Jeremy Bentham's skin sits inside University College London, the institution he helped found

© Wellcome Images and Wellcome Library, London
What Bentham called his ‘auto-icon’ (his skeleton, wearing his clothes, stuffed with hay, and topped with a wax head sporting his own hair) still sits in a box at University College London.

© Wellcome Images and Wellcome Library, London
The inscription reads: "Part of the skin of the late Jeremy Bentham Esq. who bequeathed his Body for anatomical purposes, and was dissected, July 1832."

© Science Museum, London
The artefact was, however, definitely on display at the British Museum exhibition Medicine Man: the Forgotten Museum of Henry Wellcome.
- Nelson’s Spyglass: 101 Curious Objects from British History, by Sophie Campbell, is available now from The History Press. You can find more images of Bentham's skin at Wellcome Images.
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