Harvard's Gruesomely Infamous Book Has an Update

University announces it has removed binding made of human skin from 19th-century tome
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 28, 2024 11:21 AM CDT
Harvard's Gruesomely Infamous Book Has an Update
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/pedrosala)

If you've ever spent a rainy day browsing through Harvard's "Ask a Librarian" FAQ, you may have stumbled upon one particularly gruesome query: "What is the status of the book bound in human skin at Harvard?" After a decade of debate and controversy, that status now has an update—the binding of the book in question has now been removed, and the university says it's seeking "a final respectful disposition of these human remains," per a statement from Harvard cited by the New York Times. The book is "Des Destinees de l'Ame" ("The Destinies of the Soul") by Arsene Houssaye, a "a meditation on the soul and life after death" published in 1879 that currently resides in the school's Houghton Library, per the FAQ.

The book found its way to Harvard in 1934, long after its first owner, the French doctor Ludovic Bouland, had wrapped the tome in skin he swiped without permission from the back of a deceased female patient in the psychiatric hospital where he worked during the Civil War era. Harvard more or less confirmed that fact in 2014, though Houssaye's book turned out to be far from alone in its grim origins: The Times notes that, in 2022, Harvard issued a report that identified more than 20,000 human remains in total throughout the university's collections, ranging from pieces of hair and bone to teeth and full skeletons.

In its latest statement, Harvard Library noted that it was decided to remove the binding "after careful study, stakeholder engagement, and consideration," and "due to the ethically fraught nature of the book's origins and subsequent history." It's now offering an apology, acknowledging its "past failures" that "further objectified and compromised the dignity of the human being whose remains were used for its binding."

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"This important work is long overdue," a library spokesperson tells the Harvard Crimson. "We recognize that." The book, whose access had been restricted in 2015, is now once again on full view in the library, as well as online. As for what staff will do with the removed binding, which is said to be in "respectful temporary storage": "We expect this process to take months, and perhaps longer," per the FAQ. (More strange stuff stories.)

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