Images from The Champion Text Book on Embalming (1897)

Apr 7, 2016



Below are a series of images demonstrating the process of embalming, from The Champion Text Book on Embalming, published in 1897 and written by Eliab Myers, M.D. and F. A. Sullivan, "Lecturers and Demonstrators in the Champion College of Embalming". The Champion Company was founded in 1878 in Springfield, Ohio, and is still in the same business today. After a first section detailing each part of the human body, accompanied by illustrative plates, the book goes into a brief history of embalming itself, from the Ancient Egyptians to the work of Frederik Ruysch. We then proceed into the details of the embalming process itself, including how to remove the blood, gasses, and liquids from the corpse and how to deal with the effects of various diseases that may be found within. The grainy photographs of the procedures pepper this section, many reminiscent — with the sombre figures huddled around splayed out corpses — of the painted anatomy scenes of the Early Modern period.