Harvard University removed human skin from the binding of “Des Destinées de L’âme” in Houghton Library on Wednesday following an ethical review of the book’s origins and history.
According to the Harvard Library, French surgeon Dr. Ludovic Bouland “bound the book with skin taken without consent from the body of a deceased female patient in a hospital where he worked.”
Bouland enclosed a handwritten message inside, noting that “a book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering,” according to associate university librarian Thomas Hyry in a published Q&A. The note also described the process of preparing the skin for binding.
Following the Harvard University report on human remains in its museum collections, the library conducted an assessment, prompting the removal.
“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,” a statement from the library said Wednesday.
The removed skin is now in “secure storage at Harvard Library,” according to Anne-Marie Eze, Houghton Library associate librarian, during the Q&A session.
The library will perform additional research on the book, Bouland, and the unnamed female patient. It is also collaborating with French authorities to reach a “final respectful disposition,” it stated.
Bouland acquired a copy of “Des Destinées de L’âme,” or “Destinies of the Soul,” from its creator, Arsène Houssaye, in the early 1880s. The book, donated by philanthropist and businessman John B. Stetson Jr. in 1934, has been in the Harvard Library collection ever since.