In the turn of the century, Professor Harris Hawthorne Wilder, leading Zoologist at Smith College, excavated remains and materials from indigenous community’s burial sites across the Northeast. Exhibited in Burton Hall, the human remains and objects were displayed in the same cases that now hold the now familiar mineral collections, botanical specimen, and other scientific objects.
Unable to find images of the original collection installed, please note that the following images are of a display from 1992. Titled “Early Zoology at Smith,” this display illustrate Wilder’s research methodologies and achievements.
Given this information, do these display cases take on a new meaning?
Content Warning: The images below contain images of ancestral remains
Move the curser to navigate the layered images.
Note: The exact cases in which the ancestral remains were housed has yet to be confirmed.
Images of display cases in Burton Hall. Taken by Isabel Cordova in Spring 2019.
Contact sheet of images labeled “Skull Negatives.” Box 10. H.H. Wilder Collection Museum of Art Acquisitions. Smith College Archives, Smith College Libraries, Northampton, MA.
