Exhibition Images

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Adult Hide Beetle (Dermestes maculatus)
Mummified cadaver, sitting, 1898
Partially decomposed corpse, 2003
Arpad Vass at work, 2004
Studies of the effects of decomposition on exhumed bodies, 1831
Studies of the effects of decomposition on exhumed bodies, 1831
Studies of the effects of decomposition on exhumed bodies, 1831
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Mummified cadaver, sitting, 1898
Image 38 of 43

Upon a View of the Body

Mummified cadaver, sitting, 1898
In atlases and manuals of legal medicine, 19th-century forensic pathologists used pictures and words to show students and colleagues their methodology—a precise inventorying of the condition of the victim's body. The chromolithograph, which could render coloration, texture and subtle shading, was particularly well suited to the task.
Eduard Ritter von Hofmann, M.D., Atlas of Legal Medicine, Philadelphia, chromolithograph; Artist A. Schmitson
National Library of Medicine