Beethoven skull fragments

Index of images

Copyright 2005 Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San José State University

May not be used without permission

1. Photograph of the largest skull fragment that consists of two pieces glued together.

2. Photograph of the largest skull fragment, wrapped in tissue, in the metal box in which they had been stored.

3. Photograph of the largest skull fragment in the metal box in which they had been stored.

4. Photograph of one of the fragments and the pear-shaped box.

5. The lid of the pear-shaped box with Romeo Seligmann's "Beethoven" identification.

6. Box of galvanized sheet metal, on the cover the inscription "Beethoven" and one the bottom a glued-on label. The bone fragments of Beethoven's skull were in this box.

7. The label glued on the bottom of the sheet-metal box holding the bone fragments of Beethoven's skull. Special procedures were required to decipher the inscription.

8. Photograph of the second and later label describing the fragments (from the Kaufmann Foundation Archives).

9. Anatomical position of the discovered bone fragments. Occiput as seen from the exterior; bone piece no. 1 is marked. The bone fragments are drawn over illustrations from the anatomical atlas by C. Toldt.

10. Anatomical position of the discovered bone fragments. Left parietal bone as seen from the exterior; the bone pieces no. 2 (bigger) and no. 3 (smaller) are marked. The bone fragments are drawn over illustrations from the anatomical atlas by C. Toldt.

11. Photograph of a reconstruction of Beethoven's skull with the larger pieces discovered in the 1863 exhumation put together over a clay model (photograph by J. B. Rottmayer).

12. Sketch by Thomas Desmines of the genealogy of the Seligmann-Rosenthal-Kaufmann family beginning with Romeo Seligmann's parents (from the Kaufmann Foundation Archives).

13. Franz Romeo Seligmann (1808-1892), who worked as a medical historian after 1833, was present at the exhumation of the relics of Beethoven's corpse in the year 1863 and examined parts of the skeleton. The bone fragments of Beethoven's skull that we discovered are in the possession of F.R. Seligmann's descendants. (Photograph from the Kaufmann Foundation Archives).

14. Photograph of a painting of Romeo Seligmann painted by his son Albert (photograph from the Kaufmann Foundation Archives).

15. Photograph from 1988 of Paul and Joan Kaufmann with their daughter Lynn (from the Kaufmann Foundation Archives).