Although not on display, the Smithsonian’s collection of human brains — a decades-long project to catalog race using taxpayer dollars — is still housed at the National Museum of Natural History.
An investigation by The Washington Post found that only four of the approximately 268 brains collected during eras of different ethics standards had been returned by the institution. Nine others were cremated, while the rest remain in storage.
Yet it wasn’t just brains that interested anthropological researchers in the 1930s and 1940s when the majority of the collection was amassed.
Approximately 15,000 human remnants — including various body parts and organs — were taken from burial grounds, graves, hospitals, and battlefields in 80 different countries.
The exact number of parts and individuals therein is unknown, according to officials from the Natural History Museum.
A task force was formed in April not only to help return human remains to “descendants and descendant communities” but also to develop ways to better care for those in the institution’s possession.
“At the Smithsonian, we recognize certain collection practices of our past were unethical,” said Lonnie Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian, in a news release. “What was once standard in the museum field is no longer acceptable. We acknowledge and apologize for the pain our historical practices have caused people, their families and their communities.”
To date, the Natural History Museum claims that some 6,900 people have had their remains either repatriated or offered for repatriation.
Yet the caveat, according to the WP, is that most of the would-be claimants of the Smithsonian’s collection are unaware of its existence.
In 1933, 18-year-old Mary Sara — a Sami native from Alaska — died of tuberculosis in a Seattle sanitarium. Her mother was reportedly persuaded by Dr. Charles Firestone to donate Mary’s brain to the renowned Smithsonian’s “racial brain collection.”
Extracted, wrapped in muslin, and placed in a jar full of preservatives, Mary’s brain — along with that of “a Navaho Indian boy” from the same doctor, according to the telegram — was eagerly received by the museum’s curator and physical anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka in 1934.
Building on 2,206 Native American skulls transferred to the Smithsonian in 1898 by U.S. Surgeon General George Sternberg, Hrdlicka made it his mission to expand the collection of human remains and become a leading authority on questions of race when he was designated the head of the new subdivision on physical anthropology in 1903.
Mary’s brain is one of the 255 brains in museum storage today.
When the WP tracked down her relatives with the help of the Sami Cultural Center of North America, they were apparently appalled to learn that they had never been informed about the brain.
“It’s a violation against our family and against our people,” Fred Jack, husband of one of Mary’s cousins, told the WP.
The family has launched the process to have the remains repatriated.
While the Smithsonian accepts formal repatriation requests, it is not required by law to inform relatives or communities about remains, except in the case of Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian peoples.