https://www.thedp.com/article/2020/07/penn-museum-morton-cranial-collection-black-lives-matter
““Just as these remains were transformed into objects through their collection, they must now be uncollected, [and] recognized as persons,” Mitchell said. “Approaching this ethical challenge is as complex as it is crucial.”
Penn Museum will remove the Morton Cranial Collection, a collection of about 1,000 crania with some belonging to enslaved individuals, from public view after students called for the crania to be repatriated.
The collection is the work of Samuel George Morton, an 1820 Perelman School of Medicine graduate who used the skulls of enslaved people to argue that there are inherent differences between the brains of people of different races.
Morton, who is from Philadelphia, was an active participant in the medical and scientific community in the early 19th century.
During the Penn & Slavery Project’s 2019 symposium, students presented findings that the Morton Cranial Collection includes 53 crania belonging to enslaved individuals from Havana, Cuba and two crania belonging to enslaved Americans. A portion of the collection is currently in public view in a Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials classroom in the Museum.