The Welcome Collection - Exquisite Bodies

The Welcome Collection has a wonderful online image gallery and two fantastic videos on anatomical models.
From the museum website:
"In the 19th century, despite the best efforts of body snatchers, the demand from medical schools for fresh cadavers far outstripped the supply. One solution to this gruesome problem came in the form of lifelike wax models. These models often took the form of alluring female figures that could be stripped and split into different sections. Other models were more macabre, showing the body ravaged by 'social diseases' such as venereal disease, tuberculosis and alcohol and drug addiction. With their capacity to titillate as well as educate, anatomical models became sought-after curiosities; displayed not only in dissecting rooms but also in sideshows and the curiosity cabinets of wealthy Victorian gentlemen. For a small admission fee, visitors seeking an unusual afternoon's entertainment could visit displays of these strange dolls in London, Paris, Brussels and Barcelona. This exhibition explores the forgotten history of the anatomical model, which with its unique combination of serious science and fairground horror provides a rare insight into 19th-century beliefs about the body."

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/exhibitionsandevents/exhibitions/Exquisite-Bodies/index.htm

Anatomical Theatre: The Body, Disease, and Death in Medical Museums of the Western World

From the Anatomical Theatre website:
"Anatomical Theatre is a photographic exhibition documenting artifacts collected by and exhibited in medical museums throughout Europe and the United States. The objects in these photos range from preserved human remains to models made from ivory, wax, and papier mâché. The artifacts span from the 16th Century to the 20th, and include examples from a wide range of countries, artists, and preparators. The photographs in this exhibition were taken by Joanna Ebenstein, a New York-based photographer and designer, on the course of a one-month pilgrimage to the famed medical museums of the Western World. On the course of the trip, she visited museums in England, Scotland, Hungary, Italy, Austria, The Netherlands, and the United States at each, she interviewed curators or keepers, and photographed both behind-the-scenes and in the museum exhibit areas."

http://www.astropop.com/anatomical/

The Bassett Collection

Text below is from the Basset Collection on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanfordmedicine/sets/72157603949930348/

The Basset Collection, which now belongs to Stanford University's School of Medicine, is the definitive dissection collection available to medical students and instructors. These incredibly detailed dissections show and label most every part of the human body, from its tiniest veins, arteries and nerves to serial cross-sections of the spinal cord. The collection is the product of a 17-year collaboration between David L. Bassett, a School of Medicine alumnus and faculty member known for his elegant dissections and love for the human body, and William Gruber, the photographer who invented the View-Master stereoscopic viewing device.

The entire collection can be seen here:
http://lane.stanford.edu/bassett/index.html

Historical Anatomical Prints

From:
Gautier d'Agoty, Jacques Fabian. Anatomie generale des viscères en situation, de grandeur et couleur naturelle, avec l'angeologie, et la nevrologie de chaque partie du corps humain.

Jacques Gautier d'Agoty was born in Marseilles in about 1717 and was trained as a printmaker under the noted Jacob Christoph Le Blon (1670-1741). Le Blon, originally from Frankfurt-am-Main, was the first to use colored mezzotinting, which involved making three different impressions (with blue, yellow, and red inks) using copperplates. Gautier d'Agoty associated himself with surgeon Jacques-François-Marie Duverney (1661-1748) and together the two produced a number of large, colorful anatomical atlases, which were noted more for their style and sometimes their shocking appearance than their usefulness to physicians.

Text from:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/historicalanatomies/gautier_bio.html

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From,
Quain: The anatomy of the arteries of the human body, with its applications to pathology and operative surgery. 1800-1887

More Antique Anatomical Models

Wax model of a human face, Germany, 1801-1900

Female ivory anatomical figure, Europe, 1601-1800

Reclining wax woman, Florence, Italy, 1771-1800

Wax anatomical models of this period had different uses for different audiences. In the European anatomical tradition, the standard or normative body was always male. Female bodies were studied in terms of how they differed. In practice this meant a focus on their reproductive capacities – most often they were pregnant, with a fetus as one of the removable pieces.

Text and images taken from the Science Museum:

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife.aspx