| Description |
1 online resource (xi, 254 pages) : illustrations. |
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Medicine language |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Series |
The Iowa Whitman series
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Iowa Whitman series.
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| Summary |
"The Afterlives of Specimens explores the space between science and sentiment, the historical moment when the human cadaver became both lost love object and subject of anatomical violence. Walt Whitman witnessed rapid changes in relations between the living and the dead. In the space of a few decades, dissection evolved from a posthumous punishment inflicted on criminals to an element of preservationist technology worthy of the presidential corpse of Abraham Lincoln. Whitman transitioned from a fervent opponent of medical bodysnatching to a literary celebrity who left behind instructions for his own autopsy, including the removal of his brain for scientific study. Grounded in archival discoveries, Afterlives traces the origins of nineteenth-century America's preservation compulsion, illuminating the influences of botanical, medical, spiritualist, and sentimental discourses on Whitman's work. Tuggle unveils previously unrecognized connections between Whitman and the leading "medical men" of his era, such as the surgeon John H. Brinton, founding curator of the Army Medical Museum, and Silas Weir Mitchell, the neurologist who discovered phantom limb syndrome. Remains from several amputee soldiers whom Whitman nursed in the Washington hospitals became specimens in the Army Medical Museum. Tuggle is the first scholar to analyze Whitman's role in medically memorializing the human cadaver and its abandoned parts"-- Provided by publisher |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Specimen Interiors: An Introduction -- 1. Tomb Leaves: The Anatomy of Regeneration -- 2. Specimen Cases: From Hospital to Museum -- 3. Phantoms of Countless Lost: The Nostalgia of Absent Limbs -- 4. Skeleton Leaves: Embalming Elegies -- 5. Autopsy and Afterlife: Anatomical Celebrity -- Notes -- Works Cited |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892 -- Knowledge and learning -- Anatomy.
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Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892. |
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Anatomy. |
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Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892 -- Knowledge and learning -- Medicine.
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Human body in literature.
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Human body in literature. |
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Dead in literature.
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Dead in literature. |
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Death in literature.
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Death in literature. |
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Dead -- Social aspects -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
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Dead -- Social aspects. |
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United States. |
| Chronological Term |
19th century |
| Subject |
Human anatomy -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
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Literature and medicine -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
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History. |
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Literature and science -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
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Dead. |
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Human anatomy. |
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- American -- General. |
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Literature and medicine. |
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HISTORY -- United States -- Civil War Period (1850-1877) |
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Literature and science. |
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- Poetry. |
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Medicine. |
| Chronological Term |
1800-1899 |
| Genre/Form |
History.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Tuggle, Lindsay. Afterlives of specimens. Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, [2017] 9781609385392 (DLC) 2017005979 (OCoLC)983824370 |
| ISBN |
9781609385408 (electronic book) |
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1609385403 (electronic book) |
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9781609385392 |
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160938539X |
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