The book has been part of the university’s collections since 1934. The library of the American University of Harvard, in Massachusetts, announced this Wednesday, March 27, that it had “removed human skin from the binding of a copy of Arsène Houssaye’s book, soul destiny (1880), preserved in the Houghton Library.
The university confirmed in 2014, thanks to a scientific test, that there was human skin in the book’s binding. The author of the book, the Frenchman Arsène Houssaye, had given this copy to one of his friends, the doctor Ludovic Bouland, in the early 1880s, according to a press release from the Harvard Library. The work was then sent to Harvard by an American diplomat, John B. Stetson.
Skin taken from the corpse of a woman.
Ludovic Bouland had inserted in this copy a handwritten note saying that “a book about the human soul deserved to be covered with a human cover.” “The note also describes the process used to treat the skin so that it can be used to bind the text,” the library says.
Harvard could not determine who owned the skin used, but “evidence” indicates that Ludovic Bouland took it from a woman’s corpse when he was a medical student.
Restricted access in 2015
The library restricted access to this book in 2015 and established a moratorium on any new requests related to the research in February 2023. It also created a committee dedicated to analyzing the book and its history, having confirmed “the reasonable certainty that Bouland deleted and used the skin without the consent” of the affected woman, he explains on his site.
“Based on this review, the Harvard Library and the Harvard Museum Collections Restitution Committee have concluded that due to the ethically sensitive nature of the book’s origins and history, the human remains used in the book’s binding Houssaye no longer have their place in the collections of the Harvard library,” adds a library official.
The library “recognizes shortcomings”
In its statement, the library “recognizes past failures in book management, which have further reified and compromised the dignity of the human being whose remains were used for its binding” and apologizes “to those harmed by these actions.”
The book will remain in the Houghton Library collection and can be consulted again by researchers, but without its cover. The skin now removed will remain at Harvard until its origin is clarified.
Source: BFM TV
