Stiffs, Skulls & Skeletons

This intriguing and comprehensive exploration of the skeleton and the dead body includes over 400 rare photographs. Stanley B Burns, MD, has studied, collected and written on medical photography for over four decades focusing on unexplored areas. His books have placed him in the forefront of medical photographic history scholarship. This work reveals the nineteenth-century fascination with the dead body and body parts.

The classic visual iconography of post-mortem, dissection, and bone photography is presented and expanded to include early autopsy images and X-ray studies. No prior visual work has presented the once very popular hobby of collecting skulls and also shown their use in racial and psychological profiling research. This sumptuously illustrated book with previously unpublished photographs is an extraordinary work of medical, historical and cultural research. It is a timeless visual essay that will surely become a standard resource for collectors, curators, artists, and scholars.

About the Author

Stanley B. Burns, MD, a New York City ophthalmologist and clinical professor of medicine and psychiatry, NYU, is an internationally distinguished author, curator, historian, collector, and archivist. In 1977, he founded The Burns Archive with his collection of over 1 million vintage photographs. Elizabeth A. Burns is the creative and operations director of The Burns Archive and Press. She has curated numerous exhibitions and created several books, including Sleeping Beauty II and The Burns Archive Medical Specialty Series.