In 1864 a U.S. army doctor dug up the remains of a Dakota man who had been killed in Minnesota. Carefully recording his observations, he sent the skeleton to a museum in Washington, DC, that was collecting human remains for research. In the “bone rooms” of this museum and others like it, a scientific revolution was unfolding that would change our understanding of the human body, race, and prehistory. In Bone Rooms Samuel Redman unearths the story of how human remains became highly sought-after artifacts for both scientific research and public display. Seeking evidence to support new theories of human evolution and racial classification, collectors embarked on a global competition to recover the best specimens of skeletons, mummies, and fossils. The Smithsonian Institution built the largest collection of human remains in the United States, edging out stiff competition from natural history and medical museums springing up in cities and on university campuses across America. When the San Diego Museum of Man opened in 1915, it mounted the largest exhibition of human skeletons ever presented to the public. The study of human remains yielded discoveries that increasingly discredited racial theory; as a consequence, interest in human origins and evolution—ignited by ideas emerging in the budding field of anthropology—displaced race as the main motive for building bone rooms. Today, debates about the ethics of these collections continue, but the terms of engagement were largely set by the surge of collecting that was already waning by World War II.
...MoreReview Brian Fagan (2016) Review of "Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums". Journal of Interdisciplinary History (pp. 245-246).
Review Noriko Aso (2017) Review of "Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums". American Historical Review (pp. 1231-1232).
Review John Mathew (2017) Review of "Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 87-93).
Review Phil Loring (2017) Review of "Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (pp. 102-104).
Review A. M. Lucas (2018) Review of "Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums". Archives of Natural History (pp. 182-183).
Review Karen A. Rader (2017) Review of "Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 467-468).
Article
Parezo, Nancy;
Jones, Angelina;
(2012)
Ten Commandments for Effective Anthropological Exhibits
(/isis/citation/CBB001421581/)
Book
Blanchard, Pascal;
(2008)
Human Zoos: Science and Spectacle in the Age of Colonial Empires
(/isis/citation/CBB001033417/)
Chapter
McKhann, Charles F.;
Waxman, Alan;
(2011)
David Crockett Graham: American Missionary and Scientist in Sichuan, 1911--1948
(/isis/citation/CBB001214677/)
Chapter
Chelnik, Judy M.;
(2013)
Collecting Medical Technology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History
(/isis/citation/CBB001202348/)
Thesis
Pingree, Mark Kirkham;
(2003)
From Revolutionary Patriots to Principal Chiefs: Promoting Civilization and Preserving Savagery in American Museums, 1785--1865
(/isis/citation/CBB001560606/)
Thesis
Nichols, Catherine;
(2014)
Museum Networks: The Exchange of the Smithsonian Institution's Duplicate Anthropology Collections
(/isis/citation/CBB001567579/)
Article
Qureshi, Sadiah;
(2004)
Displaying Sara Baartman, the “Hottentot Venus”
(/isis/citation/CBB000470286/)
Book
Walker, William S;
(2013)
A Living Exhibition: The Smithsonian and the Transformation of the Universal Museum
(/isis/citation/CBB001201272/)
Article
Giffard, Hermione;
(2014)
The Politics of Donating Technological Artifacts: Techno-Nationalism and the Donations of the World's First Jet Engines
(/isis/citation/CBB001451057/)
Article
Zeidman, Lawrence A.;
Cohen, Jaap;
(2014)
Walking a Fine Scientific Line: The Extraordinary Deeds of Dutch Neuroscientist C. U. Ariëns Kappers Before and During World War II
(/isis/citation/CBB001420787/)
Article
Rosagemma Ciliberti;
Ezio Fulcheri;
Paolo Petralia;
Anna Siri;
(2020)
Sharing ethics of displaying human remains in museums
(/isis/citation/CBB019823834/)
Book
Harrison, Simon;
(2012)
Dark Trophies: Hunting and the Enemy Body in Modern War
(/isis/citation/CBB001200727/)
Article
Marianne Klemun;
Marina Loskutova;
Anastasia Fedotova;
(2018)
Skulls and Blossoms: Collecting and the Meaning of Scientific Objects as Resources from the 18th to the 20th Century
(/isis/citation/CBB042290012/)
Article
Yochelson, Ellis L.;
(2004)
More Than 150 Years of Administrative Ups and Downs for Natural History in Washington. Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum, National Museum of Natural History
(/isis/citation/CBB001036105/)
Book
Steven Lubar;
(2017)
Inside the Lost Museum: Curating, Past and Present
(/isis/citation/CBB335185013/)
Article
Milam, Erika Lorraine;
(2013)
Public Science of the Savage Mind: Contesting Cultural Anthropology in the Cold War Classroom
(/isis/citation/CBB001320233/)
Article
Dias, Nélia;
(2012)
Nineteenth-Century French Collections of Skulls and the Cult of Bone
(/isis/citation/CBB001252150/)
Article
Ricardo Roque;
(2021)
The Logic of Skull Writing: Bone Inscriptions and the Science of Race
(/isis/citation/CBB967795853/)
Book
Veit, Helen Zoe;
(2013)
Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001201323/)
Article
Tommaso Mori;
Alessandro Riga;
Giulia Dionisio;
Francesca Bigoni;
Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi;
(2022)
Cranial modification and trepanation in pre-Hispanic collections from Peru in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology, Florence, Italy
(/isis/citation/CBB024855086/)
Be the first to comment!