Skeletons in the vaults; or, the V&A bone collectors


V&A Archive
September 1, 2014
Royal College of Art, South Kensington
Photograph (detail) of an interior view of the Royal College of Art, South Kensington, showing a collection of plaster casts and skeleton. Museum no. 4974-1910. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Archive’s S.Ex register makes for interesting reading – but not for the reason its suggestive title may have duped us momentarily into thinking!

S.Ex (or School Examples) objects were acquired for the V&A’s Circulation Department between 1882 and 1892, and used largely for still life cases, modelling or anatomical study.

Of the approximately 1,200 objects in the collection, ‘By far the largest category of objects acquired consisted of cheap market pottery and glass … A few watercolours and oil copies, prints, etc., and reproductions makes up perhaps one sixth of the total quantity; cheap copper bowls and electrotypes, probably a tenth’ (ref. MA/15/12).

As you scan the register’s carbon sheets, however, a veritable pet’s cemetery emerges from the conventional clutter of objects: skeletons of a donkey, foxhound, cat, barn owl, guinea pig, seal, sparrow hawk, monkey, panther, vulture and fox (ref. A0431).

More macabre still is the presence of a human skull (C.568) – ‘a good deal damaged & practically useless’ and ‘front teeth missing’ (refs. ED 84/121 and MA/9/1) – and skeleton (Museum no. S.Ex 2-1886), the latter purchased in 1886 from M. A. Corbott for £6.

Many of these objects were placed on ‘deposited loan’ (D.L.) to provincial art schools in towns and cities such as Blackburn, Glasgow and Sheffield, the latter of which took possession of a sizeable menagerie in 1895 which included the monkey, seal and sparrow hawk skeletons.

Circulation register
Extract from the Circulation register ‘Objects Bearing S.Ex and HMC Nos.’ V&A Archive, A0431. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

When staff audited the V&A’s collection of skeletons (and assorted bones) in 1911 it was suggested that ‘those skeletons and the skull, which are unfit for use should be placed in the crypt [seems appropriate! – Ed.]’ (ref. ED 84/121). The Royal College of Art, however, was persuaded to take permanently the skeletons of the barn owl, pigeon, kestrel and vulture.

Skeleton audit
Extract from the 1911 skeletons audit. V&A Archive, ED 84/121. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Records show that the human skeleton was loaned to Campden School of Arts & Crafts, Gloucestershire, in 1908. The loan was subsequently renewed and the skeleton was still at the School at the time of the skeletons audit in 1911, so it must have served a practical function similar to the one caught in this photograph (thanks to my colleague James for bringing this photograph to my attention).

Life study class
Photograph (detail) of life study class in Lecture Theatre with life models, Classical plaster casts, human skeletons and skull, for the National Art Training School, 6th December 1897. V&A Archive, MA/32/56, neg. 17935. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

In 1931 the Circulation Department offered the same skeleton to the Birmingham Central School of Arts & Crafts since ‘it seems a pity that the skeleton should be buried in our vaults if it can be put to use in a school’. The School eagerly accepted the offer but wanted an assurance that ‘as it will be used fairly hard, we should not get into trouble if it sustained any slight damage’ (ref. MA/1/B1486).

Letter offering skeleton
Letter from A. H. Kennedy to H. Holden, 26 June 1931. V&A Archive, MA/1/B1486. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This turned out to be a prescient request, although its author underestimated the scale of the damage that the skeleton would ultimately sustain!

When the V&A wrote in 1954 to enquire after the welfare of the skeleton it received the disconcerting reply that ‘there is a collection of loose bones which are used by students in the course of their study of anatomy. I am lead [sic] to believe that these bones were part of a very old skeleton which has disintegrated over the years, and which I can only conclude that they originally formed the skeleton about which you are enquiring’ (ref. ED 84/428).

Shirley Bury, then a research assistant in the Circulation Department, was duly dispatched to inspect ‘the bag of bones’ but found no conclusive evidence as to the identity of the skeleton (her staff history card makes no reference to any particular qualifications in forensic anthropology so presumably she was hoping to find a S.Ex number painted on its fibula or elsewhere!).

Circulation department group photo
Circulation Department group photograph (detail), ca. 1955. Shirley Bury is standing in the back row, centre. V&A Archive, A0212. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

File note reporting the results of Shirley Bury’s fact finding mission
File note reporting the results of Shirley Bury’s fact finding mission to Birmingham. V&A Archive, ED 84/428 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The apparent loss of the skeleton, however, should have come as no great surprise; in 1912 it was assumed that of the skeletons currently on ‘deposited loan’ to the provincial art schools ‘From their fragile nature many of them have no doubt perished’ (ref. ED 84/121).

Study of a human skeleton
William Edward Frost, R.A. (1810-1877); Study of a human skeleton, ca.1829. Museum no. E.424-1948. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

About the author


V&A Archive
September 1, 2014

I’m an archivist based in the V&A Archive where I help manage the institutional records of the V&A and its predecessor organisations. These records date from 1837 to the present...

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