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More than morbid curiosities

2016; Oxford University Press; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/jhc/fhw022

1477-8564

Luis Ángel Sánchez Gómez,

Historical Studies in Science

This paper forms a study of three anatomical–anthropological museums established by Dr Pedro González Velasco in the second half of the nineteenth century. The first two of these were set up in Velasco’s own home, while the third evolved into the great Anthropological Museum that Velasco built near the Retiro Park, now in the centre of Madrid. The building remains standing and presently houses the National Museum of Anthropology. An analysis is presented of the circumstances that brought about the formation of all three museums, which prove to be related to the study and teaching of anatomy and also to Velasco’s political projects for the regeneration and modernization of Spanish medicine. We explore the collections (of anatomy, physical anthropology, teratology, zoology, ethnography and miscellaneous curiosities), revealing that – despite the lack of system in most of its non-anatomical collections – Velasco’s third museum, at least, was much more than a simple repository of morbid curiosities.