Please note: this event has already happened!
An evening with Megan Rosenbloom - Dark Archives
September 17, 2021 19:30-20:30
On Location: Virtually, via Zoom
https://zoom.usThere are books out there, some shelved unwittingly next to ordinary texts, that are bound in human skin. Would you know one if you held it in your hand?
In Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom seeks out the historic and scientific truths behind anthropodermic bibliopegy. Dozens of these books still sit on the shelves of the world's most famous libraries and museums. Dark Archives exhumes their origins and brings to life the doctors, murderers, women, and indigents whose lives are bound together in this rare, scattered, and disquieting collection. It also tells the story of the scientists, curators, and librarians who develop tests to discover these books and sort through the ethics of custodianship.
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Megan Curran Rosenbloom is Collection Strategies Librarian at UCLA Library in Los Angeles. Megan served as a medical librarian for many years, where she developed a keen interest in the history of medicine and rare books. She leads a research team called The Anthropodermic Book Project that aims to find the historic and scientific truths behind the world's alleged books bound in human skin, or anthropodermic bibliopegy.
Photo of Megan Rosenbloom by Polly Antonia Barrowman.
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A. N. Devers is a writer, arts journalist and critic, and rare book dealer based in London. Her first book, Train, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury. She is the owner of The Second Shelf, a new bookshop of rare books, modern first editions, and rediscovered works by women.
Photo of A. N. Devers by Jo Emmerson.