Penn Museum defends decision to inter 19 Black Philadelphians whose skulls were once collected to promote racist science

By Justin Gamble, CNN

(CNN) — Philadelphia’s Penn Museum stands by its decision to entomb the remains of 19 unidentified Black Philadelphians who were held in its collection, despite criticism from some in the community that the museum should have done more to identify the remains.

The museum held an interfaith memorial service Saturday to honor the 19 unnamed Black Philadelphians whose skulls were part of the museum’s Samuel G. Morton Cranial Collection – an extensive cache of more than 1,300 human skulls from around the world that were amassed by the 19th century physician and others.

Morton’s research into human skulls was partly used to advance the racist belief that White Europeans – especially those of German and English descent – were mentally and physically superior, according to the museum.   
 
After his death in 1851, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, where Morton had served as president until his death, purchased and expanded his collection. Then, more than a century later, the collection was transferred to Penn Museum in 1966.

But the cranial collection has long posed a dilemma faced by museums across the nation – how to preserve and present collections of human remains that are also a testament to America’s racist past.

The Penn Museum said in a statement it rejects “scientific racism that was used to justify slavery and the unethical acquisition of the remains of enslaved people.”

“As we confront our institutional history tied to colonialist and racist narratives, we are continuously working to reconcile our past with restorative practices,” the museum said.

“The Penn Museum and the University of Pennsylvania apologize for the unethical possession of human remains in the Morton Collection. It is time for these individuals to be returned to their ancestral communities, wherever possible, as a step toward atonement and repair.”

Other institutions, like the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Smithsonian have also grappled with how to respectfully display, store, or repatriate the human remains in their collections.

Last month, museums across the country began closing exhibits featuring Native American objects in response to new regulations went into effect requiring museums and federal agencies to consult and obtain informed consent from descendants, tribes or Native Hawaiian Organizations before displaying or researching human remains or cultural items, CNN previously reported.

Christopher Woods, director of the Penn Museum, said the museum has created a program to “allow for the repatriation of culturally sensitive artifacts and human remains.”  
 
But the decision to entomb the remains of the Black Philadelphians who were held in the Morton collection, Woods said, was made in consultation with members of the community.

“These individuals have been in museum store rooms, they have been subjected to testing and they’ve been part of exhibitions for 200 years,” Woods told CNN.

“I heard from our community members over and over again, that they should be laid to rest now, and they should wait no longer.”

In 2020, the museum formed a committee to decide what to do with the remains held in the Morton collection. The following year, the museum formed a separate advisory group made up of members of West Philadelphia’s religious and community leaders to specifically address how to respectfully handle the remains of the 12 women and 7 Black Philadelphian men held in the collection.

The group recommended the museum arrange for the burial of the remains in a historic Black cemetery and hold a public commemoration ceremony for the remains, among other things.

On January 22, the remains were entombed in an above ground mausoleum in the state’s historically Black Eden Cemetery. The location and choice of a mausoleum were deliberate, Woods said, to make it easier to retrieve the remains should anyone come forward with additional information or a claim to be a descendant.

But for some local residents and academics, Woods assurances were not enough.

aAliy Muhammad, a local Philadelphia activist, said they have been outspoken about returning the remains to their rightful descendants since learning about Samuel G. Morton and the collection during a symposium in 2019.

Muhammad said they were a member of the museum’s advisory committee but decided to leave after disagreeing with the recommendations.

Muhammad pushed back on the museum’s claim that nothing more could’ve been done to identify the remains, arguing that time and resources should have been dedicated to the task instead. They were also critical of the ceremony the museum held to inter the remains.

“They spent no time at a ceremony for them, actually talking about them,” they said. “Besides saying that nothing can be known about them, they spent more time elevating the history of the White supremacist doctor who captured them.’

Woods said the decision to bury the remains was the conclusion of a yearslong process of research into the Black Philadelphians held in the Morton Collection. But, he added, very little was known about those individuals and that records only listed the occupations of the 19 individuals and not their names.

“Too often what museums will do – and institutions – is say, ‘We’re going to do more research … we’re going to look, we’re going to wait.’ And this is sort of a tool for inaction,” Woods said.

“I hope that one day, some of these individuals will be identified … that’s a happy ending. But let these individuals rest in peace, with dignity now, until such a time happens, which is indefinite and may never happen.  And I would dare say, in most cases, it won’t happen.”

Aja Lans, an assistant professor of anthropology and Africana studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, also told CNN she believed the Penn Museum’s approach was unnecessarily rushed.

“Penn’s solution was just like, ‘Okay, we shouldn’t have these, let’s just bury them as soon as possible and say we’ve done the right thing,” Lans said. “They should have done more archival work, so that they can at least try to identify these people,” Lans told CNN.

Renee McBride-Williams also served on the museum’s community advisory committee but unlike Muhammad, she believes it was time to let the 19 individuals begin to rest in peace.

McBride-Williams told CNN before making her recommendation, she spent time considering what she would have wanted to happen to her remains if they were included in the collection.  
 
“As a resident of West Philly … as a human being myself, I have sort of feelings about the treachery that went on was scientific racism, that’s pretty much my opinion,” she said.

Woods acknowledged the museum’s actions would not please everyone, but he said the Penn Museum has an ethical obligation to address the legacies of their collections.

“It’s critically important,” he said.

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