Clorion's Anatomical Sketchbook: New Harmony, Indiana, 1830

A muscle figure in a classical pose, tied to a tree, signed "Clorion, Dec. 9, 1830." Clorion, anatomical illustrations, New Harmony, 1830. National Library of Medicine, MS C 181.

In 1830 someone in New Harmony, Indiana, filled a sketchbook with careful drawings of human bones and muscles, headed it "First – Science – Anatomy," and signed it with a pen name: Clorion. The drawings seem to have been copied from The Medical Adviser and Domestic Physician, perhaps a journal, published in London that year, but no printed copy of it can now be found. The manuscript belongs to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

The town

The place had already been a utopia twice. In 1814 Separatists from the German Lutheran church, led by the charismatic preacher Johann Georg Rapp, left Harmonie, Pennsylvania, and founded Harmonie, Indiana. In 1825 they moved on to found Economy, Pennsylvania, and sold the Indiana town to the social reformer Robert Owen, who set up a communitarian settlement there and called it New Harmony. During the Owen years it drew scientists, naturalists and artists, among them Thomas Say, Charles Alexander Lesueur, Constantine Samuel Rafinesque and Gerard Troost, and Owen's sons Robert Dale, David Dale and Richard were all fine artists.

The title page. Clorion, anatomical illustrations, New Harmony, 1830. National Library of Medicine, MS C 181.

Who was Clorion?

For decades nobody knew. Linda Warrum, an interpreter for the University of Southern Indiana and Historic New Harmony, worked on the question with a document examiner, Stephen McKasson, and their answer appeared in the Indiana Magazine of History in June 2013 as "The Chase for Clorion." McKasson's comparison of the handwriting showed that the sketches were signed by Martha Chase Owen, the first wife of Richard Owen.

Martha was lively and strong-willed, and a talented artist, musician and teacher; more of her drawings survive in New Harmony's Owen archives, though they are not open to the public. Why she chose the name Clorion is still a mystery.

The drawings

The book works through the body region by region: the leg and foot, bone by bone and then muscle by muscle, the arm and hand, the skull, the neck and face, the chest, belly and back, layer by layer, some pages in red ink, and whole skeletons from the front and the side. Most plates set the drawings beside columns of explanatory text.

The thigh and leg from behind: bones and muscles. Clorion, anatomical illustrations, New Harmony, 1830. National Library of Medicine, MS C 181.

The foot from the instep, the front and the outside. Clorion, anatomical illustrations, New Harmony, 1830. National Library of Medicine, MS C 181.

The bones of the head. Clorion, anatomical illustrations, New Harmony, 1830. National Library of Medicine, MS C 181.

The proportions of the body. Clorion, anatomical illustrations, New Harmony, 1830. National Library of Medicine, MS C 181.

The second layer of the muscles of the back, in red ink. Clorion, anatomical illustrations, New Harmony, 1830. National Library of Medicine, MS C 181.

The skeleton from the front. Clorion, anatomical illustrations, New Harmony, 1830. National Library of Medicine, MS C 181.

Sources

• National Library of Medicine, Historical Anatomies on the Web: "Clorion: Anatomical illustrations." Further reading there: Linda Warrum, "The Chase for Clorion," Indiana Magazine of History 109 (June 2013); Clark Kimberling, "New Harmony scientists, educators, writers and artists."