Where to See the World’s Most Famous Preserved Body Parts

Sure, you’ve seen a dead body before, but have you ever seen a thumb preserved in salt? How about a saint’s heart shrouded in gold? Beyond the normal displays of skeletons in medical museums and holy leaders’ bodies in churches and temples, there’s a whole world of bits and pieces to explore. Throughout history, body parts have been taken as trophies during wartime, worshipped as miraculous healing agents, cut off and displayed to honor their owners, or simply saved incidentally by natural processes. If seeing a whole body feels banal, we recommend delving from the complete corpse to its components. Here are some of our favorites from around the world. 1. National Museum of Health and Medicine - Silver Spring, Maryland Among the 24 million medical instruments and anatomical specimens housed here are portions of Abraham Lincoln’s skull (and the attached hair), as well as Gen. Daniel Sickles’ amputated leg and the unusual skull of a Civil War soldier who was shot across the top of the head. Other displays include small skeletons showcasing the different stages of a child’s development, a conjoined twin preserved in alcohol, and the mummified head and shoulders of a girl from the lat…

≈