Why Was Benjamin Franklin's Basement Filled With Skeletons?
Why Was Benjamin Franklin’s Basement Filled With Skeletons?
36 Craven Street close to London's Trafalgar Square
Photo by TonyBaggett/Getty Images
Repairs on Franklin’s old London house turned up 1,200 pieces of bone from at least 15 people.
Smithsonian Magazine
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-was-benjamin-franklin-s-basement-filled-with-skeletons?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Colin Schultz
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In 1998, conservationists were doing repairs on 36 Craven, looking to turn Franklin’s old haunt into a museum. “From a one metre wide, one metre deep pit, over 1200 pieces of bone were retrieved”—remnants of more than a dozen bodies, says Benjamin Franklin House. Six were children. Forensic investigations showed that the bones dated to Franklin’s day.
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Anatomy was still in its infancy, but the day’s social and ethical mores frowned upon it… A steady supply of human bodies was hard to come by legally, so Hewson, Hunter, and the field’s other pioneers had to turn to grave robbing — either paying professional “resurrection men” to procure cadavers or digging them up themselves — to get their hands on specimens.
Researchers think that 36 Craven was an irresistible spot for Hewson to establish his own anatomy lab. The tenant was a trusted friend, the landlady was his mother-in-law, and he was flanked by convenient sources for corpses. Bodies could be smuggled from graveyards and delivered to the wharf at one end of the street, or snatched from the gallows at the other end. When he was done with them, Hewson simply buried whatever was left of the bodies in the basement, rather than sneak them out for disposal elsewhere and risk getting caught and prosecuted for dissection and grave robbing.
Franklin was probably aware of the illegal studies going on in his building, says the Benjamin Franklin House, but it’s doubtful the he was involved himself. Still, we can’t imagine that, curious man that he was, he didn’t sneak down and check out the proceedings at least once or twice.
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