William Burke - Curious Edinburgh

William Burke death mask, National Portrait Gallery

Mar 242017

Library, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen St, Edinburgh EH2 1JD

The advocates of the ‘science’ of phrenology claimed that the brain was composed of a number of organs, including organs of ‘destructiveness’ or ‘benevolence’ and ‘hope’. They believed that the character of a person could be determined from the shape of their skull, which mirrored the development of these organs. They were therefore very interested in collecting casts of the heads of remarkable people, whether geniuses or criminals. This is just such as cast of the head of the notorious murderer, William Hare, taken after his execution in 1829.

Entry to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery is free.

L0022893 George Combe, names of phrenological organs, 1836 Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org Names of the phrenological organs Outlines of phrenology George A. Combe Published: 1836 Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The phrenological organs, from George Combe, Outlines of Phrenology (1836).

Portrait of William Burke by George Andrew Lutenor; a portrait painter who was also one of the jurors at William Hare’s trial, 1829.

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Robert Knox’s anatomy school

History of Medicine, History of Science No Responses »

Mar 042016

10 Surgeon’s Square, Edinburgh EH1 1LZ

At number 10 Surgeon’s Square Robert Knox ran his extra-mural anatomy school from the death of its original proprietor, John Barclay, in 1826 until 1844. Knox bought the bodies of many of the victims of Burke and Hare. He was a flamboyant character, whose controversial views made him popular with his students. Although he was found innocent of any involvement in the murders, the scandal ruined his career. Robert Grant, who taught invertebrate zoology in the same school, was an early evolutionary thinker and friend of Charles Darwin while a student in Edinburgh in 1825-27.

No public access.

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New Curious Edinburgh tours

For International Women’s Day on March 8, we are launching a new tour featuring locations in Edinburgh connected to amazing women in STEM. Celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion in STEM by taking a look at Edinburgh-connected women who have made an impact in a wide range of STEM fields.

Check out our new bird trail! We are currently working on the development of coastal trails, in collaboration with Traveltech for Scotland and the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy Scotland’s Coastal Knowledge map. Here you can upload your own experiences of the coast, including birds you have spotted.

Last year we added the Second World War tour developed by academics from the schools of Social and Political Science and History, Classics and Archeology.