Press, Interviews & Lectures
Tedx Talk
Death Like You've Never Seen it Before, Tedx Talk, 2016
Television & Video
Our Greatest Fear, Articulate, PBS, 2017
Dead Mice Get Second "Life," National Geographic, 2014
Morbid Anatomy Museum, New Learning Times, Columbia University
Morbid Anatomy Museum opens in Gowanus, Channel 12 News, 2014
Morbid Anatomy: Exploring the Art of Death: The Midnight Archive, 2012
Fox News: Body Parts on Display at Morbid Anatomy Library: Bill Schulz and Dr. Michael M. Baden Pay a Visit to the Morbid Anatomy Library, 2011
Newsweek Magazine: "Joanna Ebenstein gives a tour of Brooklyn's Morbid Anatomy Library, and shows why looking at collections of body parts and imagery, could help people deal with death, 2010
Rocketboom Media: Featurette on Morbid Anatomy, 2010
Toni on New York: Weird New York Tour of the Morbid Anatomy Library, 2009
Radio & Podcasts
Interview with Talk Nerdy’s Cara Santa Maria
Interview for Dr Vanessa Sinclair’s podcast Rendering Unconscious, 2020
Interview for The Next Room Podcast, 2020
Interview on Last Podcast on the Left, 2018
Interview on The Noir and Bizarre, 2018
Morbid Anatomy on Off the Path, WSHU, 2018
How we Remember: Death and Mourning in American Art and Culture Symposium
American Folk Art Museum, 2017Morbid Anatomist on Expanding Mind Podcast with Erik Davis, 2017
Funerary Rituals Across Time And Culture, The Colin McEnroe Show, WNPR, 2017
Women's Hour, BBC 4, 2016
NPR Morning Edition: New York Exhibitions Dance With Death Through Victorian Mourning Culture 2014
Storycorps: For Morbid Anatomy Museum Founder, Spooky Things Are Life's Work, 2014
BBC "Today" (2 hours, 55 minutes in)
Interviews and Profiles
Will Coronavirus Forever change the American Way of Death & the Meaning of Life? Interview with Morbid Anatomy’s Joanna Ebenstein, Digital Dying, 2020
A Cultural Encounter with Death: Interview with Joanna Ebenstein, The Plague Review, 2020
Joanna Ebenstein on the Pleasures of Morbidity, The Creative Independent, 2016
Joanna Ebenstein and Her Morbid Anatomy Museum, Mental Floss, 2014
Death Becomes Her, Bust Magazine, 2014
Death, Science, Sexology: Joanna Ebenstein of the Morbid Anatomy Museum: Interview with Mark Dery, Boing Boing, 2014
Learning to Love Death: New Museum Takes a Walk on the Shadow Side, Collectors Weekly, 2014
Q and A with Joanna Ebenstein, Founder of the Morbid Anatomy Library and Museum, by Elke Weesjes, United Academics, 2013
Morbid Anatomy: Exploring the Art of Death: Midnight Archive Featurette on Morbid Anatomy, 2013
Q and A: Joanna Ebenstein Discusses Death and History at the CDC Museum, The Burnaway, 2012
Joanna Ebenstein's Morbid Obsession, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 2010
Recorded Lectures
In Response to the Word “Proof,” Apex Art Double Take Series, 2019
Anatomical Venus at the Fairground: Sex Education, Public Health, and the Anatomized Female Body, Vrolik Museum, 2019
What is the Relationship Between Art and Death? Whitechapel Gallery, 2018
Death Like You've Never Seen it Before, Tedx Talk, 2016
Anatomical Venus Book Talk with Evan Michelson at The Strand Bookstore, 2016
The Thing Is... Morbid Anatomy, The Wellcome Collection, 2014
Curious Collections and Exhibitions, European Association of Museums of the History of the Medical Sciences (EAMHMS) Conference
Anatomical Venuses, Slashed Beauties, and Three Fetuses Dancing a Jig: An Illustrated Journey into the Curious World of Medical Museums, Dittrick Museum, 2011
To Every Man His Cabinet, Modern/Contemporary Art and the Curiosity Cabinet Radio at Seton Hall, 2011
Selected Articles
Marisa Tomei Gets Morbid, The New Yorker, 2021
Meet the Nun who Wants You to Remember You Will Die, New York Times, 2021
Grisly Slabs of Gothic Horror, New York Times, 2020
The iPhone at the Deathbed, New York Times, 2020
US-Trend-Thema: Tod und Sterben - "Vergiss nicht, dass du sterben wirst, ZDF, 2018
The Positive Death Movement Comes to Life, New York Times, 2018
Outing Death, New York Times, 2017
Remembering the Morbid Anatomy Museum, Haute Macabre, 2017
Morbid Anatomy Museum Closes Its Doors, New York Times, 2016
Gowanus' Morbid Anatomy Museum Closes, WNYC, 2016
The Morbid Anatomy Museum Has Given Up the Ghost,Bedford + Bowery, 2016
Brooklyn's Morbid Anatomy Museum Dies a Grisly Death, Broke-Ass Stuart, 2016
Anne Rice Finds Inspiration Amid Taxidermied Animals, The New York Times, 2016
Taxidermy at the Morbid Anatomy Museum, The Ministry of Curiosity Blog, 2016
The Bride and Groom Are Kittens. At Death They Did Not Part, The New York Times, 2016
The Twin Sisters Bonded by Their Death Obsession, Lenny Letter, 2016
Not Dead Yet: The Morbid Anatomy Museum Explores Macabre Science in Gowanus, Brooklyn, The Architect's Newspaper, 2015
Death becomes It: How the Morbid Anatomy Museum Slayed Brooklyn, The Guardian, 2015
One Year In, Brooklyn’s Morbid Anatomy Museum Still Celebrates Visitors' Curiosity, Metro NYC, 2015
Above and Beyond: The Morbid Anatomy Flea Market, The New Yorker, 2015
Meet the Lady Taxidermy Artists of Brooklyn, Brooklyn Magazine, 2015
Taxidermy Classes: All Guts and a Little Gory, The Wall Street Journal, 2015
New York City Museums, Ranked, The Awl, 2015
Finding the Beauty of Death at Brooklyn's Morbid Anatomy Museum, Vice Magazine, 2015
Morbid Anatomy Museum’s Taxidermy Classes Offer a Slice of Life (and Death), The New York Times, 2015
Where The Brooklyn Spirits Play: The Morbid Anatomy Museum Celebrates Its One-Year Anniversary, Park Slope Stoop, 2015
New York Today: Stuffed, The New York Times, 2015
Swords, Sleight of Hand and a Speaking Mummy, The New York Times, 2015
Two-Faced Kitten and Cigar-Smoking Squirrels On View At Morbid Anatomy Museum, Gothamist, 2015
'People Loved Freaks, And They Still Do': A Bizarre Trip Through Time At Morbid Anatomy Museum, Huffington Post, 2015
The Art of Mourning, at Brooklyn’s Morbid Anatomy Museum, Shock till you Drop, 2015
The Dark Side Gets Its Due: The Morbid Anatomy Museum Opens in Brooklyn, The New York Times, 2014
Flirting With the Dark Side: The Subject of Death Plays a Part in Popular Culture, The New York Times, 2014
Exploring the Culture of Mourning: Death and Grief Influence New York Exhibitions, The New York Times, 2014
The Accessories of Death, Hyperallergic, 2014
Taxidermy, Superheroes, and a Polluted Canal Tour: Weird Things to Do in NYC, Conde Nast Traveler, 2014
The Headless Horseman Variety Show, The New Yorker,2014
Brooklyn’s Morbid Anatomy Museum, Financial Times, 2014
It's Mourning in America, New York Times, 2014
Summer Is Flying By. Plan Accordingly, The New York Times, 2014
New York City’s Most Morbid Museum, BBC, 2014
Brooklyn’s Museum of Death: Inside Morbid Anatomy’s House of Intriguing Horrors, The Daily Beast, 2014
I See Dead People, The LA Review of Books, 2014
Sights and Sounds Of The Morbid Anatomy Summer Flea Market, Brooklyn Magazine, 2014
Morbid Anatomy Museum Opens in Brooklyn, Newsweek, 2014
Besuch im Jenseits, Die Zeit, 2014
The Morbid Anatomy Museum reopens, bringing lectures and mummified cat heads to Brooklyn, The Verge, 2014
56 Freaky Photos From Inside Brooklyn's Morbid Anatomy Museum, Gothamist, 2014
New Morbid Anatomy Museum Opens in Brooklyn (Where Else?), Artnet, 2014
Coming Soon to Brooklyn: The Morbid Anatomy Museum,Mental Floss, 2014
Victorian-era Taxidermist Became Master of Weird Art, The New York Post
Dead and Beautiful: The Art of Taxidermy, The Daily Beast, 2014
Walter Potter’s Wonderfully Twisted Vintage Taxidermy,Vanity Fair, 2014
The Brooklyn Museum of Death, The Awl, 2014
Fantastically Creepy Images and Tales From The Morbid Anatomy Anthology, Wired, 2014
It’s Mourning in America, The New York Times, 2014
Five Must-Visit Oddities Museums Around The World,Gothamist, 2014
Death in the Afternoon, Then Drinks, The New York Times,2014
Gowanus Is Getting A “Museum of Morbid Anatomy,Brooklyn Magazine, 2014
A Place Where Death and Beauty Intersect, Wall Street Journal, 2014
Museum of 'Morbid Anatomy' to Open in Gowanus, DNA Info, 2013
Kill time at death talks: Morbid Anatomy lecture series at Last Tuesday Society, The Hackney Citizen, 2013
Advice to Researchers and Reanimating Dead Mice, The New York Time, 2013
Brooklyn’s Freakiest Librarian Presides Over Creepy Curios at the Morbid Museum, The New York Post, 2013
Demon Season, The Brooklyn Paper, 2012
Wonderful Oddities from the Morbid Anatomy Library, The Village Voice, 2012
Photo Gallery: Bizarre Gifts from the Morbid Anatomy Holiday Fair, Flavorwire, 2012
Scary Christmas! A Visit to the Morbid Anatomy Library’s Holiday Fair, The Observer, 2012
'Morbid Anatomy Anthology': Brooklyn Art Group Seeks Funding For Curious New Book, The Huffington Post, 2012
Seize the Day' at the Wellcome Collection, London City Nights, 2012
The Crazy Cool of Emma Stone, Vogue UK, 2012
Emma Stone gets Caught in Spider-Man's Web, Herald Scotland, 2012
7 Gross Wonders Across America, CNN, 2012
A Healthy Mania for the Macabre, The Chronicle for Higher Education, 2012
Beyond the Dollhouse: The Toy Butcher Shop, Los Angeles Times, 2012
Dead Mouse Walking: New Yorkers Revive the Creepy Art of Taxidermy, The Atlantic, 2012
Fire, Flood Threatens a Morbidity Emporium on Gowanus,New York Magazine, 2012
At a Very Peculiar Museum, Supporters Gather to Celebrate All Things Morbid, Capital New York, 2012
Star-studded Cast of Oddity Experts Gather to Save Morbid Anatomy Library, Brooklyn Paper, 2012
A Dance for the Dead at Morbid Anatomy Library, Brooklyn Based, 2012
Unusual Collectors: The Morbid Anatomy Library, Angel Orensanz Foundation, 2012
Is This The Most Bizarre Art Project Ever?..., The Daily Mail, 2012
Would You Buy or Make Dead Mouse Art?, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News, 2012
Des Souris (Mimi) et des Hommes (Cruels), Liberation.fr,2012
Death In The Closet, Toronto Standard, 2012
Very Bad Things, Newsweek Magazine, 2010
Ten "Cabinets of Curiosities" and Unique Collections from around the World, The Huffington Post, 2010
Joanna Ebenstein Exhibition, The Warhol Foundation, 2010
Morbid Anatomy: The Space Where Medicine and Art Intersects is Often ... Well, Weird. And Fascinating, The American Medical News Website of the American Medical Association, 2010
Anatomical Theatre: Depictions of the Body, Disease, and Death in Medical Museums of the Western World, Second Nature: International Journal of Creative Media, 2009
Brooklyn Graphic Designer, Photographer Brings Oddities to Life in New Exhibit, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 2009
Selected Talks and Panel Discussions
What is the Relationship Between Art and Death? Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2018
Beauty and the Macabre: Diskant Memorial Lecture, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 2018
Author Talk: Death: A Graveside Companion—Joanna Ebenstein with Jennifer Wright, New York Public Library, 2017
Book Talk: "Death: A Graveside Companion, Brooklyn Historical Society, 2017
Death, Beauty, and Metaphysics: Art, Science and Memento Mori in Early Anatomical Representation, Bowdoin College, 2017
The Art of Making Salon, Conversation with Sukhdev Sandhu, Draper Program at New York University, New York, 2016
From the Wunderkammer to The Museum of Nature: Exhibiting the Anthropocene: Panel discussion with Mark Dion, Joanna Ebenstein, Earle Havens, and David Harvey, Bard Graduate Center, New York, 2016
Tedx Talk, SVA Theatre, New York, 2016
Panel on Museums of the Future, Johns Hopkins University, 2015
The Macabre as a Way of Life: Morbid Anatomies and the Grim Side of New England (with J. W. Ocker) Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2015
A Conversation about Art, Science and Anatomy as Muse with Laurens de Rooy, Vrolik Museum, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2015
The Lost Museum of Frederik Ruysch, Lost Museums Colloquium, Brown University, Providence, 2015
Keynote, Annual meeting of the Archivists and Librarians of the History of Health Sciences and Medical Museum Association, New Haven, 2015
From the Anatomical Theatre to the Anatomical Venus: The Intersection of Entertainment and Edification in Public Anatomies, Vesalius and the Invention of the Modern Body, Saint Louis University and Washington University, St. Louis, forthcoming 2015
The Morbid Anatomy Museum, NY Laser: A Leonardo Education and Art Forum (LEAF) Rendezvous Event, 2014
The Thing Is... Morbid Anatomy, The Wellcome Collection, 2014
The Morbid Anatomy Museum, Vesalius Continuum, Zakynthos, Greece, 2014
The "Once-Alive and the Eerily Lifelike" at The Morbid Anatomy Museum, Naturally Hypernatural: Visions of Nature, School of Visual Arts, 2014
On Facing up to Death Through Art, The Wellcome Collection, 2012
The Secret Museum: Collections as Muse, Museum of Natural History, London, 2011
From Votives to Venuses: A Brief History of the Human Anatomical Model, The Science Museum, London, 2011
Digital Media and New Audiences for the History of Medicine, American Association of the History of Medicine Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, 2011
Anatomical Venuses, Slashed Beauties, and Three Fetuses Dancing a Jig: An Illustrated Journey into the Curious World of Medical Museums, Dittrick Museum, Ohio, 2011; Listenhere
To Every Man His Cabinet, Modern/Contemporary Art and the Curiosity Cabinet, Seton Hall University, New Jersey, 2011
A Meditation of Morbidity, The Mütter Museum College of Physicians, Philadelphia, PA 2010
Anatomical Venuses, The Slashed Beauty, and Fetuses Dancing a Jig, UCL, Department of History of Art, Rhizome Research Group, London, 2010
The Private, Curious, and Niche Collection--What They can Teach Us About Exhibiting New Medicine, European Association of the Museums of History of Medical Sciences Conference, Copenhagen, 2010
Anatomical Venuses and Slashed Beauties: Inside the World of the Anatomical Museum, Coney Island Museum "Ask the Experts" Series, New York, 2010
Morbid Anatomies and Anatomical Theatres: A Guided Tour through the Macabre World of Medical Museums, Adult-Ed, New York, December, 2009
Not Just for Doctors Anymore—On-line Exhibitions, Contexualization, and New Audiences for Old Medicine, The Medical Museums Association Annual Meeting 2009, Ohio, April 2009
The Anatomical Theatre: The Art, Culture and History of Medical Models and the Contemplation of the Embodied Self, “Lessons in Anatomy Made Easy" Conference, Museum Boerhaave, The Netherlands, November, 2008
Anatomical Theatre: The Art and History of Medical Models: Exhibitions, Contexualization, and New Audiences for Old Science, European Association of the Museums of History of Medical Sciences Conference, Guthrie Lecture Series, Scotland, 2008
Anatomic Theater: History of Museum Artifacts, Association of Medical Illustrators Conference, Indiana, 2008
Memento Mori: Pathological Portraits, Anatomical Visions and Medical Museums of the Western World, Confronting Mortality with Art and Science, AEIMS/MAA Conference, Belgium, 2007
Anatomical Theater: The Art and Science of Medical Museums in the Western World, in conjunction with the opening of Anatomical Theater: Depictions of The Body, Disease, and Death in Medical Museums of the Western World, UAB Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences, Alabama, 2007