Title: The afterlives of specimens
Description: "The Afterlives of Specimens explores the space between science and sentiment, the historical moment when the human cadaver became both lost love object and subject of anatomical violence. Walt Whitman witnessed rapid changes in relations between the living and the dead. In the space of a few decades, dissection evolved from a posthumous punishment inflicted on criminals to an element of preservationist technology worthy of the presidential corpse of Abraham Lincoln. Whitman transitioned from a fervent opponent of medical bodysnatching to a literary celebrity who left behind instructions for his own autopsy, including the removal of his brain for scientific study. Grounded in archival discoveries, Afterlives traces the origins of nineteenth-century America's preservation compulsion, illuminating the influences of botanical, medical, spiritualist, and sentimental discourses on Whitman's work. Tuggle unveils previously unrecognized connections between Whitman and the leading "medical men" of his era, such as the surgeon John H. Brinton, founding curator of the Army Medical Museum, and Silas Weir Mitchell, the neurologist who discovered phantom limb syndrome. Remains from several amputee soldiers whom Whitman nursed in the Washington hospitals became specimens in the Army Medical Museum. Tuggle is the first scholar to analyze Whitman's role in medically memorializing the human cadaver and its abandoned parts."--
Subjects: Knowledge, Dead in literature, Anatomy, Dead, Death in literature, Literature and medicine, Medicine, Human body in literature, Literature and science, Human anatomy, History, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877), Social aspects, Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892 -- Knowledge -- Anatomy, Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892 -- Knowledge -- Medicine, Dead -- Social aspects -- United States -- History -- 19th century, Human anatomy -- United States -- History -- 19th century, Literature and medicine -- United States -- History -- 19th century, Literature and science -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Places: United States
People: Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Time periods: 19th century