Lisa Rosner
@burkeandhare.bsky.social
Historian of medicine, author of The Anatomy Murders: Being the True and Spectacular History of Edinburgh's Notorious Burke and Hare and of the Man of Science Who Abetted Them in the Commission of Their Most Heinous Crimes, http://burkeandhare.com
Pinned
Lisa Rosner
@burkeandhare.bsky.social
· Dec 13
Welcome to The True and Horrid Story of Burke and Hare, 200th Anniversary Edition! In this series, I'll be counting down until the bicentennial of the Burke and Hare anatomy murders in 2027-8.
For more info see my website The Worlds of Burke and Hare (burkeandhare.com) or substack.com/@burkeandhare
For more info see my website The Worlds of Burke and Hare (burkeandhare.com) or substack.com/@burkeandhare
November 1825 was a busy month for body-snatchers, as they worked night and day -- but especially night -- supplying anatomy students. We know when they were caught, thanks to newspapers -- but who knows how often the bodies shipped on schedule?
burkeandhare.substack.com/p/a-damp-dri...
burkeandhare.substack.com/p/a-damp-dri...
A Damp, Drizzly November in my Soul
Leicester Journal,4 Nov.1825; London Packet & New Lloyd's Evening Post, 23 Nov.1825; Evening Times and Oxford University & City Herald, 26 Nov.1825; Fife Herald 17 Nov. 1825, British Newspaper Archive
open.substack.com
November 30, 2025 at 9:03 PM
November 1825 was a busy month for body-snatchers, as they worked night and day -- but especially night -- supplying anatomy students. We know when they were caught, thanks to newspapers -- but who knows how often the bodies shipped on schedule?
burkeandhare.substack.com/p/a-damp-dri...
burkeandhare.substack.com/p/a-damp-dri...
Are graveyards haunted by the ghosts of disinterred cadavers, waiting to wreak havoc on callous Resurrection Men? If not, perhaps they should be, as we can see in A Halloween Story... burkeandhare.substack.com/p/a-hallowee...
A Halloween Story
London Sun, 1 November 1825, via British Newspaper Archive
burkeandhare.substack.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Are graveyards haunted by the ghosts of disinterred cadavers, waiting to wreak havoc on callous Resurrection Men? If not, perhaps they should be, as we can see in A Halloween Story... burkeandhare.substack.com/p/a-hallowee...
Community Support for a Dead Child burkeandhare.substack.com/p/community-...
July was a slow month for digging up dead bodies -- so why not try stealing them before they were buried? When anatomists deal with resurrection-men, they have to be prepared for the consequences.
July was a slow month for digging up dead bodies -- so why not try stealing them before they were buried? When anatomists deal with resurrection-men, they have to be prepared for the consequences.
Community Support for a Dead Child
Morning Chronicle, Thursday, 28 July, via British Newspaper Archive
open.substack.com
July 18, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Community Support for a Dead Child burkeandhare.substack.com/p/community-...
July was a slow month for digging up dead bodies -- so why not try stealing them before they were buried? When anatomists deal with resurrection-men, they have to be prepared for the consequences.
July was a slow month for digging up dead bodies -- so why not try stealing them before they were buried? When anatomists deal with resurrection-men, they have to be prepared for the consequences.
During our busy February 1825, some body-snatchers found ways to obtain cadavers without going through the bother of digging them up. Read more in Coffin Filled with Stones, with thanks to @threadinburgh.scot for images and info on Jamaica Street,
burkeandhare.substack.com/p/coffin-fil...
burkeandhare.substack.com/p/coffin-fil...
February 21, 2025 at 1:37 PM
During our busy February 1825, some body-snatchers found ways to obtain cadavers without going through the bother of digging them up. Read more in Coffin Filled with Stones, with thanks to @threadinburgh.scot for images and info on Jamaica Street,
burkeandhare.substack.com/p/coffin-fil...
burkeandhare.substack.com/p/coffin-fil...
What a busy month for body-snatchers was February 1825! Resurrection-men didn't work alone: they relied on friends and accomplices to help them retrieve cadavers. Find out more in burkeandhare.substack.com/p/body-snatc...
and
burkeandhare.substack.com/p/body-snatc...
and
burkeandhare.substack.com/p/body-snatc...
February 19, 2025 at 7:57 PM
What a busy month for body-snatchers was February 1825! Resurrection-men didn't work alone: they relied on friends and accomplices to help them retrieve cadavers. Find out more in burkeandhare.substack.com/p/body-snatc...
and
burkeandhare.substack.com/p/body-snatc...
and
burkeandhare.substack.com/p/body-snatc...
Artist's conception of Carlo Ferrari, killed for dissection, wellcomecollection.org/works/atnk92e5, @wellcomecollection.bsky.social
If London surgeons had stopped purchasing cadavers from Bishop and May in 1825, would Carlo Ferrari had lived to see his 15th birthday?
If London surgeons had stopped purchasing cadavers from Bishop and May in 1825, would Carlo Ferrari had lived to see his 15th birthday?
February 15, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Artist's conception of Carlo Ferrari, killed for dissection, wellcomecollection.org/works/atnk92e5, @wellcomecollection.bsky.social
If London surgeons had stopped purchasing cadavers from Bishop and May in 1825, would Carlo Ferrari had lived to see his 15th birthday?
If London surgeons had stopped purchasing cadavers from Bishop and May in 1825, would Carlo Ferrari had lived to see his 15th birthday?
An 1825 appearance of well-known body-snatchers John Bishop and James May in the British Newspaper Archive, substack.com/home/post/p-..., for fans of @misssarahwise.bsky.social The Italian Boy: A Tale of Murder and Body Snatching in 1830s London.
February 15, 2025 at 10:26 PM
An 1825 appearance of well-known body-snatchers John Bishop and James May in the British Newspaper Archive, substack.com/home/post/p-..., for fans of @misssarahwise.bsky.social The Italian Boy: A Tale of Murder and Body Snatching in 1830s London.
Reposted by Lisa Rosner
Letters sent home to America from Edinburgh by a medical student in the 1930s. He writes of his first dissection class at Surgeons' Hall, the Royal Infirmary’s “beautiful amphitheatre”, and also meeting his first love.
#EYALove #ExploreYourArchive
#EYALove #ExploreYourArchive
February 13, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Letters sent home to America from Edinburgh by a medical student in the 1930s. He writes of his first dissection class at Surgeons' Hall, the Royal Infirmary’s “beautiful amphitheatre”, and also meeting his first love.
#EYALove #ExploreYourArchive
#EYALove #ExploreYourArchive
Reposted by Lisa Rosner
Went to the Prado for the first time this past summer and was very intrigued by the Queen Cristina connection.
Fint spanskt träsnitt med drottning Kristina från 1656.
February 13, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Went to the Prado for the first time this past summer and was very intrigued by the Queen Cristina connection.
This site currently resides on the grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, @immaireland.bsky.social @irishmuseums.bsky.social, image courtesy of SCDD, Paddy Healy Collection. For more on a fascinating heritage trail, see imma.ie/heritage-tra...
February 11, 2025 at 5:10 PM
This site currently resides on the grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, @immaireland.bsky.social @irishmuseums.bsky.social, image courtesy of SCDD, Paddy Healy Collection. For more on a fascinating heritage trail, see imma.ie/heritage-tra...
February is...Body Snatching Month? In February 1825, colder weather combined with ongoing medical school classes led to an uptick in activity by Resurrection-Men. The first incident took place at the notorious burial-ground, Dublin's Bully's Acre, burkeandhare.substack.com/p/resurrecti....
February 11, 2025 at 5:02 PM
February is...Body Snatching Month? In February 1825, colder weather combined with ongoing medical school classes led to an uptick in activity by Resurrection-Men. The first incident took place at the notorious burial-ground, Dublin's Bully's Acre, burkeandhare.substack.com/p/resurrecti....
Reposted by Lisa Rosner
I'm giving a talk tomorrow at Philobiblon. 6:15 at the Ethical Society.
This wonderful page will figure prominently. (I use the image on the right for my banner here)
This wonderful page will figure prominently. (I use the image on the right for my banner here)
February 10, 2025 at 4:46 PM
I'm giving a talk tomorrow at Philobiblon. 6:15 at the Ethical Society.
This wonderful page will figure prominently. (I use the image on the right for my banner here)
This wonderful page will figure prominently. (I use the image on the right for my banner here)
Sooo many symphonies! So little time!
Come what may, I'll catch up with #A-Haydn-A-Day!
Day 80: Symphony No. 80
After 79 attempts, @loveinner.bsky.social finally manages to get the day and the symphony to match. Dramatic and dynamic from the start, this D-minor symphony is a throwback to Haydn's days of Sturm und Drang.
Day 80: Symphony No. 80
After 79 attempts, @loveinner.bsky.social finally manages to get the day and the symphony to match. Dramatic and dynamic from the start, this D-minor symphony is a throwback to Haydn's days of Sturm und Drang.
Haydn Symphony No. 80 | Giovanni Antonini | Kammerorchester Basel (Haydn2032 live)
YouTube video by Haydn2032
youtu.be
February 9, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Sooo many symphonies! So little time!
Reposted by Lisa Rosner
Despite needing to play catch-up, I couldn't resist doing a deep dive into #68. I spent so much time on it that I'd better be doubly quick about this one.
TL;DR: It's bloody good too!
TL;DR: It's bloody good too!
#A-Haydn-A-Day Day 79: Symphony No. 68
One of my favourites ❤️❤️❤️
This symphony is approved by the bassoonist’s liberation front! Haydn writes for two bassoons for the first time, and places the minuet second for the last. In the process, he revolutionizes the symphony's sonic and expressive world.
One of my favourites ❤️❤️❤️
This symphony is approved by the bassoonist’s liberation front! Haydn writes for two bassoons for the first time, and places the minuet second for the last. In the process, he revolutionizes the symphony's sonic and expressive world.
Joseph Haydn / Symphony No. 68 in B-flat major (Harnoncourt)
YouTube video by scrymgeour34
youtu.be
February 9, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Despite needing to play catch-up, I couldn't resist doing a deep dive into #68. I spent so much time on it that I'd better be doubly quick about this one.
TL;DR: It's bloody good too!
TL;DR: It's bloody good too!
Reposted by Lisa Rosner
fyi Lisa
📢 CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS 📢 [Please Share Widely!]
Picturing Pennant is a new crowdsourcing project to "tag" the illustrations in Thomas Pennant's eighteenth-century Tours of Wales and Scotland.
Can you help us identify the places, people, and much more in these wonderful illustrated volumes?
Picturing Pennant is a new crowdsourcing project to "tag" the illustrations in Thomas Pennant's eighteenth-century Tours of Wales and Scotland.
Can you help us identify the places, people, and much more in these wonderful illustrated volumes?
Crowdsourcing the Extra Illustrated Tours of Wales and Scotland - Picturing Pennant: The Extra Illustrated Tours of Wales and Scotland: a crowdsourcing project
torf2.llyfrgell.cymru
January 31, 2025 at 12:46 PM
fyi Lisa
An unusual legal defense: "I heard the sounds of horns and trumpets, and I thought the Resurrection Men were after me..." Read more about Charles Lynn's murder of his friend Abraham Hogg, January 1825: substack.com/home/post/p-...
January 20, 2025 at 8:34 PM
An unusual legal defense: "I heard the sounds of horns and trumpets, and I thought the Resurrection Men were after me..." Read more about Charles Lynn's murder of his friend Abraham Hogg, January 1825: substack.com/home/post/p-...
Could the "eminent practical anatomist" involved have been Dr. James Syme, FRCSEd, later Prof of Clinical Surgery? The advantage of surgery over anatomy is that patients actually consent to surgical procedures, no matter how awful they appear (wellcomecollection.org/works/ujdpu8...) ...(3/3)
January 3, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Could the "eminent practical anatomist" involved have been Dr. James Syme, FRCSEd, later Prof of Clinical Surgery? The advantage of surgery over anatomy is that patients actually consent to surgical procedures, no matter how awful they appear (wellcomecollection.org/works/ujdpu8...) ...(3/3)
Here's the report from The Scotsman, which often carried news from the Edinburgh Police Court. It's a great resource for local history (2/3)...
January 3, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Here's the report from The Scotsman, which often carried news from the Edinburgh Police Court. It's a great resource for local history (2/3)...
In Edinburgh, an assault on anatomists! Or was it an affray?
In late December 1824, this peaceful scene was disrupted by an angry mob attempting to demolish the coach of an "eminent anatomist," believing it carried cadavers for dissection. Find out more... (1/3) substack.com/home/post/p-...
In late December 1824, this peaceful scene was disrupted by an angry mob attempting to demolish the coach of an "eminent anatomist," believing it carried cadavers for dissection. Find out more... (1/3) substack.com/home/post/p-...
January 3, 2025 at 10:24 PM
In Edinburgh, an assault on anatomists! Or was it an affray?
In late December 1824, this peaceful scene was disrupted by an angry mob attempting to demolish the coach of an "eminent anatomist," believing it carried cadavers for dissection. Find out more... (1/3) substack.com/home/post/p-...
In late December 1824, this peaceful scene was disrupted by an angry mob attempting to demolish the coach of an "eminent anatomist," believing it carried cadavers for dissection. Find out more... (1/3) substack.com/home/post/p-...
Were you wondering who sent two dead bodies from Dublin to Shrewsbury? The Bristol Mirror reported that it was a "medical student" from St. Barts, London. But was it an ordinary student? Or someone in the shadowy body trade? substack.com/inbox/post/1...
January 2, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Were you wondering who sent two dead bodies from Dublin to Shrewsbury? The Bristol Mirror reported that it was a "medical student" from St. Barts, London. But was it an ordinary student? Or someone in the shadowy body trade? substack.com/inbox/post/1...
Or did they?
Were the Resurrection-Men truly responsible for William Millar's ordeal? Or was it a cover-up to excuse his own transgressions?
The Scotsman was quick to weigh in -- but were they protecting the anatomy trade? (Story at substack.com/home/post/p-...).
Were the Resurrection-Men truly responsible for William Millar's ordeal? Or was it a cover-up to excuse his own transgressions?
The Scotsman was quick to weigh in -- but were they protecting the anatomy trade? (Story at substack.com/home/post/p-...).
December 27, 2024 at 7:21 PM
Or did they?
Were the Resurrection-Men truly responsible for William Millar's ordeal? Or was it a cover-up to excuse his own transgressions?
The Scotsman was quick to weigh in -- but were they protecting the anatomy trade? (Story at substack.com/home/post/p-...).
Were the Resurrection-Men truly responsible for William Millar's ordeal? Or was it a cover-up to excuse his own transgressions?
The Scotsman was quick to weigh in -- but were they protecting the anatomy trade? (Story at substack.com/home/post/p-...).
...And here's part 2. Stay tuned as the story unfolds...
December 27, 2024 at 6:59 PM
...And here's part 2. Stay tuned as the story unfolds...
OOOPS! I should report the name of my young hero correctly: It's William Millar, and his occupation was as a slater. Here's part 1 of the account...
December 27, 2024 at 6:58 PM
OOOPS! I should report the name of my young hero correctly: It's William Millar, and his occupation was as a slater. Here's part 1 of the account...
The Resurrection-Men Did It!
How peaceful the scene of the Union Canal near Edinburgh, pictured below! Yet how dastardly the deed when young William Slater was abducted by -- curiously direction-challenged -- Resurrection Men in December 1824...
Read full story here: substack.com/home/post/p-...
How peaceful the scene of the Union Canal near Edinburgh, pictured below! Yet how dastardly the deed when young William Slater was abducted by -- curiously direction-challenged -- Resurrection Men in December 1824...
Read full story here: substack.com/home/post/p-...
December 27, 2024 at 6:53 PM
The Resurrection-Men Did It!
How peaceful the scene of the Union Canal near Edinburgh, pictured below! Yet how dastardly the deed when young William Slater was abducted by -- curiously direction-challenged -- Resurrection Men in December 1824...
Read full story here: substack.com/home/post/p-...
How peaceful the scene of the Union Canal near Edinburgh, pictured below! Yet how dastardly the deed when young William Slater was abducted by -- curiously direction-challenged -- Resurrection Men in December 1824...
Read full story here: substack.com/home/post/p-...
And NBC's "Dealing the Dead" series shows that if there's money to be made, and no regulation to prevent it, cadavers are still likely to end up as someone's commodity, www.nbcnews.com/dealing-the-...
Dealing the Dead
NBC News exposed how a Texas medical school cut up the unclaimed bodies of the poor and leased them without consent or the knowledge of their families.
www.nbcnews.com
December 15, 2024 at 9:32 PM
And NBC's "Dealing the Dead" series shows that if there's money to be made, and no regulation to prevent it, cadavers are still likely to end up as someone's commodity, www.nbcnews.com/dealing-the-...