The Columbarium: Preserved corpses of the rich and famous
The Columbarium is a free, weekly newsletter where the history of death and dying meets practical advice about the same. Enjoy this issue from the archive—and if you like it, consider signing up!
Back in college, I won a scholarship to spend my junior year abroad in Rome and Beijing. I am—as this newsletter should make abundantly clear—a huge nerd, and my scholarship research project involved Chairman Mao’s political advisors. So one day in Beijing, I woke up early and headed to Tiananmen Square, where I joined the lengthy queue to see Mao Zedong’s preserved body.
It was quick—they shuffle people in and out, no time to stop and study the corpse, which is behind glass and set back aways. In fact, they shuffle people right into a gift shop. Doesn’t seem particularly communist, but what do I know?
I wanted to write about the preserved bodies of famous people in general, but as it turns out, most of the preserved bodies out there are those of notorious dictators. There’s philosopher Jeremy Bentham. There are ancient mummies, of course, and some prehistoric friends like the Tollund Man. A bevy of Catholic saints.
Mostly dictators, though.
If you have time, you should read the fascinating Communist Mummies article on Wikipedia. Here are a few highlights:
Russia’s Vladimir Lenin—the preserved dictator who started it all. The lab that figured out how to perform this type of long-term preservation, known as “the Mausoleum group,” still exists today! They continue to care for Lenin’s body as well as that of Ho Chi Minh and the Kims of North Korea, but they also do other medical research. Lenin’s body is re-embalmed every other year, and he receives a new set of clothes every three years.
Calling all musical theater nerds: Eva Peron, a.k.a. Evita, wife of Argentine leader Juan Peron, was preserved and kept at the headquarters of a Peronist trade union. Then her body was stolen by rival military officers in 1955. The corpse spent its days in a van, a cinema, the Buenos Aires waterworks, and the Office of Military Intelligence. In 1957, the Vatican helped fly her body to Milan and bury it under a pseudonym. In 1971, she was disinterred and driven to Madrid, where Juan Peron was living with his new wife. Peron retook power in Argentina in 1973 and almost immediately died, after which Eva’s body was returned to the country, restored, and displayed beside her husband. After another military coup in 1976, she was placed in her family mausoleum, where it remains to this day. What a journey!
In 2013, Venezuela tried to preserve and display the body of Hugo Chávez, but the decision was made too late for the embalming process to work properly. You have to be on the ball with these things!
In case you were wondering: the embalming process your loved ones would undergo at a funeral home is nowhere near this extreme. And yet, I’m not sure people understand how invasive an embalming procedure can be. Check out this Caitlin Doughty video if you want to learn more. And of course, you can find additional body logistics on the dead parents site.