Preparation, Patient, Person, or: How to Breathe Life into an Anatomical Collection

Abstract

The Kiel obstetric pelvis collection from the nineteenth century is largely comprised of the bones of poor, unmarried women who died in the Kiel lying-in hospital during or shortly after childbirth. Based on the written records from the hospital as well as a variety of other biographical source material, this article attempts to reconstruct the life of one of the women behind the Kiel pelvis collection. In this way, not only the scope for action and movement of people of unprivileged status in Schleswig-Holstein in the nineteenth century becomes evident, but it is also made clear to what extent biographical reconstructions are possible at all for unmarried women from the pre- and early industrial lower classes. Last but not least, the results can support decisions on ethical questions that are inevitably raised by the existence of the Kiel pelvis collection.