Morbid Anatomy
Morbid Anatomy is a Brooklyn-based educational and cultural institution founded in 2007 that explores death, art, and medicine through a public library, classes, exhibitions, a Patreon journal of 300+ recorded lectures, the Memento Morbid Podcast, and a curated gift shop, serving a global community of death-positive enthusiasts, artists, and scholars.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2007
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
What Morbid Anatomy does
Morbid Anatomy is an educational and cultural institution founded in 2007 by Joanna Ebenstein as a blog supporting a photo exhibition, and currently domiciled in Brooklyn, New York. It operates at the intersection of art, medicine, death, and culture, serving a community of death-positive individuals, artists and creatives, academics, and goth-subculture enthusiasts. The organization delivers programming through a portfolio of interconnected offerings: a free public research library and curiosity collection in NYC, online and in-person classes taught by subject-matter experts, lectures, exhibitions, symposia, international cultural trips (e.g., a Day of the Dead excursion to San Luis Potosi, Mexico in October 2026), and the weekly Memento Morbid Podcast produced by Overcoat Media. The Online Journal hosted on Patreon provides tiered subscription access to an archive of 300+ recorded video lectures, hundreds of interviews, virtual tours, and illustrated essays built over 17 years of operation.
The underlying technology stack is conventional: the website is hosted on Squarespace, with Patreon powering recurring memberships, Audioboom and Substack distributing the podcast, and standard e-commerce for the shop. There is no proprietary technology platform; differentiation comes from the curator-led content archive, the founder's published books (Memento Mori, Anatomica, Death: A Graveside Companion, The Anatomical Venus), and a network of partnerships with established cultural institutions including Green-Wood Cemetery, the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, and the Wellcome Collection in London.
Morbid Anatomy monetizes through four streams: recurring Patreon membership subscriptions (tiered benefits from access to the content archive up to free meetups, merchandise, and special tours); tax-deductible donations and underwriting processed through fiscal sponsor Creative Visions (a 501(c)(3)), with significant-gift levels cited at $50,000-$200,000 for library, education program, and annual Congress underwriting; e-commerce sales of curated books, jewelry, folk art, fine art, tarot/zines, devotional objects, antiques, and collectibles priced from $25 to over $1,200; and class fees for live, in-session, and on-demand online classes. The organization is a private LLC (Morbid Anatomy LLC) with no venture funding, no public listing, and 24 employees.
Morbid Anatomy firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Morbid Anatomy
- Legal name
- Morbid Anatomy LLC
- Website
- https://morbidanatomy.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2007
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Morbid Anatomy is a Brooklyn-based educational and cultural institution founded in 2007 that explores death, art, and medicine through a public library, classes, exhibitions, a Patreon journal of 300+ recorded lectures, the Memento Morbid Podcast, and a curated gift shop, serving a global community of death-positive enthusiasts, artists, and scholars.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Morbid Anatomy industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Cultural and Adult Education
- NAICS
- Libraries and Archives (51921)
- SIC
- Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Creative Nonfiction & Memoir Workshops (EDAMAMAC)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Health, Wellness & Fitness Trade Publishing (MPAJAAAL), Life Sciences (Biology, Ecology, Agriculture) Scholarly Publishing (EDAGAFAC)
Keywords
Where Morbid Anatomy is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Morbid Anatomy business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Patreon Membership Subscription: Monthly subscription model where supporters join at various tiers to access exclusive content including video lectures, interviews, virtual tours, and community chatroom. Higher tiers receive additional benefits including free online meetups, merchandise, special tours, and early notice of programs.
- E-commerce Shop: Sale of curated products including books, jewelry, folk art, fine arts, tarot/zines/prints, devotional objects, antiques, collectibles, and gift cards ranging from $25 to $1,200+.
- Classes and Education: Revenue from online and in-person classes, educator portal offerings, covering topics from death and art to creativity and cultural exploration.
- Donations and Underwriting: Tax-deductible donations accepted through fiscal sponsor Creative Visions. Underwriting opportunities and significant gifts at various levels ($50,000-$200,000) for library, education program, and annual Congress underwriting.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Patreon membership with multiple support levels |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels5 records
Morbid Anatomy product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Morbid Anatomy is an educational and cultural institution that delivers classes, lectures, exhibitions, symposia, and a public research library focused on mortality, anatomy, death culture, and the human condition. It also operates a curated e-commerce shop selling antiques, books, jewelry, devotional objects, and folk art, an online subscription journal on Patreon, the Memento Morbid Podcast, and donor-funded international cultural travel.
Product overview
Morbid Anatomy is an educational and cultural institution operating as a multi-faceted platform rather than a unified software product. The organization offers a portfolio of interconnected offerings: the Morbid Anatomy Library (a free public research collection), Online Classes (live and on-demand educational programming), Events (lectures, exhibitions, symposia), Grand Tours (international cultural travel), the Shop (e-commerce for related merchandise), the Memento Morbid Podcast, and the Online Journal hosted on Patreon. Publications include books authored by founder Joanna Ebenstein, while Film Production encompasses documentary projects. The organization is best known for its 2014-2016 incarnation as the Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn, NY. Revenue is generated through membership subscriptions (Patreon), donations, shop sales, and class fees.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Memento Morbid Podcast: Fascinating, poignant, and surprisingly life-affirming conversations about death, the human condition, and life's great mysteries, hosted by Joanna Ebenstein and produced by Overcoat Media
Products and services
- Online and In-Person Classes Live and on-demand educational classes exploring topics at the intersection of death, art, medicine, and culture. Includes in-session, upcoming, and past classes taught by subject matter experts.
- Morbid Anatomy Library A free public research library and collection focused on mortality, anatomy, medical history, and cultural artifacts related to death and the human condition.
- Events Public programming including lectures, exhibitions, symposia, and cultural events exploring themes of death, mourning, art, and curiosity.
- Grand Tours Travel experiences including international trips such as Day of the Dead excursions to locations like San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
- Shop E-commerce platform selling curated antiques, collectibles, books, jewelry, devotional objects, folk art, fine art, tarot cards, and prints related to the organization's themes.
- Memento Morbid Podcast Weekly podcast featuring conversations with artists, authors, filmmakers, death workers, and other figures exploring rituals, stories, and perspectives on mortality. Produced by Overcoat Media and hosted by founder Joanna Ebenstein.
- Morbid Anatomy Online Journal (Patreon) Subscription-based membership platform offering exclusive content including 300+ recorded video lectures, interviews, virtual tours, illustrated essays, and community access. Hosted on Patreon.
- Exhibitions Curated exhibitions at various venues exploring themes of death, mourning, anatomy, and cultural artifacts.
Companies that use Morbid Anatomy
Customer profileNamed customers1 record
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Morbid Anatomy technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Morbid Anatomy partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.
- Green-Wood CemeterycoreOngoing exhibition partnership at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Past collaborations include 'Ladies of Sorrow: A Visual Exploration of Grief and Femininity' (2019), 'Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory: Visions of the Afterlife in the Catholic Tradition' (2018), 'Bridging Two Worlds' (2018), and 'The Power of Images: Life, Death and Rebirth' (2017).
- Overcoat MediamajorPodcast production partner for the Memento Morbid Podcast. Overcoat Media produces the podcast featuring conversations with members of the Morbid Anatomy community.
- Mütter MuseummajorPartnership with Mütter Museum in Philadelphia for 'Woven Strands: The Art of Human Hairwork' exhibition (2017-2018), produced by Morbid Anatomy and curated by Evan Michelson and John Whitenight.
- The Wellcome CollectionmajorLondon-based medical humanities museum that hosted Morbid Anatomy founder Joanna Ebenstein for lectures and events including 'The Thing Is... Morbid Anatomy' (2014) and the Anatomical Venus book talk.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves9 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Morbid Anatomy competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Wellcome Collection: London-based medical humanities museum that hosts exhibitions, lectures, and cultural programming on health, anatomy, and the human condition—serves as a direct partner and a larger-scale analog for the museum/library/classes model that Morbid Anatomy operated (2014-2016).
- Atlas Obscura: A larger experiential travel and cultural platform with community-driven content, events, and trips that complements a curiosity-driven, mortal-culture-focused audience—provides a comparable model for monetizing cultural curiosity at scale, including community events and curated travel.
Direct peers
- The Order of the Good Death: Founded by Caitlin Doughty, this nonprofit collective unites death-positive advocates, educators, and creators with a mission to encourage death acceptance through community and cultural programming—directly comparable to Morbid Anatomy's mission and audience. Joanna Ebenstein is a self-identified member.
- Catland: Brooklyn-based metaphysical and occult shop and educational community offering classes, workshops, and ritual supplies—comparable as a small, niche-educational community with overlapping aesthetic and education offerings in the same NYC geography.
- Death Cafe: A nonprofit social franchise hosting group-directed conversations about death over tea and cake, with local chapters globally. Targets the same death-positive community through community-led educational engagement and pedagogical discourse.
- Green-Wood Cemetery: Brooklyn historic cemetery that hosts cultural exhibitions, art installations, and public events; ongoing partner with Morbid Anatomy on exhibitions (Ladies of Sorrow, Heaven Hell and Purgatory, Bridging Two Worlds), making it a closely comparable cultural programming entity at the intersection of mortality and art.
- The Mütter Museum: Philadelphia-based medical history museum with collection of anatomical specimens, oddities, and curiosities—functions as a comparable cultural institution and has been a direct partner with Morbid Anatomy on the Woven Strands exhibition (2017-2018).
- Death Salon: Curated events and gatherings (originally launched 2011-2019) that brought death-positive thinkers, scholars, and artists together for discussions and exhibitions—directly comparable as a programmatic platform for death culture with overlapping organizer networks.
Emerging players
- The Last Podcast on the Left: Long-running comedy-horror podcast covering dark history, true crime, and the occult—compares as a creator-driven media business focused on macabre cultural content with significant subscription and live-show revenue, reaching a partially overlapping audience.
- Ask a Mortician (Caitlin Doughty): YouTube-first educational series and book brand from Caitlin Doughty that teaches death-positive topics to mass audiences—directly comparable in mission and content, operating at much larger scale via free-YouTube model and Order of the Good Death leadership.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Morbid Anatomy social profiles
Digital presenceMorbid Anatomy financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Morbid Anatomy leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Morbid Anatomy funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Morbid Anatomy M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Morbid Anatomy
What does Morbid Anatomy do?
Morbid Anatomy is an educational and cultural institution that delivers classes, lectures, exhibitions, symposia, and a public research library focused on mortality, anatomy, death culture, and the human condition. It also operates a curated e-commerce shop selling antiques, books, jewelry, devotional objects, and folk art, an online subscription journal on Patreon, the Memento Morbid Podcast, and donor-funded international cultural travel.
Is Morbid Anatomy a public or private company?
Morbid Anatomy is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Morbid Anatomy founded?
Morbid Anatomy was founded in 2007. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Morbid Anatomy based?
Morbid Anatomy is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does Morbid Anatomy make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Patreon Membership Subscription is the primary driver. The others are E-commerce Shop, classes and Education and donations and Underwriting.
Who are Morbid Anatomy's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Wellcome Collection and Atlas Obscura. Direct peers are The Order of the Good Death, Catland, Death Cafe, Green-Wood Cemetery, The Mütter Museum and Death Salon. Emerging players are The Last Podcast on the Left and Ask a Mortician (Caitlin Doughty).
Does Morbid Anatomy have an API?
No public API is recorded for Morbid Anatomy.
What industry is Morbid Anatomy in?
Morbid Anatomy's product category is Cultural and Adult Education. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAMAMAC, Creative Nonfiction & Memoir Workshops, with a secondary code of MPAJAAAL, Health, Wellness & Fitness Trade Publishing. Its NAICS code is 51921 and its SIC code is 2731.