American Quarterly

Braddock, Alan C.
"Jeff College Boys": Thomas Eakins, Dr. Forbes, and Anatomical Fraternity in Postbellum Philadelphia
American Quarterly - Volume 57, Number 2, June 2005, pp. 355-383

The Johns Hopkins University Press

Alan C. Braddock - "Jeff College Boys": Thomas Eakins, Dr. Forbes, and Anatomical Fraternity in Postbellum Philadelphia - American Quarterly 57:2 American Quarterly 57.2 (2005) 355-383 "Jeff College Boys": Thomas Eakins, Dr. Forbes, and Anatomical Fraternity in Postbellum Philadelphia Alan C. Braddock Recent sensational news reports about the illegal sale of cadavers and human body parts from the UCLA Medical School provide a stark reminder of the formidable socioeconomic, juridical, and psychological forces invested in anatomical material. Inanimate though they are, dead bodies donated for scientific research make powerful claims upon the living, not just legally or ethically regarding specific conditions of use and modes of conduct in their presence. Such claims also resonate on a more fundamental level, at the intersection of body and psyche, where notions of identity and selfhood reside. When human anatomical specimens are misused in spectacular fashion, something beyond a legal trust between donor and recipient is violated. The broader public responds with abhorrence and condemnation, as if exploitation of the anatomical body betokened all the disquieting effects of modernity. While rare today, incidents like those at UCLA have a long, sordid, and complex history. As told in a 2002 book by historian Michael Sappol titled A Traffic of Dead Bodies: Anatomy and Embodied Social Identity in Nineteenth-Century America, human anatomical material often...