The ghoulish discussion is so Big I got a message back from the List Post
Master that the mailbox was too full for my contribution the other day.  It
seems redundant now, but the larger issue of how do we treat nasties in the
museum is really interesting.  I wish I could come to the Texas conference
for your session on presenting awful things.
 
But I can't resist adding to the ghoulish list a collection of medical
specimens now in the National Museum of Australia, including specimens of
injuries from WW1: a trench foot, a hand blown up but still with a ring on
its finger...  These days we return Aboriginal specimen bodies for reburial
by their descendants; how do these pathetic WW1 pieces fit in with that
ethic?
 
 
Linda Young
Cultural Heritage Management
University of Canberra
[log in to unmask],canbera.edu.au