Yesterday I visited the Old Melbourne Gaol (pronounced jail) in downtown Melbourne. The gaol opened in the 1860s and saw the hangings of 136 inmates including the most famous, that of bushranger Ned Kelly.
Many of the cells had death masks of various executed inmates on display. Death masks were made from molds taken of the inmate’s head after they were executed. Apparently back in the day they thought that you could pinpoint someone’s criminal tendancies by the bumps on their skull. The death masks were studied to learn more about this skull bump science. It was pretty creepy seeing all these heads on display, looking as the prisoner looked after being hung in the goal.
After a while hanging out in the gaol (no pun intended… seriously), I got a text message from Beth and our friend Kelly informing me they were eating ice cream down the road. It was at this point that I left the gaol, but I was too late to get any ice cream.
This is the death mask of Ned Kelly. It is a replica, but all the others there were the real thing.
Ned Kelly wore a helmet like this one, modeled by me.
How did you get to model Ned’s helmet? I just read up on him in wikipedia. Interesting. Dylan sings a song about a guy named Jim Jones who was transported to Botany Bay and joined the bushrangers. New jails seem real bad, but old jails seem REALLY bad. i’m interested to hear about the markets and see some pics!
What an interesting place! Yes, it would seem very creepy to be looking at masks of executed criminals. Phrenology is the study of the skull looking for indicators of character.
8 Comments »
Comment by josh — October 18, 2007 @ 11:49 pm
Yesterday I visited the Old Melbourne Gaol (pronounced jail) in downtown Melbourne. The gaol opened in the 1860s and saw the hangings of 136 inmates including the most famous, that of bushranger Ned Kelly.
Many of the cells had death masks of various executed inmates on display. Death masks were made from molds taken of the inmate’s head after they were executed. Apparently back in the day they thought that you could pinpoint someone’s criminal tendancies by the bumps on their skull. The death masks were studied to learn more about this skull bump science. It was pretty creepy seeing all these heads on display, looking as the prisoner looked after being hung in the goal.
After a while hanging out in the gaol (no pun intended… seriously), I got a text message from Beth and our friend Kelly informing me they were eating ice cream down the road. It was at this point that I left the gaol, but I was too late to get any ice cream.
This is the death mask of Ned Kelly. It is a replica, but all the others there were the real thing.
Ned Kelly wore a helmet like this one, modeled by me.
Comment by Kriz — October 19, 2007 @ 7:25 am
Ned Kelly was a crazy cool dude. I visited this same gaol, it was pretty interesting I thought.
The market in Melbourne is fantastic for cheap food and clothes.
Comment by josh — October 19, 2007 @ 12:47 pm
Yeah the markets have been awesome. That may be the subject of an upcoming entry here soon.
Comment by Peg Moore — October 19, 2007 @ 5:24 pm
Weird!!! (Or is it “wierd”? Never can remember.) But great to hear from you! And interesting to hear you explain. XOXOX
Comment by dadman — October 20, 2007 @ 9:35 am
How did you get to model Ned’s helmet? I just read up on him in wikipedia. Interesting. Dylan sings a song about a guy named Jim Jones who was transported to Botany Bay and joined the bushrangers. New jails seem real bad, but old jails seem REALLY bad. i’m interested to hear about the markets and see some pics!
Comment by Clara — October 20, 2007 @ 5:06 pm
What an interesting place! Yes, it would seem very creepy to be looking at masks of executed criminals. Phrenology is the study of the skull looking for indicators of character.
Comment by Josh — October 21, 2007 @ 12:57 am
They had Ned’s helmet and armor out on display for anyone to try on. Lucky me
.
Thanks for the added detail on Phrenology Clara. I had forgotten the exact term.
Comment by dadman — October 21, 2007 @ 2:52 pm
So that was Ned’s REAL helmet? Awesome!
I used to have a book on phrenology when I was in high school. I really did. But I fell and bumped my head and now I can’t find it.
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