American Historical Ephemera and Photography

2 silver gelatin photographs, each approx. 3 3/4 x 5 1/2 in., sealed together under glass with brown paper adhesive (not examined out of this housing). Images feature different views of a deceased man laid out on a display table covered with a sheet. His body features large areas of skin that have been carved away to reveal muscle, tendons, and organs below.

While we have no supporting documentation for this image, it seems that many of the incisions made in this man's body were purposeful, perhaps as part of an autopsy or a medical study. Some of the wounds to his torso appear as though they could be stab wounds, but other, larger incisions and skin removals appear to have been performed with some degree of precision and care.

It has also been suggested that the subject was the victim of a Native American attack based on the wounds he suffered. The wounds are strikingly similar to those sustained by Sergeant Frederick Wyllyams of the 7th Cavalry, which are documented in a photograph taken by William Bell. Wyllyams was mutilated and killed in a fight with a Cheyenne Dog Soldier War Party on June 26, 1867 at Fort Wallace, Kansas.