Harvard removes 1880s book bound with human skin from its library

Harvard University announced Wednesday that it would be removing a book from its library that was bound with human flesh.

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Harvard University said in a statement that it has removed its copy of Arsène Houssaye’s book “Des destinées de l’âme” or “The Destiny of Souls,” written in the 1880s. The book was bound with skin taken by its first owner, French physician and bibliophile Dr. Ludovic Bouland (1839–1933). The skin belonged to a woman who died and the skin was reportedly taken without consent.

Bouland left a handwritten note in the book. It said, “A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering,” Tom Hyry, associate university librarian for archives and special collections, said in a Harvard Library update, according to CBS News.

“Evidence indicates that Bouland bound the book with skin, taken from a woman, which he had acquired as a medical student,” Hyry said, according to CBS News. “A memo accompanying the book written by John Stetson, which has since been lost, told us that Bouland took this skin from the body of an unknown deceased woman patient from a French psychiatric hospital.”

The book arrived at Harvard in 1934 via John B. Stetson who was an American diplomat, The New York Times reported.

“After careful study, stakeholder engagement, and consideration, Harvard Library and the Harvard Museum Collections Returns Committee concluded that the human remains used in the book’s binding no longer belong in the Harvard Library collections, due to the ethically fraught nature of the book’s origins and subsequent history,” the university said.

The university said the book was held at its Houghton Library.

Wednesday’s announcement came years after the university announced a survey of human remains across its collections, the Times reported. Harvard’s president at the time, Lawrence S. Bacow, apologized in a statement for Harvard’s role in practices that “placed the academic enterprise above respect for the dead and human decency.”

In 2022, a report was released that identified more than 20,000 human remains in the university’s collections, the Times reported. That included full skeletons, hair, bone fragments and teeth. Some of the remains reportedly belonged to around 6,500 Native Americans and 19 people of African descent. The report was from the Harvard University Steering Committee, according to USA Today.

“Harvard Library acknowledges past failures in its stewardship of the book that further objectified and compromised the dignity of the human being whose remains were used for its binding. We apologize to those adversely affected by these actions,” the university said.

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