“A true collector, a born collector, is an addict,” believes 80 year-old, Elinor Wrobel. The Syndey-based collector and art curator is head of the Morbid Anatomy Museum, a small and eccentric corner of the Sydney Hospital dedicated to preserving hundreds of human body parts collected from the hospital’s morgue over generations.
“A former nurse, art collector and curator, Elinor recovered the collection from a musty attic crawling with cockroaches and fought tooth and nail for the specimens to be restored and exhibited to the public. Several times, hospital administrators have sought to transfer the specimens elsewhere, or convert the museum into office spaces, but so far Wrobel has prevailed. She believes the hundreds of unique anatomical specimens from people dating back to the 1890s are not only an important resource for medical students, but also a ‘beautiful’ reminder of our own mortality.”
Matron of Morbidity is a film by by Ella Rubeli and Joel Tozer for Narratively video, discover more of their films here.
