Swann Fellow Lecture, Tuesday, March 12 in Library of Congress

Were They so Torturous? Reevaluating Modern Surgery's Underdog Story
12:00-1:00 pm Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Swann Fellow Lecture

Dining Room A, 6th Floor Madison Building

Swann Fellow, Zoe Copeman, PhD candidate in Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland, argues that the history of surgery relies on the narrative of
surgery's so-called "torturous" past to legitimize the practices of elite, university-trained medical men, reducing the once valued work of middling and lower-class practitioners to quackery. Drawing from the Library of Congress's eighteenth- and nineteenth-century caricatures, her research traces changes in the public perception of surgery and how visual media across disciplines would transform the surgeon (and his tools) into powerful metaphors of European and American modernity. This event will be recorded.

For more information:

Sara W. Duke, Curator, Popular & Applied
Graphic Art, sduk@loc.gov

WaPo articles on Smithsonian human remains collections

Smithsonian should speed up return of human remains, task force says

By Nicole Dungca and Claire Healy

February 23, 2024

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/02/23/smithsonian-return-human-remains-report/

The Collection

A Washington Post investigative series into the Smithsonian's collection of at least 30,700 human bones and other body parts, including more than 250 brains. This series reveals the museum's "racial brain collection," the anthropologist behind its curation and the stories of those whose brains were taken.

Have a tip or story idea about the collection? Email our team at thecollection@washpost.com.

Read the stories

Revealing the Smithsonian's 'racial brain collection'

The Smithsonian's 'bone doctor' scavenged thousands of body parts

After Maura died in 1904, a Smithsonian anthropologist likely took part of her brain. Read the story in English or Filipino

Read the stories

How The Post reported Maura's story

How The Post reported on the Smithsonian's human remains

Key findings from The Post's investigation on the Smithsonian's human remains

Smithsonian returns woman's brain to family 90 years after it was taken

Read the stories

Smithsonian targeted D.C.'s vulnerable to build brain collection

Former employees say Smithsonian resisted action on human remains

Search the Smithsonian's records on human remains

Listen on Post Reports

When Mary died in 1933, her brain was sent to Ales Hrdlicka, the Smithsonian's "bone doctor." The Post couldn't find any records that Mary or her family consented to this. So what happened to Mary's brain? And what is the extent of the Smithsonian's "racial brain collection"?

"Brain desirable," Part 1

"Brain desirable," Part 2

Watch the videos

"Searching for Maura": Animated illustrated reporting. Also available on YouTube.

"Paghahanap kay Maura": Animated illustrated reporting. Also available on YouTube.

How The Post reported on the Smithsonian's human remains. Also available on YouTube.

Order "Searching for Maura" and "Paghahanap kay Maura"

Maura came to St. Louis from the Philippines to be put on display at the 1904 World's Fair. Records suggest that after she fell ill and died, a world-renowned anthropologist took part of her brain. Few people would know what happened to her for more than a century.

Available in English and Filipino. Order your copy now.

Tune in on Washington Post Live

The Post's Nicole Dungca interviews Michael Blakey, a member of the newly created Smithsonian human remains task force, about The Post's year-long investigation and how the organization is reckoning with this history. Watch the interview.

About the reporters

Claire Healy is a freelance journalist and newsroom copy aide who has written for The Post.

Nicole Dungca is an investigative reporter for The Post.

Andrew Ba Tran is an investigative data reporter for The Post.

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