This image is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence
This image is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence
Iron mortsafe 1801-1822. Full view, 3/4 gallery shot.
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Iron mortsafe 1801-1822. Side view, gallery shot.
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
This mortsafe is made of iron and is large enough to contain a coffin. Mortsafes were sometimes used to protect coffins
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London.
This mortsafe is made of iron and is large enough to contain a coffin. Mortsafes were sometimes used to protect coffins
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London.
This mortsafe is made of iron and is large enough to contain a coffin. Mortsafes were sometimes used to protect coffins
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London.
This mortsafe is made of iron and is large enough to contain a coffin. Mortsafes were sometimes used to protect coffins
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London.
This mortsafe is made of iron and is large enough to contain a coffin. Mortsafes were sometimes used to protect coffins
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London.
This mortsafe is made of iron and is large enough to contain a coffin. Mortsafes were sometimes used to protect coffins
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London.
This mortsafe is made of iron and is large enough to contain a coffin. Mortsafes were sometimes used to protect coffins
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London.
This mortsafe is made of iron and is large enough to contain a coffin. Mortsafes were sometimes used to protect coffins
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London.
This mortsafe is made of iron and is large enough to contain a coffin. Mortsafes were sometimes used to protect coffins
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London.
This mortsafe is made of iron and is large enough to contain a coffin. Mortsafes were sometimes used to protect coffins
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London.
This mortsafe is made of iron and is large enough to contain a coffin. Mortsafes were sometimes used to protect coffins
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London.
Iron mortsafe lid, unsigned, British, 1801-1822
Bodies for dissection were in short supply in the early 1800s as only executed criminals could be dissected legally. In the United Kingdom, body-snatchers – also known as ‘resurrectionists’ – robbed the graves of the newly deceased, often in the middle of the night, and then sold the corpses on to anatomists.
Those that could afford them might have chosen to use heavy iron mortsafes such as this one to protect coffins and their occupants. First appearing around 1816, they came in a range of designs. In this example, the sheer weight of the lid was expected to put off even the most desperate body-snatcher.
On display
Science Museum: Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries
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Related people
Details
- Category:
- Anatomy & Pathology
- Object Number:
- A600162 Pt1
- type:
- mortsafe
- credit:
- Loan, Wellcome Trust
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