Harvard removes book binding made from dead woman's skin from library
Harvard University has announced its decision to remove the binding made of human skin from a 19th-century book held in its library due to the “ethically fraught nature” of how the binding was created.
The book, Des Destinées de l’Ame (Destinies of the Soul), has been housed at Harvard’s Houghton Library since the 1930s. However, it gained international attention in 2014 when tests confirmed its unusual binding in human skin. On Wednesday, the university stated that after “careful study, stakeholder engagement, and consideration,” it would remove the skin binding and collaborate with authorities to “determine a final respectful disposition of these human remains.”
The book was authored by Arsène Houssaye, a French novelist, in the mid-1880s as a contemplation on the nature of the soul and life after death. The initial owner, French physician Ludovic Bouland, bound the book with human skin, reportedly taken from a deceased female patient in a hospital where he worked, without her consent.
Harvard acknowledged the “ethically fraught” history of the book’s creation and decided to remove the skin binding.
“As you can imagine, this has been an unusual circumstance for us in the library and we have learned a great deal as we arrived at our decision,” said Tom Hyry, an archivist at Houghton Library, in a Q&A issued by Harvard regarding the removal.
“The core problem with the volume’s creation was a doctor who didn’t see a whole person in front of him and carried out an odious act of removing a piece of skin from a deceased patient, almost certainly without consent, and used it in a book binding that has been handled by many for more than a century. We believe it’s time the remains be put to rest.”
Previously, Harvard students tasked with paging collections in the library were subjected to a hazing ritual where they were asked to retrieve the book without being informed of its human skin binding.
The confirmation of the book’s unusual binding in 2014 was initially treated with a more light-hearted tone by Harvard, referring to it as “good news for fans of anthropodermic bibliopegy, bibliomaniacs and cannibals alike.”
Anthropodermic bibliopegy refers to the practice of binding books in human skin, which saw popularity in the 19th century and earlier.
Harvard expressed regret for the past “sensationalistic, morbid, and humorous tone” in which the discovery was announced, apologizing for any failures in stewardship that compromised human dignity.
