03/11/2026
Nervous system
In the late 1800s, a cleaning lady at a Philadelphia medical college agreed to donate her body to science. Today, what remains of Harriet Cole is still preserved inside the school where she once worked.
It's been more than 130 years since Harriet Cole worked as a cleaning lady at Hahnemann Medical College (now Drexel University) in Philadelphia. She’s still there, although in a significantly different form.
The woman who once disinfected the halls of this institute of higher learning now hangs inside them. Harriet was just 35 when she passed away and, having worked at the college for several years, she agreed that upon her death to donate her body to science. More specifically, she allowed Dr. Rufus B. Weaver, the leading professor of anatomy at the school, to take charge of her remains.
Dr. Weaver had plans for Harriet and he followed through. It would take the good doctor almost six months to meticulously detach her nervous system. To assist in the painstaking process he used fine needles to separate each and every nerve with surgical precision.
When he finished, he preserved the display, simply titled “Harriet,” with a lead-based paint and attached her nervous system to a blackboard with thousands of tiny pins.
“Harriet” became an extremely popular specimen, even making her way to the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, where it won several medals. While it's unclear if Harriet knew of Dr. Weaver's specific plans for her remains, it is certain that her generous gesture has mesmerized generations.
More than a century later, Harriet Cole is still there in Philadelphia, preserved behind glass inside the same building where she once cleaned the halls.
