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Interested in being a part of the Morbid Anatomy Museum ? If not, why not consider becoming a volunteer docent?  Although this is an unpaid position, being a museum docent is an excellent addition to your resume, and the museum is happy to provide references for regular docents. Shifts run from 11:45-6:00 all days except Tuesdays, and there is no minimum requirement.  Volunteer docents also receive special perks: Free admission to museum exclusive opening parties  An atmospheric, quiet place to work with free wifi and unlimited access to the Morbid Anatomy Library collection of books and artifacts One free event (under $10) for each shift worked $20 off book purchases in the gift store for every five shifts you work, per exhibition Preview of upcoming exhibitions for docent training Docent party for each exhibit in which you volunteer three or more times If you are interested in becoming a docent or finding out more, please e-mail our new docent coordinator at c ris...

Greetings! This is a letter from Joanna Ebenstein, co-founder and creative director of the Morbid Anatomy Museum. Some of you might recall a book I authored a few years ago with Dr Pat Morris called Walter Potter's Curious World of Taxidermy . While working the book, I was lucky enough to see and photograph many of famous tableaux of eccentric Victorian taxidermist Walter Potter, which had been divided at auction about 10 years ago before. One of his most iconic pieces, The Kittens' Wedding (see above) has entered our community of collectors. Its new owner, Mrs. Sabrina N. Hansen, has very generously agreed to allow us to exhibit it, so long as we can pay for safe and professional transportation and insurance. We have just launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds to do so, on which more here . We have made available lots of perks, including custom limited-edition Potter photos and postcards of photos from my own collection; tickets to the exhibit and opening party;...

Do any Morbid Anatomy readers happen to know the new whereabouts of this most wonderful piece of late 19th century taxidermy, Walter Potter's Kittens’ Tea and Croquet Party? Any leads suggested; Please send to joanna [at] morbidanatomymuseum [dot] org!

Next Thursday, July 7th, we hope you'll join us for a night of extraterrestrial pulp with author and journalist Mark Jacobson as he welcomes world's greatest collector of flying saucer memorabilia Jack Womack . Womack's collection stretches back to the original 1947 sighting by Kenneth Arnold and continues through the paperback heyday of the 1950's and 60's. Kept on file at Georgetown University, it has been compiled into the forthcoming book Flying Saucers Are Real! featuring an introduction by Science Fiction immortal William Gibson. Following is a guest post by Jack Womack, which will provide a foretaste of the evening's festivities. The above images are also sourced from his collection. Hope to see you there! In the past seventy years we saw an enormous increase worldwide of the fear of government, the fear of science, and the fear of experts, for multiple reasons. As is now clear, one of the most effective means of initially spreading such paranoia worldw...

For a limited time: get a copy of the new Morbid Anatomy book The Anatomical Venus --described by The Telegraph as "wonderful and epically illustrated; by Publisher's Weekly as "The Strangest Book of 2016... seductive and confounding" and by The Huffington Post as "enchanting and repulsive"--signed by the author, creative director and Museum co-founder Joanna Ebenstein . This special, signed edition will also include a signed, limited edition photo of the ecstatic wax reliquary effigy of Saint Vittoria in Rome , inset with real human teeth and housing her finger bones.  Find out more--and order a copy of your own!-- here . US Orders Only!

We are beyond delighted to announce a new class on art and symbolism class taught by Rebecca Purcell (artist and co-creator of the iconic ABC Home) in tandem with our friends at ARAS Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism at the C.G. Jung Center of New York . Entitled World Making Through Personal Symbols , the class will take place over four nights (June 20-23, from 7 pm to 9 pm) and admission is $75 including materials. Tickets can be found here . In this class, students will explore the history of symbols from several perspectives, learn to utilize the power of symbols in their life and work, and leave class with a finished object, a talisman like these:     To create their work, students will draw on the vast resources of  ARAS Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS) at the C.G. Jung Center of New York , a pictorial and written archive of mythological, ritualistic, and symbolic images from all over the world and from all epochs of human history. Und...

Lancelot, in metal armor, fights two copper knights, at an enchanted castle, in the 13th century prose romance Lancelot of the Lake. (Image: Lancelot do lac, France, ca. 1470. Paris, BnF, MS. Fr. 112.) Next Thursday, June 16th, we are deeply excited to be hosting Elly Truitt of Bryn Mawr for an illustrated lecture to celebrate the release of her book Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art . (Tickets here) . As she explains: Centuries before Asimovs Three Laws of Robotics, before Fritz Lang's Metropolis or Çapeks Rossum's Universal Robots, before Vaucanson's digesting duck, people imagined, designed, built, and pondered the possibilities and pitfalls of creating artificial people, animals, and other natural objects. Medieval robots are the hidden past of our robotic present, and they were ubiquitous in medieval culture. They appear throughout the Middle Ages and were used to embody complex ideas about the natural world and the heavens, including belief in de...