You've Read the Book, Now See the Web Site:A Virtual Tour of the Worlds of Burke and Hare

This poster will present the results of my use of virtual tour software for my website, The Worlds of Burke and Hare. The website is designed to complement my book on the notorious1828 murder case, in which the cadavers of 16 victims were sold to an Edinburgh anatomist. It is now common for trade books to have an accompanying website, primarily for advertising. A website that explicitly augments the argument in the book by incorporating materials best suited to a digital mode of presentation as an integral part of the scholarship happens less frequently. But, as Daniel Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig have argued in Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web online history has the potential to “allow us to do things better,” to present more types of material, more visually, and more interactively than ever before. Perhaps the best known linkage of book to website is DoHistory.org, which which presents images, text, and interactive activities connected to Laurel Ulrich's A Midwife's Tale (http://dohistory.org/). The DoHistory site, though, was conceived after the book was completed. Its purpose is pedagogical and informative. It enhances the book's content rather than explicitly providing support for its central assertions. This poster will present the way in which I developed two key themes of The Worlds of Burke and Hare in an online environment. First, I offer an online virtual walking tour of 1828 Edinburgh, based on prints and architectural drawings. The walking tour makes concrete my arguments about how class and town-space were related to the acquisition of bodies. Second, I will offer visual adaptations of 19th century anatomical manuals to demonstrate, in a way that text-based illustrations cannot, the actual process of dissection. This adaptation lends support to my interpretation of the commodification of cadavers in 19th century medical education. This material will be incorporated into standard poster format. I will provide my own computer to aid in the presentation. I expect this poster presentation to contribute to the growing body of literature on the tools and techniques of digital history, and to the history of medicine and of crime.