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Medical Section of the Head Revealing Brain

Date

1890

Creator

Alexander Fraser
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

The scientific use of photography began within the first year of the medium’s discovery. A camera’s ability to quickly record a large amount of detailed information corresponded perfectly with two of the nineteenth century’s great obsessions: classifying and ordering. This picture of a human head was taken to train students at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin by Alec Fraser, the professor of anatomy. Fraser had developed a chemical treatment that hardened the inner organs of a cadaver, making it possible to saw off slices and reveal the interior structure.

Fraser’s images, like Timothy O’Sullivan’s western survey photographs, have proven over time to possess qualities that transcend their original use as documentation. Some of the pictures appeal to contemporary taste and are expressive of the photographer’s personal vision. In this example, the lines and numbers Fraser inserted to identify parts of the brain may strike modern viewers as strangely numerical, ghostly thoughts still wandering around the dead man’s brain.

from Snite Museum of Art, Selected Works: Snite Museum of Art (Notre Dame, 2005)

Images

This is called Medical Section of the Head Revealing Brain within the category of Photographs.Open in external viewer application
This is called Medical Section of the Head Revealing Brain within the category of Photographs.
This is called Medical Section of the Head Revealing Brain within the category of Photographs.

Metadata

Creator
Alexander Fraser (Scottish, 1853 - 1909)
Date
1890
Classification
Photographs
Medium
Collotype on cream woven paper
Dimensions
16 3/4 x 13 1/8 in. (42.5 x 33.2 cm)
Credit Line
Milly Kaeser Fund in honor of Fritz Kaeser
Copyright Status
Public domain
Subject
brains
heads
human

Metadata

Accession Number
2004.008
Campus Location
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
Access

Not on view, please request access

Metadata

Contact Us

Our collection information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. If you have spotted an error, please contact Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at RMMACollections@nd.edu.


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