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All the United Kingdom England London Jeremy Bentham's Auto-Icon
AO Edited

Jeremy Bentham's Auto-Icon

The remains of the great moral philosopher reside in a university in London.

London, England

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Joshua Foer
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Jeremy Bentham’s Auto-Icon in its new location in 2020   UCL Culture/Buzz Films
A close up of Bentham’s wax head   UCL Culture/Buzz Films
Jeremy Bentham’s Auto-Icon in its previous case   Getty Images/ Jim Dyson
Jeremy Bentham’s Auto-Icon   Matt Brown / CC BY 2.0
Preserved head   SEANETTA / Atlas Obscura User
‘Ripley’s Believe it or Not’ Comic # 10 & replica used at museum.   SEANETTA / Atlas Obscura User
Mummified head.   SEANETTA / Atlas Obscura User
JB MAY 2021   Kas / Atlas Obscura User
Jeremy Bentham’s Auto-Icon in its new location in 2020   Philip Stevens/CC BY-SA 4.0
Opposite 29 Queen Anne’s Gate, SW1   SEANETTA / Atlas Obscura User
  SEANETTA / Atlas Obscura User
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About

When the moral philosopher Jeremy Bentham died in 1832, he left a will with specific instructions pertaining to the "disposal and preservation of the several parts of my bodily frame." His skeleton was to be "clad in one of the suits of black occasionally worn by me" and seated upright on a chair, under a placard reading "Auto Icon."

Bentham suggested that his corpse might then be able to preside over regular meetings of his utilitarian followers. For ten years prior to his death, Bentham purportedly carried in his pocket a pair of glass eyes that were to be embedded into his embalmed head. Here, however, Bentham’s plan went awry. His face was grossly disfigured in the process of preserving it, and a substitute wax replacement had to be created.

The real embalmed head was placed on the floor between Bentham’s legs, where it resided until 1975, when it was kidnapped by a group of students demanding £100 for charity. The university paid £10, and the head of the great moral philosopher was returned. Since 2002, Bentham's real head has resided in a climate-controlled storeroom at the UCL Institute of Archeology. Those with appropriate reasons to pay a visit may still do so by appointment.

In 2020, Bentham's Auto-Icon was moved to a new display in the UCL Student Centre. 

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Mummies Wax Anatomy Universities Self Mummified Statues

Know Before You Go

The Auto-Icon is located on the ground floor of the Student Centre on UCL's Bloomsbury campus.

The entrance is at 27-28 Gordon Square. The auto-icon is directly to the left of the staircase and is fully accessible. 

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Josh

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abihunter, jooniur, Meg, SEANETTA...

  • abihunter
  • jooniur
  • Meg
  • SEANETTA
  • Michelle Cassidy
  • Kas

Published

June 1, 2009

Updated

March 25, 2020

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Jeremy Bentham's Auto-Icon
27-28 Gordon Square
Bloomsbury
London, England, WC1H 0AH
United Kingdom
51.524339, -0.13452
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