These iconic historical figures, left so much behind after their deaths, well, literally, since their body parts were removed and preserved in museums.
The stories of the preservation are even weirder than the preserved body parts.
10.Galileo’s Middle Finger
Galileo Galilei has been called as the father of “modern science” and “observational astronomy” as well as the founder of “modern physics.”
Anton Francesco Gori in 1737 snapped the finger off the Italian Renaissance scientist and mathematician, 94years after his death.
His middle finger was passed around for a few hundred years until making its way to the Florence History of Science Museum, where it still resides today.
9.Rasputin’s Penis
The infamous mystic advisor to the Czar and his family, Gregori Rasputin, was also known for notorious sex escapades and orgies, by a claim that they were part of a religious experience.
After he was killed on every way possible: poisoned, clubbed, shot, and finally drowned and died in 1916, his penis was mysteriously severed from his body.
Somehow, in the 1920s Rasputin’s penis made it to Paris, where allegedly a group of Russian women were worshiping it. Rasputin’s daughter Maria found out and strongly disapproved of the cult and took it back.
8.Buddha’s Tooth
The spiritual leader and the father of Buddhism, Gautama Buddha, died in the 6th century BC in India. Buddha was cremated, but followers kept a tooth as a sacred relic.
The tooth is now displayed in a large gold reliquary in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
7.Beethoven’s Ear Bones
When renowned composer Beethoven died in 1827, doctors were eager to study the partially deaf composer’s ears. During his autopsy, his ear bones were removed and then supposedly stolen by a medical orderly, who sold them to a “foreign doctor.”
The ear bones were never found again, but parts of Beethoven’s skull did resurface. In 2005, pieces of it were discovered in California.
6.Che Guevara’s Hair
5.Napoleon’s Penis
Supposedly, a resentful doctor removed Napoleon’s penis during his autopsy in 1821. The Emperor’s private member was not seen again until 1916, when it showed up in London at the “Vignali Collection” of Napoleonic souvenirs gathered from the island where he died in exile, St. Helena. Afterward, it traveled around for awhile until the mid-1970s, when an American urologist D.r John Kingsely Lattimer bought it for about $3,000. Napoleon’s penis remains in the United States to this day.
4.Thomas Edison’s Last Breath
A test tube supposedly containing American inventor Thomas Jefferson’s last breath is on display at the Henry Ford Museum.
Henry Ford and Edison were very close friends. In fact, in the last few years of Edison’s life, Ford bought a home next door to his winter estate in Florida, so the two could run-amuck and race in wheelchairs.
When Ford died in 1947, a test tube containing Edison’s last breath was found among his stuff. Allegedly, Ford had asked Edison’s son, Charles, to bottle an exhaled breath from Edison while he lay dying.
3.Benito Mussolini’s Brain
When Italian dictator Benito “Il Duce” Mussolini was executed in 1945, the U.S. government asked for a sample of his brain to study it, but also as a grim trophy. In 1966, 21 years after Il Duce’s demise, the U.S. government gave the portion of his brain back to his widow Rachele Mussolini. In 2007, pieces of Mussonlini’s brain resurfaced on eBay, where they were being sold for $22,000.
2.Abraham Lincoln’s Bone Fragments
After President Lincoln was shot, he received the best medical treatment available at the time, but it just wasn’t enough. Doctors tried to remove the bullet imbedded in his skull, however by doing so they forced out a blood clot as well as several fragments of his skull.
The fragments of Lincoln’s skull can be seen today on display next to the bullet that killed the president at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.
1.Albert Einstein’s Brain
Albert Einstein was one of the greatest scientific minds of the 20th century. When he died, his brain was removed to study and understand the mind of a genius. After the first study, the brain went missing and no one knew what happened to it.
In 1978, Einstein’s brain was “rediscovered” in the possession of Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey, the doctor who first removed and studied the brain. In 2010, the brain was donated to National Museum of Health and Medicine.
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