‘Resurrection Men’, 1792

Mounted hand coloured etching and aquatint, entitled ‘RESURRECTION MEN’, designed and etched by Richard Newton, and published by William Holland in 1792.

‘RESURRECTION MEN’ is set in a graveyard at night. Three body-snatchers, in the act of raising a coffin, are terrified by a ghostly shrouded spectre carrying a long bone. One of the body-snatchers is kneeling down hauling on the rope, while another holds a lantern.

Their shovel lies on the ground. A common purpose of body snatching was to sell the corpses for dissection or anatomy lectures in medical schools. Those who practised body snatching were often called “resurrectionists” or “resurrection-men.”