Search the Smithsonian’s records on human remains

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History holds more than 30,700 human remains in storage but has never publicly released a full inventory. The Washington Post has assembled a database of records that offers the most comprehensive overview of the collection to date and reveals for the first time many of the institutions and donors who were involved in gathering the body parts.

The database is also designed to offer the public a starting point for learning more about specific remains. The Post is not sharing the complete accession files because of the sensitivity of these materials. Some files, for example, could expose the location of undisclosed burial sites. Other files may include graphic descriptions of body parts, photographs of the remains or the deceased person’s name, though the vast majority of the body parts in the collection are unidentified.

The Smithsonian requires individuals with a personal interest in or legal right to remains in its possession to file a formal request for repatriation. For many would-be claimants, this is an impossibility because they are likely to be unaware of the existence of the remains. Federal law requires the Smithsonian to inform only federally recognized Native American, Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian communities about human remains, leaving thousands of body parts in limbo.

Information about artifacts acquired by the Smithsonian is logged into an accession file that reveals details about the object’s provenance. In August, The Post published a year-long investigation into the Smithsonian’s collection of human remains, drawing on these files to produce the most extensive analysis and public accounting of the holdings to date.

In May, The Post obtained from the Smithsonian a spreadsheet that lists details about each set of remains in its possession, including the number of its corresponding accession file. Most of those files are available for public inspection at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, but the majority are not yet online.

Working with archivists, reporters made copies of each accession file — ranging from a few pages to several hundred — representing 23,000 sets of remains acquired by the Smithsonian between 1868 and 1958. The documents include the names of tribes linked to the remains, descriptions of mass graves, locations where they were gathered, and the researchers and academic institutions that donated body parts. The Post inventoried the files based on terms within the documents and assembled them into a searchable database.

The public can search the database to see the first page of each file, usually a memorandum, which lists the donor, date, general locality and remains acquired. The search will also return the accession number and the number of pages in that file to help guide further research at the Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Understanding the database

What can this database tell us?

The origin of each set of remains, as recorded in the files included in the database, may reveal where the remains were gathered or the donating entity.

For example, 3,846 human remains were listed as originating in New York. Of those, 97 percent of them came from a single donor, George S. Huntington of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, from 1905 to 1921. However, correspondence attached to the accession file reveals that a body donated by Huntington originally came from Texas.

At least 14 Washington-area doctors donated dozens of brains to the Smithsonian, the database shows.

Overall, more than 22,500 sets of human remains were collected in the United States, or about three-fourths of the entire collection. Outside of the United States, the top sources of human remains were Peru, Egypt and Mexico.

What is included in an accession file?

The file — usually a manila envelope — contains an accession card with a short description of what was donated. Sometimes, these envelopes also contain handwritten correspondence between donors and museum officials, revealing the stories behind the acquisitions. In rare cases, it may include the names of the individuals whose remains were taken.

Most of the files have been microfilmed and converted to PDFs, though the original paperwork remains available for inspection.

The Post has acquired, scanned and transcribed about 1,000 files, or about 15,000 pages, from the Smithsonian Institution Archives. One file typically contains information about the origins of many body parts, which could include an undetermined number of individuals.

The Post did not inventory all of the files: Some could not be found, and The Post did not review about 300 created after 1958 that are stored at the Natural History Museum.

What is the best way to search the database?

Readers may search the database using keywords like “graves” or “FBI” or “Cree.” General terms are suggested because the database is unlikely to return results for individual family names.

If responsive documents are found, readers can view the first page of each accession file and contact the Smithsonian Institution Archives to request an online version of the complete file or set up an appointment to inspect the file in person.

For example, the DC Native History Project contacted reporters to ask about human remains found at Bolling Field that were still stored by the Smithsonian. Searching the term “Bolling Field” in the database brings up accession file 142293 from 1937.

The results show that there are eight pages total in the file and that “Bolling Field” appears a number of times in the file, including on the first page.

Explore the accession files of the Smithsonian’s collection of human remains

Going further

Why does the Smithsonian have a collection of human remains?

In the 19th and 20th centuries, museums worldwide acquired bodies from graveyards, hospitals, morgues and battlefields around the globe for their research. While some researchers focused on evolution, others gathered human remains to study now-discredited theories about race.

Under the direction of Ales Hrdlicka, a once-renowned anthropologist who believed in White superiority and was active in the field of eugenics, the Smithsonian acquired one of the largest collections of body parts in the world.

Smithsonian records show that remains came from more than 80 countries and were donated by hospitals, anthropologists, universities and doctors — but rarely by the deceased or their families.

How did The Post make these files searchable?

After gathering the files, The Post scanned them to extract typewritten text and then used artificial intelligence to translate the remaining handwritten text and images to build a database of keywords.

This method vastly expanded the ability to search for tribal entities, institutions, places and individuals linked to the Smithsonian’s collection. For example, the spreadsheet provided by the Smithsonian that lists each set of remains in its possession connected only 38 accession files to Hrdlicka. After scanning the documents, The Post found at least 384 accession files linked directly to Hrdlicka. Analysis of the data also revealed that more than 60 percent of the human remains in storage today were collected under his watch.

How do I obtain additional documents?

To obtain full files that were created before 1958, you can contact the Smithsonian Institution Archives. Many of the its files are scanned and online, though not searchable. For files that were created after 1958, contact the National Museum of Natural History.

In either case, you should request the file using as much information as possible from the database, including the unique accession number.