Top 10 Most Famous Preserved Body Parts

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The final resting places of most historical figures are highly guarded and viewed by many as shrines or at least veritable cash cows for the societies guarding them. For a very few of those figures, some of their remains have been “preserved” for posterity, the sake of science or just egotistical reasons. Sure anyone can see a dinosaur bone in a museum, but wouldn’t you rather see the brain of a famous scientist or the shattered bone of a martyred revolutionary?
The order of this list was derived from the relative popularity of the dead historical figure along with the circumstance of how or why the “artifact” was preserved.
10. Dan Sickles’ Leg



A Union general who lost his leg to a cannon at the Battle of Gettysburg, Major General Dan Sickle was not a brilliant man. After seeing high ground in front of his troops, he ordered them to move about a mile away, which was more indefensible and where they were effectively decimated. His leg was hit by a cannonball and had shattered, but he persevered until his leg was amputated that afternoon. Sickles’ leg and the cannonball are displayed at the American National Museum of Health and Medicine since he remembered that the Army Surgeon General was building a display of morbid anatomy along with the projectiles that caused it. Too bad this insubordinate’s legacy lives on because of that directive.

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9. Del Close’s Skull



While Del Close had taught many improvisational giants in modern media such as Stephen Colbert, John Belushi, Tina Fey, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray and others, it was perhaps his final request that wound up being the cruelest joke. Close has wanted his skull donated to the Goodman Theatre in Chicago so he could play Yorrick in “Hamlet.” While his creative partner Charna Halpern tried to make it happen, no medical organization would allow his skull to be separated from his head due to funding and/or ethical concerns. So Goodman Theatre has a stand-in while Close’s skull was cremated along with the rest of the body, according to Halpern.

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8. Major John W. Powell’s Brain



This Major is the second American Civil War soldier on this list, though he only lost an arm in the war. John Wesley Powell was the founder and longtime director of the Bureau of American Ethnology though he was arguably most famous for his exploration of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon post-Civil War. The first of three brains on this list, Powell’s is on display in a vat at the Smithsonian institute.

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7. Paul Broca’s Brain



French physician and anthropologist Paul Broca is best known for his mid 1800s discovery of the speech production center of the brain in the frontal lobe. In addition to that area being named after him, he also famously founded a number of anthropological societies in France and beyond. Wonder what he would have to say about his brain being a display at the Museum of Man in Paris?

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6. José Rizal’s Vertebra



José Rizal’s execution sparked the revolution of his homeland, Spanish colonial Philippine in 1896. Like Gandhi, Rizal believed in peaceful means to reform, which was what he wanted for his country. Now a national hero, he was originally buried in non-blessed grounds in an unmarked burial site. But about 17 years after his death his body was exhumed and transported to Luneta. During the transport a single vertebra was enclosed in a glass reliquary for display, eventually, at the Rizal museum in Fort Santiago. Supposedly it was the only bone hit by the single live bullet of the firing squad when he was executed.