The Morbid Museum returns with a special America 250 episode! In 1776, forgotten revolutionary and Founding Father Thomas Paine blazed a trail of powerful rhetoric with "Common Sense", a pamphlet that galvanized the citizens of British America to break away from the King. Two Hundred and Fifty years later, despite his remains being scattered in a hair-brained grave robbing plot and his reputation buried by detractors, Paine endures as a salient torch-bearer for the cause of America.

Project Gutenberg: Common Sense

Thomas Paine Political Cartoons - Thomas Paine Historical Association

Thomas Paine Historical Marker - Pomeroy Foundation

Thomas Paine's Scattered Body INTP Blog

Moncure Conway’s Essay on Paine's Remains

Thomas Paine and the Promise of America by Harvey Kaye

The Church of Saint Thomas Paine by Leigh Eric Schmidt

Song: Tom Paine's Bones (Graham Moore)

On February 14th 1929, a gruesome murder scene was uncovered - 7 associates of the North Side Gang had been riddled with bullets while inside a garage. The crime horrified the people of Chicago, a city already beleaguered by years of gang wars that had begun in the wake of Prohibition. Considered an unsolved murder, the massacre will forever be remembered as the quintessential example of mob violence in the 1920s.

THANKS TO OUR TO PATREON SUBSCRIBERS! We couldn't do this without you. Extra special thanks to the following patrons for their exceptional support:

Jack Canfora

Jill Cohen

Lauren Stephenson

Rob Emmett

Tristen Pearson

Become an official Morbuddy: patreon.com/themorbidmuseum

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Artwork: Brittany Schall

Music: "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saens, performed by Kevin MacLeod

For 150 years, Hart Island has been the final resting place for New York City's unclaimed, forgotten, and unknown dead. We review the history of this potter's field discussing its recent turnover to the city Park's Department and new chapter of open access.

THANKS TO OUR TO PATREON SUBSCRIBERS! We couldn't do this without you. Extra special thanks to the following patrons for their exceptional support:

Matthew Aronoff

Dennis Barette

Rob Emmett

Haley Lamp

Tristen Pearson

Lauren Stephenson

Become an official Morbuddy: patreon.com/themorbidmuseum

Follow us on IG: @themorbidmuseum

Email us at themorbidmuseum@gmail.com

Artwork: Brittany Schall

Music: "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saens, performed by Kevin MacLeod

In part II of the series we will delve more deeply into the history of NOLA's death culture, funerary and burial practices by exploring it's cemeteries.

New Orleans is a beloved and complex city that has a reputation for being obsessed with joy and death in equal measure. Haunted by alleged ghosts and it's very real past, the morbid history of NOLA is endlessly fascinating. This series will focus on how it first gained it's reputation as "a city of the dead."

• The New Orleans Cemetery Database
• "How Yellow Fever Intensified Racial Inequality in 19th-Century New Orleans" By: Karin Wulf | April 19, 2022 | Smithsonian Magazine
• Epidemic in New Orleans | American Experience | Official Site | PBS
• The Cemetery Under The French Quarter | WWNO
• "New Orleans’ Grave Traditions Unearthed : Customs: The many elaborate sculptures and unusual layouts of the city’s cemeteries make them an interesting tourist attraction." | BY CHARLES HILLINGER | Los Angeles Times
• "How Yellow Fever Turned New Orleans Into The 'City Of The Dead'" Code Switch : NPR
• "In the late 1800s, devastating yellow fever epidemics forced New Orleans to confront its sanitation problem" | The Historic New Orleans Collection

THANKS TO OUR TO PATREON SUBSCRIBERS! We couldn't do this without you. Extra special thanks to the following patrons for their exceptional support:

Matthew Aronoff

Dennis Barette

Rob Emmett

Haley Lamp

Become an official Morbuddy: patreon.com/themorbidmuseum

Follow us on IG: @themorbidmuseum

Email us at themorbidmuseum@gmail.com

Artwork: Brittany Schall

Music: "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saens, performed by Kevin MacLeod

Note: As of the release of this episode, the Town Hall meeting has been released and is watchable at: https://youtu.be/Da0uML0BPy4?si=12pHRR1_abEaJ6EF

In recent decades, museums and historical sites all over the world have been engaging in the incredibly important and difficult conversation of repatriation, especially when it comes to human remains. The ethical questions are numerous, and each case is complex and, at times, highly nuanced. How do you find provenance for remains that are over 150 years old? What is the appropriate resting place for unclaimed, unidentified remains? Who decides that? Is the answer to ban all human remains from being on display? One institution that is currently undergoing massive scrutiny for how it is handling the question of displaying or repatriating human remains is the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. To aid us in this discussion, Katie interviewed members of "Protect the Mütter ," a campaign devoted to challenging the current decisions being made around removing human remains from public view. ONLY AVAILABLE ON PATREON!

For more information on "Protect the Mütter" you can check out their linktree: https://linktr.ee/protectthemutter?fbclid=PAAaaJ_jHZvgyUNsxQWTrND8LZENQedtQW1jGneEBc34WS296L5AObLooEOuM_aem_AZTCUoIoWTgHM0gQkV4qTX1cotfWkFzqWjFrXj26YmYVVs4VI4Lye43Stya6bAJ7h-A

THANKS TO OUR TO PATREON SUBSCRIBERS! We couldn't do this without you. Extra special thanks to the following patrons for their exceptional support:

Matthew Aronoff

Dennis Barette

Rob Emmett

Haley Lamp

Lauren Stephenson

Become an official Morbuddy: patreon.com/themorbidmuseum

Follow us on IG: @themorbidmuseum

Email us at themorbidmuseum@gmail.com

Artwork: Brittany Schall

Music: "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saens, performed by Kevin MacLeod

In recent decades, museums and historical sites all over the world have been engaging in the incredibly important and difficult conversation of repatriation, especially when it comes to human remains. The ethical questions are numerous, and each case is complex and, at times, highly nuanced. How do you find provenance for remains that are over 150 years old? What is the appropriate resting place for unclaimed, unidentified remains? Who decides that? Is the answer to ban all human remains from being on display? One institution that is currently undergoing massive scrutiny for how it is handling the question of displaying or repatriating human remains is the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. To aid us in this discussion, Katie interviewed members of "Protect the Mütter ," a campaign devoted to challenging the current decisions being made around removing human remains from public view.

For more information on "Protect the Mütter" you can check out their linktree: https://linktr.ee/protectthemutter?fbclid=PAAaaJ_jHZvgyUNsxQWTrND8LZENQedtQW1jGneEBc34WS296L5AObLooEOuM_aem_AZTCUoIoWTgHM0gQkV4qTX1cotfWkFzqWjFrXj26YmYVVs4VI4Lye43Stya6bAJ7h-A

THANKS TO OUR TO PATREON SUBSCRIBERS! We couldn't do this without you. Extra special thanks to the following patrons for their exceptional support:

Matthew Aronoff

Dennis Barette

Rob Emmett

Haley Lamp

Lauren Stephenson

Become an official Morbuddy: patreon.com/themorbidmuseum

Follow us on IG: @themorbidmuseum

Email us at themorbidmuseum@gmail.com

Artwork: Brittany Schall

Music: "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saens, performed by Kevin MacLeod

In Philadelphia, a hulking ruin of one of America's largest prisons is now a historic site and famed attraction. Eastern State Penitentiary illustrates the changing cultural mores around crime and punishment, and the mass incarceration crisis today.

Thank you, Patreon Subscribers! We couldn't do this without you. Extra special thanks to the following patrons for their exceptional support:

Matthew Aronoff

Dennis Barette

Rob Emmett

Haley Lamp

Become an official Morbuddy: patreon.com/themorbidmuseum

Follow us on IG: @themorbidmuseum

Email us at themorbidmuseum@gmail.com

Artwork: Brittany Schall

Music: "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saens, performed by Kevin MacLeod