb 14th, is also International Book Giving Day. Here’s the US version of my book on the forensics of Agatha Christie, which was published by @sourcebooks in America and amazingly became a Barnes & Noble monthly pick! If you’re in the UK and would like this US edition then I have several on my website. They come with a limited edition postcard and sticker, both designed and made by Sourcebooks. There’s an option to have the book signed and personalised to yourself or someone else. Link to my shop in bio or head to www.tinyurl.com/morticulture 🌹 #scienceofmurder #agathachristiesforensics #agathachristie #forensicscience #historyofforensics #histsci #whodunit #whodunnit