Burkes Skin Pocket Book Notebook

Exclusive to Surgeons’ Hall Museums, this notebook reproduces one of the most notorious items in our collection; the book made from William Burke's skin, following the public dissection of his body after he was hanged.

William Burke and William Hare were two serial killers active in Edinburgh between 1827 and 1828. They famously sold their victims' bodies for dissection at Dr Robert Knox’s anatomy school.

Burke and Hare were exposed when neighbours and police discovered their murder of a local woman on October 31, 1828. Burke was tried for murder, found guilty, and hanged.

On 1st February 1829, Burke's body was publicly dissected. After the dissection, Burke's skeleton was given to the Anatomical Museum, where it remains to this day. His death mask and the book which is bound with his skin can be found in our History of Surgery Gallery at the Surgeons' Hall Museum.

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