[Human skull]

Date:

1700s

Description:

A human skull said to have been used to portray Yorick in nineteenth-century productions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Silas Weir Mitchell claimed to have acquired the skull from a Philadelphia druggist (possibly George Washington Carpenter (1802 – 1860)), who loaned it to the Walnut Street Theater for productions. Weir gave the skull to Horace Howard Furness in 1876. Shakespearean actors names are written in a single hand on skull: Edmund Kean (1787 – 1833); William Macready (1793 – 1873); John Philip Kemble (1757 – 1823); Edwin Booth (1833 – 1893); Edwin Forrest (1806 – 1872); Charlotte Cushman (1816 – 1876); Edward Loomis Davenport (1816 –1877); James Edward Murdoch (1811 – 1893). The skull rests on a black marble platform with the inscription “Alas, Poor Yorick.”

Language:

English

Resource Type:

Physical Object

Form/Genre:

human remains

Physical Description:

17.0 x 30.0 cm.

Rights:

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

Notes:

The identity of the individual is currently unknown. Access is limited to research aimed at identifying the person's community of care and requires approval from the Director of the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts.

Physical Location:

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania: Furness, A/Bo200.1 A, Box

Collection:

Furness Theatrical Image Collection (University of Pennsylvania); Furness collection of Shakespeare related artifacts