Cat Irving - Human Remains Conservator

Specimens

Love science and conservation? Want to discover new ways to protect our species? Elle Kaye chats with guests who work within the science genre, but whose job titles may need a little unpacking. Strap in for entomology, taxidermy, diaphonization, pet remains, human pathology and all those that work with specimens.

TW: Death/Dying and Human Remains

In episode 030 Elle chats with Cat about her work caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for nearly twenty years. She discusses the transition between working in Edinburgh City Mortuary and moving to England to further train in wet tissue collections to returning to Scotland to work with pathology specimens in Surgeons’ Hall in Edinburgh. We also discuss shifts in perceptions around death and dying, and what that has meant for Cat.

Cat Socials

https://thesewanderingbones.wordpress.com/contents/

https://twitter.com/AnatomicalCat

https://www.instagram.com/anatomicalcat/

Surgeons Hall

https://museum.rcsed.ac.uk/

Hunterian Museum Glasgow

https://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/

Alder Hay Scandal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alder_Hey_organs_scandal

Authors Cat Mentions

Ian Rankin - https://www.ianrankin.net/

Michael Sappol -https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691118758/a-traffic-of-dead-bodies

William Burke Murderer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Hare_murders

Charles Anderson

https://surgeonshallmuseums.wordpress.com/2014/07/17/the-tibia-of-charles-anderson/

Robert Liston

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Liston

The Lister Project

https://museum.rcsed.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2014/december/the-lister-project-update

Cat Research

https://surgeonshallmuseums.wordpress.com/2020/02/28/put-a-lid-on-it/?fbclid=IwAR21mWizyElx7EZmlfvRUG8o-RCGzHPT_LTYhLPDF55DrUDoOvT1GYMieE0

https://surgeonshallmuseums.wordpress.com/2019/02/22/a-few-words-about-formaldehyde/

Elle Kaye socials

www.instagram.com/ellekayetaxidermy

Podcast socials

www.instagram.com/specimenspod

www.twitter.com/specimenspod

www.patreon.com/specimenspod

www.ellekayetaxidermy.co.uk/product-page/specimenspodmerch

Artwork © 2021 Madison Erin Mayfield

www.instagram.com/madisonerinmayfield

https://twitter.com/MEMIllustration

Music

Giraffes - Harrison Amer via premiumbeat.com

Researched, edited and produced by Elle Kaye

Concept/Title © 2020 Elle Kaye