- Harvard University Library has removed human skin binding from its collection of books.
- This book has been in the Harvard University Library since 1934.
- The book is said to contain the skin of deceased mental patients.
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The human skin binding on one of its books has finally been removed after nearly a century, Harvard University Libraries announced.
Officials said a copy of the French book “Fate des Destinies” was bound with skin taken from the corpse of a female psychiatric hospital patient. Q&A.
The book will remain in the library’s collection, but Harvard has decided to peel it because “the book’s origins and subsequent history are ethically questionable,” the university’s Houghton Library said. on the website.
The statement said the library was in contact with both the university and French authorities to determine the “final and respectful disposition” of the remains.
According to Harvard University, the book’s original owner, Dr. Ludovic Bouland, acquired it as a medical student and bound the book himself. “A book about the human soul deserves a human cover,” Bouland wrote in a note tucked inside the book.
The book was placed in the Houghton Library in 1934, and librarian Anne-Marie Eze says students working in the library may have used it in hazing rituals.
The library confirmed that The book was bound with human skin In 2014.
“The central problem in the creation of this book is that a doctor performed the abhorrent act of removing pieces of skin from a deceased patient, without examining the entire human being in front of him, and almost certainly without consent. “It was used for medical purposes. Many people have been responsible for binding for over a century,” Harvard University librarian Tom Hiley said in a Q&A.
Harvard University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.