17/09/2025
Monday 13th October, have you registered yet?
It's free and promises to be fascinating!
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIpc-6orj4iEtG2jc8554AlR5tTbbQsI29M
Practical storage solution, morbid curiosity, or an important way to interact with the dead and contemplate our own mortality? Bones are the most enduring parts of our mortal remains, but the sheer quantity of people who have died in a culture where burial has dominated means that there have been too many bones to stay in the ground. Ideas about what to do with them have ranged from the simple to the astoundingly elaborate.
This talk, presented by Cat Irving, is extensively illustrated with the author’s own photos, and will take you on a journey across Europe that will encompass painted skulls and bejewelled skeletons, bone chandeliers and the six million people who lie beneath the streets of Paris.
Cat Irving has been the Human Remains Conservator for Surgeons’ Hall since 2015 and has been caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for over twenty years. After a degree in Anatomical Science, she began removing brains and sewing up bodies at the Edinburgh City Mortuary, where she saw many bodies in various states of decomposition. Following training in the care of wet tissue collections at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, she worked with the preparations of William Hunter at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University, where she is now consultant conservator. Cat is a licensed anatomist, and gives regular talks on anatomy and medical history. Recently she has carried out conservation work on the skeleton of serial killer William Burke prior to his display in National Museum of Scotland.
Register now for this online information session via the following link https://shorturl.at/kpOcc
