Museum researchers look into the lives of individuals in the world-famous osteological collection.
On October 21, 1925, 71-year-old George Maus was working as a teamster (someone who drove teams of horses) and living in Cleveland when he unexpectedly passed away from a chronic health condition. Unfortunately, his family could not be reached within the 36 hours required by law at the time to claim his body. As a result, Maus was sent to Western Reserve University—now Case Western Reserve University (CWRU)—to undergo anatomical dissection and study by medical students. This is how he ultimately became one of the more than 3,000 individuals in the Hamann-Todd Osteological Collection, now curated by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
The collection was started by surgeon Carl Hamann, who moved to Cleveland from Pennsylvania in 1893 to teach at Western Reserve University’s medical school. However, it was his successor, Thomas Wingate Todd, who vastly expanded the collection when he took over Hamann’s position in 1912. Fascinated by differences among people and variation in the human skeleton, Todd contributed enormously to the development of the field now known as biological (or physical) anthropology, which is the study of human and nonhuman primate biology and evolution. While many universities and museums were establishing skeletal collections in the 1920s, the Hamann-Todd Collection is exceptional in the sheer amount of associated information. Todd meticulously recorded as much as he could, including the person’s age at death, cause of death, body size and measurements, and often their name. After Todd’s sudden death in 1938, CWRU kept all the individuals and ultimately reached an agreement with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for them to be housed and curated at the Museum.
Many decades later, we are preparing to move these individuals again into a new, custom-built space as part of the Museum’s transformation project. All collections are currently closed to researchers while we busily prepare behind the scenes for this monumental move. This pause provides the perfect opportunity for us to revise our policies for research and access and consider how this collection may benefit communities today. For more than a century, the Hamann-Todd individuals have helped advance countless research studies, resulting in everything from better-fitting army helmets and orthopedic implants to improved forensic and anthropological methods for identifying unknown individuals and learning about the past. Recently, the Hamann-Todd Collection was in the news for helping us better understand mortality patterns during the 1918 flu epidemic, with important implications for public health today. However, such research tends to investigate broader patterns and variation, rarely focusing on individuals and their unique stories. And aside from researchers, many people may not even know this collection exists.
Two years ago, we initiated the Hamann-Todd Biography Project to try to learn more about the individuals in the collection. Our team has since grown to three Museum anthropologists, four undergraduate students, and a roster of enthusiastic volunteers. Our approach has two components. First, we carefully digitize the century-old paper records associated with each individual, which are stored in numbered folders. Many only contain handwritten notes from Todd, but these files provide a crucial link to the people in the collection and the circumstances of their lives and deaths. Second, we use these records to search genealogy databases like FamilySearch.com and Ancestry.com to find additional information, such as death records and family relationships. Our goal is to build a more complete picture of who these people were for the purposes of research, sharing their stories, and perhaps even identifying descendants.
Kimber Watkins, a fourth-year anthropology major at Cleveland State University (CSU), became involved in the Biography Project after taking a forensic anthropology class that involved working with CSU’s teaching collection of human remains.
“It really bothered me that when I asked my professor who the bones belong to, she was unable to give me an answer,” Watkins says.
Curious about other historical skeletal collections, Watkins contacted the Museum and learned about the Hamann-Todd individuals. She ultimately became the project’s first work-study student, developing the genealogical research protocols now being used by the entire team.
“The project is important to me because I feel it’s taking a very large step in the right direction. I hope this work will help rebuild trust in what we as anthropologists do, bring closure and peace to the families of the individuals in the collection, and encourage other institutions to do the same so we can all benefit from a future we can be proud of.”
Kate Gorodovich, another returning student and a third-year psychology and medical anthropology major at CWRU, got involved in the project last year for similar reasons.
“This work is meaningful and emotional for me, but also for the general community and the families these people belong to,” Gorodovich says. “With every person I work with, I feel connected to them and thankful for the opportunity to give back in any way I can. It is with deep gratitude that I can be a part of restoring personhood and identity to the people in the collection.”
Jana Ashour, a freshman at CWRU with a background in art and design, is a newcomer to the project and this kind of work.
“I chose to join this project because it resonated with my passions for human health and social justice and ethics,” Ashour says. “Though gathering data on a collection of human remains wasn't something I ever anticipated, this project has been a rich learning experience for me, not just regarding the technical aspects of data collection but also in broadening my understanding of individuals, individuals’ diverse narratives, and the ethical complexities of research.”
Nick Burkart, a CWRU sophomore majoring in physics and engineering, rounds out the student research team.
The results of this project, which will run for the next several years, are already improving how we curate and care for the collection while helping to establish ethical best practices for the future. In the coming years, we plan to share stories from Hamann-Todd individuals that honor the contributions they have made to science and foster greater awareness of the collection in Cleveland and beyond. Our goal is to build connections between these individuals and present-day people and communities who can learn from and appreciate them. As part of this process, we anticipate some may even discover a long-lost relative in our museum.
In 2022, nearly 100 years after George Maus passed away, one of his family members contacted the Museum upon finding his death certificate on FamilySearch.com. After confirming that “HTH 1292” (Todd gave everyone a number) was in fact George, the family member shared photos of him in life and gave us their blessing to continue to learn from him and share his story. We hope to establish more of these connections in the future, and to engage in meaningful consultations with descendants and engaged communities on what is now best for their relatives. While the families of the Hamann-Todd individuals weren’t able to claim them 100 years ago, today’s interconnected world provides another chance to mend broken connections from the past.
Interested in learning more? Join us for a free public lecture at the Museum on Thursday, February 8, 2024, at 6:30pm. Dr. Carlina de la Cova, Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Carolina, will speak on “Restoring Cleveland’s Silenced Voices.”
