Charles Byrne asked that his remains never be put on display as a museum exhibit.
Sources
- Why the Skeleton of the "Irish Giant" Could Be Buried at Sea (smithsonianmag.com)
- https://hunterianmuseum.org/news/statement-on-the-skeleton-of-charles-byrne-from-the-board-of-trustees-of-the-hunterian-collection (hunterianmuseum.org)
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-26/irish-giant-charles-byrne-skeleton-body-stolen-john-hunter/103937220 (abc.net.au)
- https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2023/01/hunterian-museum-defends-decision-to-retain-skeleton-of-irish-giant-charles-byrne/ (museumsassociation.org)
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/01/24/irish-giant-skeleton-museum/ (washingtonpost.com)
- https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/03/13/514117230/the-saga-of-the-irish-giants-bones-dismays-medical-ethicists (npr.org)
- https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/11/7/should-giant-charles-byrne-be-left-to-rest-in-peace (aljazeera.com)
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/lakenbrooks/2023/02/26/irish-giant-never-wanted-his-body-to-be-a-specimen-two-centuries-later-museum-takes-his-bones-off-display/ (forbes.com)
- https://daily.jstor.org/will-an-18th-century-giant-finally-get-a-burial-at-sea (daily.jstor.org)
More in History
- A nondescript lump recovered from the Antikythera wreck turned out to be a complex assembly of interlocking gears and plates, but missing parts mean the mechanism's full function remains unknown.
- The Bugra exhibition grounds in Leipzig covered an area of 400,000 square meters.
- China conducted its first atomic test in October 1964.
- In 1971, Mike Gravel conducted a one-man filibuster against the Vietnam-era draft and read 4,100 pages of the 7,000-page Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record.
- The UK's Freedom of Information Act came into force in 2005, ten years before the BBC published an article about it in January 2015.
- The Supreme Court's 1898 birthright-citizenship ruling centered on Wong Kim Ark, a Chinese American cook.