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Jeremy Bentham's Mummified Corpse: The 'Auto-Icon'

krakenten

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Jeremy Bentham's body was stuffed and displayed in a glass case. The head fell off during a thunderstorm and remains on the floor of the case.
 
The head kept getting nicked by students, so they had a guard watching it all the time.
Then they couldn't afford the guard, so now Jeremy Bentham is securely locked away behind wooden panels.

I've seen the wooden case - I attended the college for a lecture about Sci-Fi and fantasy art, then I spotted it during the break. Jeremy wasn't on display that day.
 
krakenten said:
Jeremy Bentham's body was stuffed and displayed in a glass case. The head fell off during a thunderstorm and remains on the floor of the case. ...

Re Bentham: "The real head was displayed in the same case as the Auto-icon for many years, but became the target of repeated student pranks." :shock:
 
181-year-old corpse of Jeremy Bentham attends UCL board meeting

Many board meetings are so tedious that members often end up looking like waxwork dummies.
But at this gathering, the well-dressed gentleman in the corner can be forgiven for looking a little out of it – Jeremy Bentham died 181 years ago.
The ‘spiritual founder’ of University College London can usually be found in a cabinet in a university corridor.
But he was moved earlier this week to mark the last council meeting attended by retiring provost Sir Malcolm Grant.

More (and pics) on the link! http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/12/181-year- ... g-3879586/
 
He is in good shape, almost like a wax work. BUT, I think it would be quite off putting during a meeting.
 
I accidentally stumbled across the box where he is normally stored, on the one occasion when I visited UCL for a conference about sci fi illustration.

It was closed and he wasn't on display. I've heard that when he's on display, they have to have a guard seated nearby to stop the students stealing his head...
 
A friends daughter attends UCL and says its VERY creepy walking by "the dead guy"
 
Mythopoeika said:
I accidentally stumbled across the box where he is normally stored, on the one occasion when I visited UCL for a conference about sci fi illustration.

It was closed and he wasn't on display. I've heard that when he's on display, they have to have a guard seated nearby to stop the students stealing his head...
Which head though?

There's his actual head, which is shrunken and scary looking and the waxwork head, the one he normally 'wears'.

Last photo of him I saw, his actual head was on the floor between his feet :shock:
 
I think they may have kept stealing his actual head, so now they keep that locked away in a cupboard somewhere.
 
In case you're wondering ... Bentham's head is still around ...

BenthamHead.jpg

SOURCE: https://www.livescience.com/63551-philosopher-jeremy-bentham-missing-rings.html
 
... The head fell off during a thunderstorm and remains on the floor of the case. ...

... No sign of the head, which is 'locked away securely' these days. Perhaps they are worried it might bite someone...

The head kept getting nicked by students, so they had a guard watching it all the time.
Then they couldn't afford the guard, so now Jeremy Bentham is securely locked away behind wooden panels. ...

Re Bentham: "The real head was displayed in the same case as the Auto-icon for many years, but became the target of repeated student pranks." :shock: ...


Here's the official account of the travails of Bentham's head ...

--------------------------

Bentham had originally intended that his head should be part of the Auto-Icon, and for ten years before his death (so runs another story) carried around in his pocket the glass eyes which were to adorn it. Unfortunately when the time came to preserve it for posterity, the process of desiccation, as practiced by New Zealand Maoris, went disastrously wrong, robbing the head of most of its facial expression, and leaving it decidedly unattractive. The wax head was therefore substituted, and for some years the real head, with its glass eyes, reposed on the floor of the Auto-Icon, between Bentham's legs. In 1948 the head was placed inside a specially constructed wooden box to give it more protection. The box was too large to fit inside the Auto-Icon and so it was displayed on top of the case containing the Auto-Icon until 1956, when it was put on a plinth over the door to the Cloisters leading to the eastern staircase. ...

However, the head proved an irresistible target for students, especially from King's College London, who stole the head in 1975 and demanded a ransom of £100 to be paid to the charity Shelter. UCL finally agreed to pay a ransom of £10 and the head was returned. On another occasion, according to legend, the head, again stolen by students, was eventually found in a luggage locker at a Scottish Station (possibly Aberdeen). The last straw (so runs yet another story) came when it was discovered in the front quadrangle being used for football practice, and the head was henceforth placed in secure storage. After the incident of 1975, a memo (3 Nov 1975) instructed that the head be put in the Strong Room of the Records Department. In 2005 it was relocated to the Conservation Safe in the Institute of Archaeology. It was decided that as 'human remains', it was inappropriate to put the head on public display, and since then permission to view has been granted only in exceptional circumstances by the curator of the College Collections.

--------------------------

SOURCE: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bentham-project/who-was-jeremy-bentham/auto-icon
 
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