Boston, today a city rich with world-class hospitals and medical schools, has a long history of medical innovation. This week, we take a look at the characters who laid the foundation for these advancements – Resurrection Men. What founding father was a member of a secret grave robbing club? What were the steps to pulling off the perfect heist? Tune in this week to find out!
Resurrection Men
- A brief history of Harvard’s Spunkers Club
- Modern cadaver procurement (graphic images)
- More on Harvard and cadavers
- “Anatomy Riots” against doctors and students
- A more general history of grave robbing via Stuff You Should Know
- Colonial Comics, volume II contains a segment on the Spunkers.
- Cemetery guns and grave torpedos. A deterrent.
This Week in Boston History
- Read the text of Charles Sumner’s “The Crime Against Kansas” speech
- A defense department profile of Sergeant William H Carney.
- Our episode on the capture of Anthony Burns
- The diary Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens kept while locked up at Fort Warren on Georges Island.
- Royal Governor Thomas Gage’s address to the Massachusetts Legislature
- The Battle of Noddle’s Island
- The law banning entrepreneurs from selling strong drink to soldiers on their training days.