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On the corner that the Morbid Anatomy Museum now occupies, there was once a plaque marking the intersection as the "Burial place of ye 256 Maryland soldiers who fell in ye combat at ye Cortelyou House on ye 27th day of August 1776." If Wikipedia is to be believed, these soldiers were part of the Maryland Regiment, who were termed "immortals" due to their bravery, and nicknamed "The Dandy Fifth" because they came so fancily equipped. More on the regiment and the battle, also from Wikipedia : The Maryland Regiment had joined the Continental Army barely two weeks before the Battle of Long Island. Unlike most of Washington's Army, the Maryland contingent had been well drilled at home and were so well equipped – they even had bayonets, a rarity for the Army – that the Regiment was known at home as the Dandy Fifth, and to the rest of the Army as "macaronis", the then current word for dandies... The bravery of the Maryland Regiment earned them the ...

A few highlights from Christie's upcoming "Out of the Ordinary" curiosity auction; 10 September 2015 South Kensington, London. Thanks, Bart Grob , for bringing this to our attention! See all lots and find out more here . Images: An Italian Carved Marble 'Vanitas' Bust Of A Woman, Late 19th Century A South German Or Austrian Group Of Carved And Pierced Ivory And Bone Miniature Furniture A Life-Size Prototype Model Of A Gorilla, Dr. Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux, Circa 1863 A Welsh Taxidermy Specimen Of A Polycephalic Lamb (Ovis Aries); Early 20th Centur A Late Victorian Taxidermy Caiman (Caiman Crocodilius) Mounted As A Dumbwaiter; Late 19th Early 20th Century A Taxidermy Model Of An Australian Flying Fox Or Fruit Bat (Pteropus), Late 19th Century French School, 18th Century, Ménage A Trois Sir Joseph Noel Paton, R.S.A. (Dunfermline, Fife, 1821-1909 Edinburgh); The Commander-In-Chief Of British Forces In The Crimea, And Staff.

Following is a guest post by Peter M. Parrella (aka "Skeleton Pete" ) about  The Most Dangerous Game , a delightfully shocking pre-code tale of sex, violence and exoticism shot on the same sets--and starring much of the cast, including Fay Wray--as King Kong .  Movie Mike will be screening the film at The Morbid Anatomy Museum in real 16mm next Tuesday, September 1st; more and tickets can be found  here . Hope very much to see you there! The Most Dangerous Game Peter M. Parrella In November of 1932, RKO Pictures released The Most Dangerous Game (MDG) based on Richard Connell’s short story with its treacherous twist on hunter and quarry. On the surface the film appears to be a typical jungle-chase adventure of its time. In the early 1930s the “bring ‘em back alive” exploits of zoo animal collector Frank Buck spawned two bestselling books. At the same time the first of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan series (Tarzan, The Ape Man,) the tropical island love story Bird...

Following is book review of Alan Finn's Things Half in Shadow by Jennifer Berman, one of the contributors to our first exhibition, The Art of Mourning . The book was donated to the library by writer Todd Ritter . In his new novel, Things Half in Shadow , Alan Finn, showing a great command of history, has created a wonderful world full of interesting people living, dead and otherwise. He weaves a delightful yarn recreating post-Civil War Philadelphia in all its multi-layered, multi-tiered glory. A world filled with appealing characters and a ghost story/mystery that keeps twisting till the very end. The most appealing character among them is Edward Clark a young crime reporter and spiritualist scoffer, who reluctantly takes on an assignment to uncover phony spiritualists and unwittingly winds up involved in the mysterious murder of Philadelphia’s most famous medium. He sets out at once to clear his name and we follow right along with him. Anyone who enjoys ghosts, ghouls, shadowy so...