Harvard Removes Book Made of Human Skin From Library
Harvard University has announced it will remove a book made from human skin from its Houghton library.
In a press release, Harvard said the book Des Destinées de l’Ame, which has been in its library since the 1930s, will be removed from its shelves.
The decision by Harvard to remove the book comes ten years after scientists confirmed the book’s binding was, in fact, bound with human skin.
According to Harvard, the book’s first owner was French physician Dr. Ludovic Bouland, who bound the book with skin from a deceased female patient in a hospital where he was employed.
In the last decade, students employed in Houghton Library were allegedly hazed by being asked to retrieve the skin-bound book.
Harvard University removes human skin binding from book https://t.co/CKPhgv2KBi
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) March 28, 2024
Per Harvard Library:
Harvard Library has removed human skin from the binding of a copy of Arsène Houssaye’s book Des destinées de l’âme (1880s), held at Houghton Library. The volume’s first owner, French physician and bibliophile Dr. Ludovic Bouland (1839–1933), bound the book with skin he took without consent from the body of a deceased female patient in a hospital where he worked. The book has been in the collections of Harvard Library since 1934, initially placed on deposit by John B. Stetson, Jr. (1884–1952), an American diplomat, businessman, and Harvard alumnus (AB 1906), and later through donation by his widow Ruby F. Stetson to Houghton Library in 1954.
The removal of the human skin from Des destinées de l’âme follows a review by Houghton Library of the book’s stewardship, prompted by the recommendations of the Report of the Harvard University Steering Committee on Human Remains in University Museum Collections issued in fall 2022. After careful study, stakeholder engagement, and consideration, Harvard Library and the Harvard Museum Collections Returns Committee concluded that the human remains used in the book’s binding no longer belong in the Harvard Library collections, due to the ethically fraught nature of the book’s origins and subsequent history.
In the course of its review, the library noted several ways in which its stewardship practices failed to meet the level of ethical standards to which it subscribes. Until relatively recently, the library has made the book available to anyone who asked for it, regardless of their reason for wishing to consult it.
Library lore suggests that decades ago, students employed to page collections in Houghton’s stacks were hazed by being asked to retrieve the book without being told it included human remains. In 2014, following the scientific analysis that confirmed the book to be bound in human skin, the library published posts on the Houghton blog that utilized a sensationalistic, morbid, and humorous tone that fueled similar international media coverage.
Book bound with dead woman’s skin that has been in Harvard’s library for 90 years is finally removed despite scientists confirming the cover was human ten years ago https://t.co/Rx0WnwMSIW pic.twitter.com/pKU9m19DFf
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) March 28, 2024
Harvard has had its fair share of controversies when it comes to handling the body parts of the deceased.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported Cedric Lodge, who managed the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School, was charged with stealing and selling human remains used for medical research.
40 Human Skulls from Harvard Discovered Inside of Kentucky Man’s Apartment
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