Skulls, Science, and the Spoils of War: Craniological Studies at the United States Army Medical Museum, 1868--1900 (2009)
Juzda, Elise (Author)
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Volume: 40
Pages: 156--167
Beginning in 1868, the United States Army Medical Museum issued a request to Army medical personnel situated in `Indian country' for specimens of skulls from Native Americans. The purpose of this collection was to promote the study of craniometry, a branch of racial science commonly used to delineate the different varieties of mankind and to rank them according to their perceived intellectual attributes. Yet, as this paper argues, the efforts of Army surgeons in amassing hundreds of crania for the Army Medical Museum were not matched by a similar level of commitment on the part of racial researchers. In examining why this seemingly impressive collection fell rapidly into disuse, this paper explores the creation and abandonment of one of the largest craniological collections formed in the United States in relation to the trajectory of craniometrical studies during this period. It also questions the link between the interests of racial researchers in the late nineteenth century and those of government policy makers, arguing that the two might not have been particularly closely aligned in the case of craniological research in Washington.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
P. Willey;
Douglas D. Scott;
(2015)
Health of the Seventh Cavalry: A Medical History
(/isis/citation/CBB550184309/)
Chapter
Douglas D. Scott;
(2015)
Seventh Cavalry Regimental History
(/isis/citation/CBB239505058/)
Chapter
Rhode, Michael;
(2013)
An Army Museum or a National Collection? Shifting Interests and Fortunes at the National Museum of Health and Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB001202350/)
Article
Alberto Zanatta;
Giuliano Scattolin;
Gaetano Thiene;
Fabio Zampieri;
(2016)
Phrenology between anthropology and neurology in a nineteenth-century collection of skulls
(/isis/citation/CBB513838346/)
Article
Carla Bittel;
(2021)
Cranial Compatibility: Phrenology, Measurement, and Marriage Assessment
(/isis/citation/CBB827397197/)
Book
Fabian, Ann;
(2010)
The Skull Collectors: Race, Science, and America's Unburied Dead
(/isis/citation/CBB001033349/)
Thesis
Courtney Elizabeth Thompson;
(2015)
Criminal Minds: Medicine, Law, and the Phrenological Impulse in America, 1830-1890
(/isis/citation/CBB595020617/)
Article
Mast, Brian J.;
(2011)
Dr. Benjamin Rohrer's Artifact Collection
(/isis/citation/CBB001200544/)
Article
Stephen C Craig;
(2016)
Joseph Lovell, MD (1788–1836): First US Army Surgeon General
(/isis/citation/CBB823766462/)
Chapter
P. Willey;
Gary Plank;
Douglas D. Scott;
(2015)
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Seventh Cavalry
(/isis/citation/CBB142952813/)
Chapter
P. Willey;
(2015)
Regimental Strength and Background of Seventh Cavalry Troopers
(/isis/citation/CBB339428666/)
Chapter
Katie Cohan;
(2015)
Cold Injuries in the Seventh Cavalry
(/isis/citation/CBB500313734/)
Book
Greenwood, John R.;
Berry, F. Clifton, Jr.;
(2005)
Medics at War: Military Medicine from Colonial Times to the 21st Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000800018/)
Article
Angevine, Robert G.;
(2001)
Individuals, Organizations, and Engineering: U.S. Army Officers and the American Railroads, 1827-1838
(/isis/citation/CBB000100974/)
Book
T.J. Stiles;
(2015)
Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America
(/isis/citation/CBB298251953/)
Article
Kenny, Stephen C.;
(2013)
The Development of Medical Museums in the Antebellum American South: Slave Bodies in Networks of Anatomical Exchange
(/isis/citation/CBB001252856/)
Chapter
Colleen Cheverko;
Kristina Zarenko;
(2015)
Malaria Prevalence in the Seventh Cavalry
(/isis/citation/CBB327046723/)
Chapter
Colleen Milligan;
(2015)
Health of Urban American Civilians, Children, Women, and Old Men in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
(/isis/citation/CBB270049846/)
Chapter
P. Willey;
Douglas D. Scott;
(2015)
Seventh Cavalry Medical Records Compared with Battle of the Little Bighorn Skeletons
(/isis/citation/CBB028823151/)
Chapter
Billy Markland;
Douglas D. Scott;
P. Willey;
(2015)
Frontier Post-Civil War Military Enlisted Men's Deaths and Those in the Seventh Cavalry
(/isis/citation/CBB653734917/)
Be the first to comment!