A Market for Death: The Use and Abuse of Cadavers in Nineteenth-Century America

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dc.contributor.advisorMelosi, Martin V.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberSchafer, James A., Jr.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberRomero, R. Todd
dc.creatorScovil, Lindsay K.
dc.date.accessioned2015-08-28T16:23:04Z
dc.date.available2015-08-28T16:23:04Z
dc.date.createdMay 2015
dc.date.issued2015-05
dc.date.updated2015-08-28T16:23:04Z
dc.description.abstract"A Market for Death: The Use and Abuse of Cadavers in Nineteenth-Century America" examines the rise of grave robbing for the procurement of human bodies for educational and entertainment purposes. In the late eighteenth century, new medical schools sought cadavers for dissection and anatomical study, and public entrepreneurs used bodies and body parts for entertainment in dime museums and traveling shows. While some bodies were available to the medical schools legally, most of the specimens used for medical education or public entertainment were stolen from their graves. This study focuses primarily on the period from the Revolutionary War through the passage of the first mandatory anatomy act in 1883. As a work of public history, this thesis builds upon an online exhibit that provides a new means for the public to learn about the ways that bodies were used for both educational and entertainment purposes in the early United States.
dc.description.departmentHistory, Department of
dc.format.digitalOriginborn digital
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10657/1135
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightsThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).
dc.subjectAnatomical study
dc.subjectDissection
dc.subjectEarly American medicine
dc.subjectAmerican medical schools
dc.subjectGrave robbing
dc.subjectCadaver procurement
dc.subjectResurrection men
dc.subjectDime museums
dc.subjectPhrenology
dc.subjectNineteenth century
dc.subjectCulture
dc.subjectOnline exhibit
dc.subject.lcshHistory
dc.titleA Market for Death: The Use and Abuse of Cadavers in Nineteenth-Century America
dc.type.dcmiText
dc.type.genreThesis
thesis.degree.collegeCollege of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
thesis.degree.departmentHistory, Department of
thesis.degree.disciplineHistory
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Houston
thesis.degree.levelMasters
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Arts

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