Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
Pastel de nata
Portugal • 8 days, 7 nights
Portugal: A Culinary Adventure from Porto to Lisbon
from
Italy • 9 days, 8 nights
Flavors of Italy: Roman Carbonara, Florentine Steak & Venetian Cocktails
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
The wall commemorating 11,908 Jewish victims of the Shoah from Frankfurt.
Börneplatz Memorial
Entrance to the munitions area of the lower part of the bunker
Simserhof
Carlos Calderón Yruegas calls the villa his personal playground.
Villa Tabaiba
Apples and pears, Spitalfields Market.
Brick Lane Roundels
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
The sign declares this the number-one gumbo shop in town.
Gumbo Hut Shioya
The pavlova comes crowned with jewel-like fruit.
Central Park Boathouse
The Village Tavern of Long Grove - exterior.
The Village Tavern
Hunter House Hamburgers
L’Escamoteur
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
The exterior of the Hall of Records.
Atlas Obscura Mailbag: Urban Exploration, Illegal Carvings, and Repeat Vacations
1 day ago
Biosphere 2 campus (2016)
Biosphere 2: How Volunteers Survived for 2 Years in an Airtight Habitat
2 days ago
Places like Forest Grove linger on the edge of wilderness and civilization.
Listening for Echoes of the Forest Grove Sound
2 days ago
Longwood House, where Napoleon Bonaparte spent his final years.
The Longwood House: Napoleon Bonaparte’s Beautiful Prison
3 days ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United States Massachusetts Boston Boston Athenaeum Skin Book
AO Edited

Boston Athenaeum Skin Book

A morbid secret lies hidden within the beautiful walls of the Boston Athenaeum.

Boston, Massachusetts

Added By
Dylan Thuras
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
A book describing the man that is also made from.  
A book describing the man that is also made from.  
The Boston Athenaeum  
The notorious highwayman once declared himself to be the “master of his own skin.” These would prove portentous words, for his memoirs of a lifetime of ill deeds are bound in his own skin.  
This is what the front desk will show you if you walk in and ask.   cait7911 / Atlas Obscura User
Boston Athenaeum Reading Room (Ivana Viani, 2016)   Ivana Viani / Atlas Obscura User
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

The Boston Athenaeum is home to about 150,000 rare books. But in a locked room, tucked into a custom-made box, there lives a particularly curious one. About the size of an ordinary paperback, the book is a memoir by the career criminal James Allen, alias George Walton. The light gray cover bears the Latin phrase "Hic Liber Waltonis Cute Compactus Est:" "This book was bound in Walton's skin."

Born in Lancaster, Massachusetts in 1809 to a struggling family, Allen fell into a life of crime at the age of fifteen, after a chance meeting with a master thief. He spent most of his life in and out of different jails: while incarcerated, he would read books, learn trades, and get on well with everyone, but as soon as he got out, he would return directly to burglaring and highway-robbing. Eventually, he died of tuberculosis at the state prison in Charlestown, MA. 

Before he died, though, Allen decided to tell the story of his life to the prison's warden, and asked him to write it down. He also made a more unusual request: "Allen asked that enough of his skin be tanned to provide bindings for two copies of this memoir," writes Stephen Z. Nonack in Acquired Tastes, an account of the Boston Athenaeum's collections. 

One copy of the book was to go to his doctor, and the other was to go to John Fenno, Jr., one of Allen's victims, who he considered to be "the only man who had ever stood up to him," Nonack writes. "A sufficient piece of skin was removed from Allen's back and taken to a local tannery, where it was treated to look like grey deerskin and finally delievered into the hands of... a bookbinder." (You can view the book and read the text at the Athenaeum's website.)

Anthropodermic bibliopegy, or the practice of binding texts in human skin, may date back to the French Revolution, when a number of copies of the French Constitution were supposedly bound in the skin of those who opposed the new Republic. (These can be seen in the in the Museum Carnavalet in Paris.)

By the 19th century, the most common use of anthropodermic bibliopegy was by physicians. Dr. John Stockton Hough bound three medical volumes in the skin of a patient with the first diagnosed case of trichinosis. Others used cadavers they had obtained from public executions.

Books such as the The Dance of Death were being bound in human skin as late as the 1890s. Many of these books now belong to libraries, including the John Hay Library at Brown University, the library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and potentially the Cleveland Public Library and the library of Harvard Law School.

While it is unclear exactly how this skin book got to the Athenaeum, anecdotal evidence suggests it was donated by John Fenno, Jr.'s daughter sometime in the 19th century. There it sits today, describing the life of the man it is also made from.

Update as of July 2021: Allen's skin-bound memoirs is no longer on permanent display.

Related Tags

Rare Books Libraries Books Bound In Human Skin Natural Wonders Relics And Reliquaries Collections Nature

Know Before You Go

Citing conservation concerns, Allen's skin-bound memoirs are no longer on permanent display, nor are they available to view by appointment. Curious visitors must be  content with the digitized version, or be on the lookout for pop-up exhibits that may include the book in the future. Researchers may request to view either of the non-human skin-bound copies that are housed in the Athenæum's collection. 

Community Contributors

Added By

Dylan

Edited By

Cara Giaimo, Ivana Viani, rcatherine, lisamucci...

  • Cara Giaimo
  • Ivana Viani
  • rcatherine
  • lisamucci
  • cait7911

Published

June 15, 2010

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • http://cdm.bostonathenaeum.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15482coll3/id/4273
  • https://www.amazon.com/Acquired-Tastes-Collecting-Boston-Athenaeum/dp/0934552738
  • http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jan/15/news/adna-hleather15
  • http://histmed.collegeofphysicians.org/skin-she-lived-in/
  • https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/book-its-cover
Boston Athenaeum Skin Book
10 1/2 Beacon Street
Boston, Massachusetts, 02108
United States
42.358078, -71.062336
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Grave of Christopher Seider

Boston, Massachusetts

miles away

Boston's Old Burying Grounds

Boston, Massachusetts

miles away

Statue of Mary Dyer

Boston, Massachusetts

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Boston

Boston

Massachusetts

Places 127
Stories 34

Nearby Places

Grave of Christopher Seider

Boston, Massachusetts

miles away

Boston's Old Burying Grounds

Boston, Massachusetts

miles away

Statue of Mary Dyer

Boston, Massachusetts

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Boston

Boston

Massachusetts

Places 127
Stories 34

Related Stories and Lists

Exit Interview: I Curated Rare Books for a 200-Year-Old Library

rare books

By Cara Giaimo

Object of Intrigue: Confederate Currency

objects of intrigue

By Ella Morton

Obscura Day 2012: It Lives!

obscura day

By Dylan Thuras

Related Places

  • Some of the buildings which form the Palace Green Library

    Durham, England

    Palace Green Library

    This library dates back to the late 17th century and was one of the first public lending libraries in England.

  • Gower, Persephone inside

    Seattle, Washington

    Book Arts & Rare Book Collections

    Peruse rare tomes like poetry bound in pearls or books with branches and berries growing out of their spines.

  • Human Skeletons in Skeleton Lake in Roopkund

    Chamoli, India

    Skeletons of Roopkund Lake

    A lake with hundreds of ancient skeletons surrounding it. The surprise is what killed them.

  • One of the larger specimens.

    Singapore

    The Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum

    Terrapins of all colors and shapes are quick to bring fascination (and possibly long life) at this museum.

  • Southern Pines, North Carolina

    Creation Museum, Taxidermy Hall of Fame, and Antique Tool Museum

    A curious blend of taxidermy, antique tools, creationism, and a purported antediluvian rock.

  • S.S. Palo Alto

    Powell River, British Columbia

    S.S. Peralta

    One of the final concrete ships built before World War II is now a crumbling breakwater.

  • St. Anthony’s Chapel

    Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

    St. Anthony's Chapel

    This church in Pittsburgh is home to the largest collection of religious relics in North America.

  • Paris, France

    Chapelle Notre Dame de la Medaille Miraculeuse

    A popular shrine where the Blessed Virgin allegedly appeared in 1830, displaying a holy armchair and two incorruptible remains of Lady Saints.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.