Editing Jeremy Bentham (section)

=== Death and the auto-icon ===
[[File:"Mortal Remains" of Jeremy Bentham, 1832 Wellcome L0007730.jpg|thumb|Bentham's public dissection]]
[[File:Jeremy Bentham Auto-Icon.jpg|thumb|upright|Bentham's auto-icon in 2003]]

[[File:Jeremy Bentham Auto-Icon 2020.jpg|thumb|upright|Bentham's auto-icon in a new display case at University College London's Student Centre in 2020]]

Bentham died on 6 June 1832, aged 84, at his residence in Queen Square Place in [[Westminster]], London. He had continued to write up to a month before his death, and had made careful preparations for the [[dissection]] of his body after death and its preservation as an auto-icon. As early as 1769, when Bentham was 21 years old, he made a will leaving his body for dissection to a family friend, the physician and chemist [[George Fordyce]], whose daughter, Maria Sophia (1765–1858), married Jeremy's brother [[Samuel Bentham]].<ref name="ODNB" /> A paper written in 1830, instructing [[Thomas Southwood Smith]] to create the auto-icon, was attached to his last will, dated 30 May 1832.<ref name="ODNB" /> It stated:

{{blockquote|My body I give to my dear friend Dr Southwood Smith to be disposed of in a manner hereinafter mentioned, and I direct ... he will take my body under his charge and take the requisite and appropriate measures for the disposal and preservation of the several parts of my bodily frame in the manner in the paper annexed to this my will and at the top of which I have written Auto Icon.{{pb}}The skeleton he will cause to be put together in such a manner that the whole figure may be seated in a chair usually occupied by me when living, in the attitude in which I am sitting while engaged in thought in the course of time occupied in writing.{{pb}}I direct that the body thus prepared shall be transferred to my executor. He will cause the skeleton to be clad in one of the suits of black occasionally worn by me. The body so clothed, together with the chair and the staff in my later years borne by me, he will take charge of, and for containing the whole apparatus he will cause to be prepared an appropriate box or case, and will cause to be engraved in conspicuous characters on a plate to be affixed thereon and also on the labels on the glass case in which the preparations of the soft parts of my body shall be contained, ... my name at length with the letters ob: followed by the day of my decease.{{pb}}If it should so happen that my personal friends and other disciples should be disposed to meet together on some day or days of the year for the purpose of commemorating the founder of the greatest happiness system of morals and legislation, my executor will from time to time cause to be conveyed in the room in which they meet the said box or case with the contents therein, to be stationed in such part of the room as to the assembled company shall seem meet. – Queen's Square Place, Westminster, Wednesday 30 May 1832.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Raphael |first1=Isabel |title=Southwood Smith: his extraordinary life and family |journal=Camden History Review |date=2009 |volume=33 |page=6}}</ref>}}

Bentham's wish to preserve his dead body was consistent with his philosophy of utilitarianism. In his essay ''Auto-Icon, or the Uses of the Dead to the Living'', Bentham wrote, "If a country gentleman has rows of trees leading to his dwelling, the auto-icons of his family might alternate with the trees; copal varnish would protect the face from the effects of rain."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forbes |first1=Malcolm |title=They Went That-a-way |date=1988 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York |isbn=0671657097 |page=28}}</ref> On 8 June 1832, two days after his death, invitations were distributed to a select group of friends, and on the following day at 3 p.m., Southwood Smith delivered a lengthy oration over Bentham's remains in the Webb Street School of Anatomy & Medicine in [[Southwark]], London. The printed oration contains a frontispiece with an engraving of Bentham's body partly covered by a sheet.<ref name="ODNB" />

Afterward, the skeleton and head were preserved and stored in a wooden cabinet called the "auto-icon", with the skeleton padded out with hay and dressed in Bentham's clothes. From 1833, it stood in Southwood Smith's [[Finsbury Square]] consulting rooms until he abandoned private practice in the winter of 1849–50, when it was moved to 36 [[Percy Street]], the studio of his unofficial partner, painter [[Margaret Gillies]], who made studies of it. In March 1850, Southwood Smith offered the auto-icon to [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Henry Brougham]], who readily accepted it for [[University College London|UCL]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hayes |first1=David |title=From Southwood Smith to Octavia Hill: a remarkable family's Camden years |journal=Camden History Review |date=2009 |volume=33 |page=9}}</ref>

It is currently kept on public display at the main entrance of the UCL Student Centre. It was previously displayed at the end of the South Cloisters in the main building of the college until it was moved in 2020. Upon the retirement of Sir [[Malcolm Grant]] as [[Provost (education)|provost]] of the college in 2013, however, the body was present at Grant's final council meeting. As of 2013, this was the only time that the body of Bentham has been taken to a UCL council meeting.<ref name="Smallman2013" /><ref>{{cite AV media |people=Das, Subhadra (curator) |date=19 November 2018 |title=The Boring Talks |trans-title=#25 Jeremy Bentham's 'Auto-Icon' |medium=podcast |language=en |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05t3gr2/episodes/downloads |publisher=BBC }}</ref> (There is a persistent myth that the body of Bentham is present at all council meetings.)<ref name="Smallman2013" /><ref name="UCL1" />

Bentham had intended the auto-icon to incorporate his actual head, [[Mummy#Modern mummies|mummified]] to resemble its appearance in life. Southwood Smith's experimental efforts at mummification – based on the [[mokomokai|preservation practices]] of [[New Zealand]]'s indigenous [[Māori people|Māori]] – involved placing the head under an air pump over sulphuric acid and drawing off the fluids. Although technically successful, they left the head looking distastefully macabre, with dried and darkened skin stretched tautly over the skull.<ref name="ODNB"/>

[[File:Jeremy Bentham's Severed Head.JPG|thumb|Jeremy Bentham's severed head, on temporary display at UCL]]
The auto-icon was therefore given a [[wax]] head, fitted with some of Bentham's own hair. The real head was displayed in the same case as the auto-icon for many years, but became the target of repeated [[student prank]]s. It was later locked away.<ref name="UCL1" /> 

In 2020, the auto-icon was put into a new glass display case and moved to the entrance of UCL's new Student Centre on [[Gordon Square]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Jeremy Bentham's Body Gets A Contentious New Box At UCL |url=https://londonist.com/london/jeremy-bentham-s-body-gets-a-new-box |access-date=27 February 2020 |work=Londonist |date=24 February 2020 |language=en}}</ref>