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Harvard University announces removing binding of human skin from 19th Century book kept in library
The binding of a 19th-century book kept at Harvard University's library was removed due to its ethically fraught nature, according to the university.
Harvard University announced on Wednesday that it has removed human skin out of the Houghton Library book Des destinées de l'âme's binding after an assessment determined the book did not adhere to "ethical standards."
Harvard University releases statement regarding the book
According to a statement from Harvard, French novelist Arsène Houssaye wrote the book in the middle of the 1880s as a reflection on what it means to have a soul and what happens to people after they die. Ludovic Bouland, a French physician who was the volume's original owner, eventually used human flesh to bind the book. According to Harvard, Bouland removed a deceased female patient's skin without her consent while he was employed at a hospital.
Harvard deemed this troublesome past to be ethically fraught, which prompted the university to decide to do away with the skin binding. The Ivy League university claimed that the removal came after the Houghton Library reviewed the book's management and made the necessary changes in response to a Harvard University report's recommendations regarding the human remains in its museum collections.
The Library is currently working with the relevant authorities at the University and in France to decide on a final, respectful disposition of these materials, as well as undertaking further provenance and biographical research into the book, Bouland, and the unnamed female patient. Throughout the evaluation process, the library discovered multiple instances in which its stewardship procedures fell short of the ethical principles to which it adheres
Harvard students who worked on page collections in the library used to participate in a hazing practice in which they were instructed to get a book even though they were unaware that it contained human remains. Harvard also addressed the 2014 confirmation of the book's peculiar binding more lightheartedly at the time. The discovery was hailed by the university as "good news for cannibals, anthropodermic bibliopegy fans, and bibliomaniacs alike."
In 2014, the university confirmed that the book had been bound in human skin. According to Hyry, the university regrets greatly that it chose to announce the discovery by focusing 'on the morbid nature of the object, rather than on the person whose skin was used without consent or its moral implications.'
“We apologize on behalf of Harvard Library for past failures in our stewardship of the book that further objectified and compromised the dignity of the human being at the center,” said Hyry.
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