VOICES ARE CALLING FROM INSIDE THE HEAD:

Some century-old mysteries have been solved -- and at least one new one has been opened -- since the radiology department at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center received an unusual request a little over a year ago.

The request came from Rick Kendall, superintendent of the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, in Cornish. He wanted to know: If a CT scanner can show what's inside the human body, could it also show what's inside a hunk of plaster? Could they try?

The short answer to his question is on view in the main rotunda of the Lebanon campus in a display called "Lincoln in Negative Space: The Intersection of Imaging and Art."

Those hunks of plaster contain original molds that Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the noted 19th-century sculptor and a central figure in the Cornish Colony of artists and writers, used to cast his pieces. Like many sculptors, he would preserve his molds for future reference by sealing them between two plaster halves, said Henry Duffy, curator of the historic site.

"In Saint-Gaudens' day, they would use strips of burlap or cheesecloth soaked in plaster that would be wrapped around and harden to make a seal that you have to break open to get out what's in there," Duffy said. But art historians have been unwilling to break open the molds, because of their historical significance. Since Saint-Gaudens died in 1907, others could only guess as to what was inside.

"We didn't know if it would work. Maybe it wouldn't read anything, and be blank," said Duffy. "It was essentially a shot in the dark on our part."

Tweet   @brothersjudd