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Resurrectionists: Body Snatching in Indiana presented by the Vanderburgh County Historical Society

Vintage-style event poster for "Indiana Body Snatchers," presented by VCHS and Dr. Tamara Hunt, USI.

6:00-7:00

Browning Gallery

This is an after-hours program, and the library will be closed. Please use the Archives entrance.

Although many people have heard of bodysnatching, most don’t know that it is closely connected to modern medicine. Nor do they know that Indiana had some startling cases of grave robbery by these “resurrectionists” in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this presentation, Tamara Hunt traces the medical history of bodysnatching and focuses on occurrences in Indiana that made national or even international news.

Tamara Hunt has been a professor at the University of Southern Indiana for twenty years, teaching a variety of courses on European and World History. Among her most popular courses are “Social History of Murder” and “Social History of Ghosts.” The research for those classes led to this study of grave-robbing. She is currently working on a book on publishing in eighteenth century England and is writing a book with her husband, Scott Myerly, on how the ideology of capitalism and chivalry combined to create modern male dress from the medieval period to the early twentieth century.

NOTE: The Annual Members Business Meeting of the Vanderburgh County Historical Society will commence at 5:45 pm for the election of officers and board members.

For more information or any questions, please contact the VCHS at info@vchshistory.org.