Morbid Anatomy Library & Giftshop

THE MORBID ANATOMY LIBRARY AND GIFT SHOP IS CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR RENOVATION AND WILL REOPEN SEPTEMBER 25, 2026.

When we return:

The library is open most weekends. See our events page for specific dates.

Admission is free of charge, no appointment necessary. Visitors are welcome to spend as long as they like reading books and perusing the collection. Photos and video are welcome.

The Morbid Anatomy Library features a collection of nearly 50 pieces of Victorian Hair Work donated by Leila’s Hair Museum. Founded by Leila Cohoon in 1986—and featuring over 3,000 pieces—this was the first and only museum in the world dedicated entirely to art with human hair. After operating for more than thirty years, the museum closed when Leila passed away in 2024. Her family chose Morbid Anatomy as one of the spiritual homes for these gorgeous and eloquent pieces, and—with the generous help of contributions from our community—we were able to bring part of this incredible collection to our home in Brooklyn.

The Library also makes available an extensive collection of image-heavy books on topics including death and culture, anatomical art, Latin American art and culture, Catholica, collectors and collecting, sexology, Carl Jung, hysteria, the uncanny, decadence, horror and atrocity, the gothic, arcane media, natural history, folklore, alchemy, magic, circus and sideshow, and the occult. Please note: books are for in-house research only, and cannot leave the premises.

The library also houses an idiosyncratic collection of art, artifacts and curiosities from around the world, including memorial artworks, folk art related to healing and mortality, masks, toys, skeletal and wet specimens, wax scientific models, antique artworks, ex votos, devotional objects, and vintage taxidermy.

You will also find an extensive gift shop filled with strange, rare and wonderful objects including obscure tarot decks, antique Mexican retablos, hand-made Mexican masks and shadowboxes, artisan crafted jewelry, and magical and devotional objects from around the world. We also stock dozens of our very favorite books, many of them signed by the author!

Note New Address: The address is 254 36th Street (between 2rd and 3th Ave), 
Building 2, room C251. Enter at 254 36 street, immediately turn right, and ascend one flight of stairs, or use the elevator to the second floor.

Industry City is just 20 minutes from Manhattan, located on the Brooklyn waterfront.

Accessibility Note: Industry City offers a courtesy shuttle bus service to/from the 36th Street subway from 7am – 11am and 2pm – 8PM. A real time GPS tracking system for the shuttle can be viewed via the IC Shuttle tracker.

For teachers who would like to bring classes, or those interested in becoming a volunteer docent, email by clicking here. For those interested in becoming a volunteer docent, click here.

ABOUT THE LIBRARY

Founded in 2008 by our creative director Joanna Ebenstein, The Morbid Anatomy Library is a research library and collection making available hundreds of rare books, photographs, artworks, pieces of ephemera, and artifacts from around the world that span the topics of art and death, death and culture, the history of medicine, medical museums, anatomical art, "sexology," collectors and collecting, art and science, taxidermy, arcane media, esoterica, world religions, history or museum, curiosity and curiosities broadly considered, and much more.

It’s first incarnation was as a project in residence at Proteus Gowanus, it could also be visited at The Morbid Anatomy Museum (2014 - 2016) and Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery (2018 - 2019). You can peruse some of our holdings here.

You can find out more about The Morbid Anatomy Library on News 12 New Jersey as well as in Bklyner,Vogue UK,CNN, Newsweek, Time Out New York,The Huffington Post,Fox News, Newsweek, Rocketboom Media, Create Culture, and WPIX's Toni On! New York.