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The head of the Smithsonian Institution has apologised for its collection of human remains.
Lauren Heath-Jones | Planet Attractions | 31 Aug 2023
The head of the Smithsonian Institution has apologised for its collection of human remains.
Writing in The Washington Post Lonnie Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian, addressed how the museum amassed its thousands-strong collection of body parts in the first half of the 20th century, with most taken from black and indigenous people without their consent.
Most of the remains were collected under the direction of anthropolgist Ales Hrdlicka, a white supremacist who sought to advance his racist theories that white people were the superior race.
“It was abhorrent and dehumanising work, and it was carried out under the Smithsonian’s name,” Bunch wrote.
“As secretary of the Smithsonian, I condemn these past actions and apologise for the pain caused by Hrdlicka and others at the institution who acted unethically in the name of science, regardless of the era in which their actions occurred.
“I recognise, too, that the Smithsonian is responsible both for the original work of Hrdlicka and others who subscribed to his beliefs, and for the failure to return the remains he collected to descendant communities in the decades since.”
Bunch’s apology comes after it was revealed the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History is in possession of almost 40,000 body parts, including 255 brains.
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