Megan Rosenbloom

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Megan Rosenbloom
Rosenbloom in 2016
Born
Megan Curran Rosenbloom

1981 (age 42–43)
Education
OccupationMedical librarian
Known forAnthropodermic Book Project
WebsiteOfficial website

Megan Curran Rosenbloom[1] (born 1981)[2] is an American medical librarian and expert on anthropodermic bibliopegy, the practice of binding books in human skin.[3] She is a team member of the Anthropodermic Book Project, a group which scientifically tests skin-bound books to determine whether their origins are human.[4] Rosenbloom is the author of Dark Archives, a 2020 non-fiction book on the history, provenance, and myths about books bound in human skin.[5]

Education[edit]

In 2004, Rosenbloom earned a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from Drexel University. Rosenbloom received her Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 2008.[6]

Career[edit]

Rosenbloom works as a medical librarian at University of Southern California Norris Medical Library, and as an obituary editor for the Journal of the Medical Library Association.[7]

Through her library work, Rosenbloom had access to a large number of old and rare medical books that were also about death.[7] She began doing public lectures on the way the history of medical advancements is intertwined with the use of nameless corpses and met Caitlin Doughty; together they curate Death Salon events.[8] Rosenbloom believes the more people deny the inevitability of death, "the more people are psychically destroyed when it happens in their lives."[9] She co-founded and directs Death Salon, the events arm of The Order of the Good Death where people can have conversations and discussions with others about death.[10] Death Salons are a mix of private Order of the Good Death business and public events, happening nearly annually since 2013.[11][12]

As a member of the Anthropodermic Book Project, Rosenbloom and her colleagues Daniel Kirby, Richard Hark and Anna Dhody use peptide mass fingerprinting to determine if the binding on books is of human origin.[13] Rosenbloom is part of the outreach team, trying to convince rare book libraries to have their books tested.[13]

Writings[edit]

  • Rosenbloom, Megan (Summer 2016). "A Book by its Cover: Identifying & Scientifically Testing the World's Books Bound in Human Skin" (PDF). The Watermark: Newsletter of the Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences. 39 (3): 20–22. ISSN 1553-7641.
  • Rosenbloom, Megan (October 19, 2016). "A Book by Its Cover". Lapham’s Quarterly. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
  • Rosenbloom, Megan (2020). Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374134709. Retrieved February 5, 2020.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "About Megan Rosenbloom". meganrosenbloom.com. Archived from the original on June 20, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  2. ^ "Rosenbloom, Megan". LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress). June 8, 2020. Archived from the original on December 22, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
  3. ^ "The Team". The Anthropodermic Book Project. October 19, 2015. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  4. ^ "Dark Archives – Megan Rosenbloom". US Macmillan. June 14, 2016. Archived from the original on April 5, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  5. ^ Jacobson, Christine (March 30, 2021). "A Look at Anthropodermic Bibliopegy: On Megan Rosenbloom's "Dark Archives"". Los Angeles Review of Books. Archived from the original on July 8, 2023. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  6. ^ Journal, Library (March 16, 2016). "Megan Rosenbloom – Movers & Shakers 2016 – Educators". Library Journal. Archived from the original on April 10, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  7. ^ a b Price, Sallyann (October 22, 2019). "Newsmaker: Megan Rosenbloom". American Libraries Magazine. Archived from the original on May 28, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  8. ^ "About Us". Death Salon. November 4, 2013. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  9. ^ Hayasaki, Erika (October 25, 2013). "Death Is Having a Moment". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on July 27, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  10. ^ "Megan Rosenbloom". USC Libraries. Archived from the original on August 23, 2020. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  11. ^ O'Connor, Kim (May 16, 2013). "A Profile of the Order of the Good Death". Pacific Standard. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  12. ^ Ortiz, Jen (October 21, 2019). "Death Positivity Movement – I'm Afraid of Dying". Marie Claire. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  13. ^ a b Davis, Simon (October 19, 2015). "The Quest to Discover the World's Books Bound in Human Skin". Mental Floss. Archived from the original on May 2, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2020.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megan_Rosenbloom&oldid=1183845414"