Across the country, the remains of tens of thousands of human beings are held by museums and institutions. Scientists say they’ve helped lay the foundations of forensic science and unlocked the secrets of humanity’s shared past.
But these bones were also collected before informed consent was the gold standard for ethical study. Nineteenth and 20th-century physicians and anthropologists took unclaimed bodies from poorhouses and hospitals, robbed graves, and looted Indigenous bones from sacred sites.
Now, under pressure from activists and an evolving scientific community, these institutions are rethinking what to do with their unethically collected human remains.
Outside/In producer Felix Poon has informally gained a reputation as the podcast’s “death beat” correspondent. He’s visited a human decomposition facility (aka, “body farm”), reported on the growing trend of “green burial,” and explored the use of psychedelic mushrooms to help terminal cancer patients confront death.
In this three-episode series from Outside/In, Felix takes us to Philadelphia, where the prestigious Penn Museum has promised to “respectfully repatriate” hundreds of skulls collected by 19th century physician Samuel George Morton, who used them to pursue pseudo-scientific theories of white supremacy. Those efforts have been met with support by some, and anger and distrust by others.
Along the way, Felix explores the long legacy of scientific racism, lingering questions over the 1985 MOVE bombing, and evolving ethics in the field of biological anthropology.
Can the institutions that have long benefited from these remains be trusted to give them up? And if so, who decides what happens next?
Part 1: What's Past is Prologue
A classroom display of human skulls sparks a reckoning at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia.
Featuring Paul Wolff Mitchell, Christopher Woods, Lyra Monteiro, aAliy Muhammad.
Read a full transcript here.
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
The Morton Cranial Collection
- The Penn & Slavery Project Symposium in 2019 included a presentation on the Morton Cranial Collection.
- aAliy Muhammad’s 2019 opinion piece: “As reparations debate continues, the University of Pennsylvania has a role to play” (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
- Mar Portillo Alvarado’s 2020 opinion piece: “The Penn Museum must end abuse of the Morton collection” (The Daily Pennsylvanian)
- Paul Wolff Mitchell’s 2021 report: “Black Philadelphians in the Samuel George Morton Cranial Collection”
- The Penn Museum’s 2021 press release: “Museum Announces the Repatriation of the Morton Cranial Collection”
The MOVE bombing and MOVE remains controversy
- Archival tape of the MOVE bombing came from the documentary Let the Fire Burn, and Democracy Now!
- She Was Killed by the Police. Why Were Her Bones in a Museum? (NY Times
- In 2021-2022 three independent investigations reported on the MOVE remains controversy: one commissioned by the Penn Museum, one by the City of Philadelphia, and one by Princeton University.
- Lyra Monteiro's piece on Medium, "What the photos from 2014 reveal about Penn Museum's possession of the remains of multiple victims of the 1985 MOVE bombing."
CREDITS
Outside/ In Host: Nate Hegyi
Reported and produced by Felix Poon with help from Taylor Quimby. Mixed by Felix Poon and Taylor Quimby.
Editing by Taylor Quimby, with help from Nate Hegyi, Rebecca Lavoie, Katie Colaneri, Jason Moon, Daniela Allee, Justine Paradis, Marina Henke, and Kate Dario.
Executive producer: Taylor Quimby
Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio
Special thanks to Buffy Gorilla.
Music in this episode is from Lennon Hutton, and Blue Dot Sessions. The theme music for the What Remains mini-series is by Lennon Hutton.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio
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