Philosopher making dream trip to US two centuries after death
BRITAIN: Few people would relish the prospect of their lifeless skeleton being wired up, stuffed into sawdust-filled clothing, bundled into a crate and shipped to America for museumgoers to gawk at. But for Jeremy Bentham, the British philosopher, it is almost certainly what he would have wanted.
The social reformer and notable eccentric, who died in 1832, insisted his body be preserved after his death as an ‘‘auto-icon’’, which could be wheeled out at parties if his friends missed him.
His remains have been on display at University College London since his death, but now the strange mannequin, comprising skeleton, wax head, clothes, hat, chair and walking stick, is to leave UCL for a sculpture exhibition at the Met Breuer museum in New York.
It was always Bentham’s ambition to visit America, but one he never achieved.
Jayne Dunn, head of collections management at UCL, said: ‘‘The first thing we had to do was to discover whether he was suffering from any infestations. We don’t want to send an object to another museum and infect their collection with pests. If he had been, we would have had to fumigate him.
‘‘He is wearing the original underwear – which has not got infested – and two sets of stockings. Carpet beetles love wool, but they are less keen on linen, which is why we think the vest, underpants and stockings have survived.’’
The skeleton is padded with wood shavings, held in place by a large stocking over the body, but the stuffing has lost its shape.
‘‘When you have an old sofa, everything settles into the bottom and you have to plump up the cushions,’’ said Subhadra Das, a curator at UCL. ‘‘Well, the same thing happened with Bentham.
‘‘We have not added anything, but reapportioned where it is, so he looks a lot slimmer.’’
Bentham was a leading philosopher and social thinker of the 18th century and early 19th century, and was pivotal in the establishment of Britain’s first police force, the Thames River Police in 1800, the precedent for Robert Peel’s reforms 30 years later.
In his will, he asked that his skeleton ‘‘be put together in such a manner as that the whole figure may be seated in a chair usually occupied by me when living, in the attitude in which I am sitting when engaged in thought’’.
Bentham’s actual head is on temporary display at UCL.