The hanged man and the body thief : finding lives in a museum mystery / Alexandra Roginski
- Bib ID:
- 6813780
- Format:
- Book
- Author:
- Roginski, Alexandra, author
- Description:
-
- Clayton, Victoria, Australia : Monash University Publishing, [2015]
- ©2015
- xiii, 124 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, facsimiles, portraits ; 21 cm.
- ISBN:
- 9781922235664 (paperback)
- Series:
-
- Australian history
- Australian history.
- Summary:
-
It is 1860 in Australia. An Aboriginal laborer named Jim Crow is led to the scaffold of the Maitland Gaol in colonial New South Wales. Among the onlookers is the Scotsman A.S. Hamilton, who will take bizarre steps in the aftermath of the execution to exhume this young man's skull. Hamilton is a lecturer who travels the Australian colonies teaching phrenology, a popular science that claims character and intellect can be judged from a person's head. For Hamilton, Jim Crow is an important prize. A century and a half later, researchers at Museum Victoria want to repatriate Jim Crow and other Aboriginal people from Hamilton's collection of human remains to their respective communities. But, their only clues are damaged labels and skulls. With each new find, more questions emerge. Who was Jim Crow? Why was he executed? And, how did he end up so far south in Melbourne? In a compelling and original work of history, author Alexandra Roginski leads readers through her extensive research, aimed at finding the person within the museum piece. Reconstructing the narrative of a life and a theft, she crafts a case study that elegantly navigates between the law and Aboriginal history, heritage studies and biography. The Hanged Man and the Body Thief is a nuanced story about phrenology, a biased legal system, the aspirations of a new museum, and the dilemmas of a theatrical third wife. It is, most importantly, a tale of two very different men, the collector and the collected, one of whom can now return home.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [105]-115) and index.
- Subject:
-
- Crow, Jim -- Death and burial
- Hamilton, A. S
- Museum Victoria
- Aboriginal Australians -- Biography
- Phrenology -- Australia -- History
- Body snatching -- Australia
- Human remains (Archaeology) -- Repatriation -- Australia
- Aboriginal Australians -- Craniology
- Human biology - Physical anthropology - Craniology
- Literature and stories - Non fiction - Scientific and professional
- History - Biographies - Indigenous
- Cultural heritage - Repatriation - Human remains
- Race relations - Representation
- Law enforcement - Punishment
- Race relations - Racial discrimination
- Archaeology
- Human biology - Physical anthropology
- Race relations - Racism - Social Darwinism
- Race relations - Racial discrimination - Legislative
- History - Biographies - Non-Indigenous
- Race relations - Racism
- Melbourne (Vic SJ55-05)
- Maitland (NSW N Coast SI56-02)
- Australia
- Australian
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 2015
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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