MUSEUMS AND AMERICAN IMPERIALISM
"From remote ages, the inhabitants of every extended locality have been marked by certain physical and moral peculiarities, common amongst themselves, and serving to distinguish them from all other people."
Samuel George Morton, Crania Americana (1839), p. 1
One of the most popular topics in American medicine in this era directly correlates to the United States government’s own colonial exploits: Indigenous people.
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While its credibility had diminished by the second half of the 19th century, the study of the shape and capacity of human skulls remained an area of interest for many men of science. This discipline, known as craniology, stated that one could determine a person's intelligence and temperament from precise measurements of the shape, size, and capacity of their skull.
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Based in a belief that different races were fundamentally different from one another, many medical practitioners used craniology to argue that the white race was superior to all other races.
Diagram showing how a skull is measured. Morton took measurements to determine the qualities of a certain race. Some were quantitative, such as brain size or the distance between the cheekbones, but some were completely subjective, like "facial elegance" or "strength of features." Those of Western European decent, according to Morton, had top marks in all categories. Crania Americana (1839), page 252.
Ethnologist Samuel George Morton conducted years of "research" measuring the cranial capacities of several different races. From this, he determined that the "Caucasian race," comprised of people of Western European and Mediterranean descent, have the largest cranial capacity and are therefore superior to all other races.
Regarding Indigenous people, Morton wrote in his 1839 book Crania Americana that
"In their mental character the Americans are averse to cultivation, and slow in acquiring knowledge; restless, revengeful, and fond of war."
These beliefs that Indigenous Americans were fundamentally inferior to white Americans provided justification for the United States' continuing genocide. The government and Christian missionary groups justified their violence by saying that they were saving the Indigenous peoples from themselves.
It should go without saying that Morton and his contemporaries' beliefs about craniology and race are completely untrue. However, because race science was backed by well-educated people, it gave their racism an air of legitimacy. If scientists said it, it must be true.
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Because of the widespread interest in craniology, physicians hoarded piles of Indigenous remains. Scientific racism was not a fringe belief; mainstream, orthodox medical institutions promoted craniology throughout the 19th century. In an address to the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons in 1888, medical librarian John S. Billings said
"The Army Medical Museum contains what may seem a large amount of material relating to human osteology, and especially craniology...but it is actually half large enough to permit of drawing definite scientific conclusions."
The United States Congress passed the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990, which mandated that institutions must contact Indigenous tribes and begin the process of returning stolen human remains and artifacts. Despite this, thousands of Indigenous human remains lie unprocessed and unburied in museums across the country.