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Get a different view of Jeremy Bentham

2 November 2012

UCL staff will have a rare opportunity to see Jeremy Bentham's Auto-Icon up close and personal on Thursday 8 November, when UCL Museums staff will take him out of his case for cleaning.

Jeremy Bentham

UCL staff and the public will be welcome to see Bentham from 12pm-4pm in the Rock Room in South Wing. Bentham's clothes will be cleaned, and improvements will be made to the lighting sensors and seals in his case, which prevent infiltration of dust.

Jeremy Bentham was a philosopher and jurist whose doctrine of Utilitarianism has inspired many great thinkers. When he died in 1832 he left his body to be publicly dissected by his friend, Dr Thomas Southwood Smith, and asked that it be preserved as an 'Auto-Icon'. Jeremy the Auto-Icon came to the College in 1850, he has been cared for by UCL ever since.

Nick Booth, Curator, Teaching and Research Collections (Science and Engineering), UCL Museums and Public Engagement