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The Museum A Short History of Crisis and Resilience

Prophets and Ghosts: The Story of Salvage Anthropology

Philadelphia and the Dark History of Collecting Human Remains

The Smithsonian at war: Museums in US society during World War II

Bone Rooms From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums

Sam Redman is best known for his work on the history of museums, especially the history of anthropology and archaeology. His work has been featured in documentary films, recent essays, and in several major media outlets. He is also an accomplished oral historian, having organized major oral history projects at Berkeley and UMass. His oral history interviews have been cited in many theses as well as in scholarly and popular publications. 

His writing has appeared in The Journal of American History, The Public Historian, Oral History Review, U.S. Intellectual History, Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Civil War Book Review, International Journal of Heritage Studies, Reviews in American History, and Ethnohistory, among other venues.

His book, Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums was selected as a Choice Top-25 Outstanding Academic Title, Nature Top-20 book of 2016, and Smithsonian Top History Book of 2016.

History of Museums

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Bone Rooms

Human bone salesman talks about why he started business

Harvard's morgue scandal is part of ‘a much larger story' in trading human remains

Revealing the Smithsonian's 'Racial Brain' Collection

A History of Museum Resilience: Q&A with Author Samuel Redman

‘There’s no words’: Relatives feel victimized by alleged scheme to sell donated human remains

Professor of History and Director of Public History Program

In Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums (https://bookshop.org/a/12343/9780674278677)  (Harvard University Press, 2022 for paperback edition), Samuel J. Redman, Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, uncovers the equally fascinating and disturbing history behind the vast collections of human remains assembled by medical and natural history museums since the mid-nineteenth-century across the United States. The book shows how, in the aftermaths of the Civil War, human remains, and especially those of Indigenous people, were seen as valuable specimens for the advancement of medicine, before turning into crucial pieces of evidence for scientific racism, and eventually serving as material for the study and exhibition of human prehistory.


Bone Rooms charts the trouble waters of the birth and evolution of bone rooms and offers a most timely historical account, as debates around the restitution of human remains and cultural artifacts held in museums have been gaining momentum in the recent years. Behind this important past lies the profound question of how to ensure that the quest for scientific knowledge does not, even if inadvertently, erase the humanity or cultural value of what have been seen as specimens only. As Redman advocates, “Museums can serve as key spaces to attempt to come to terms with the colonial legacy attached to archaeology and anthropology, through partially redressing past wrongs while continuing the search for new knowledge.”


Victor Monnin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-monnin-281941160/) , Ph.D. is an historian of science specialized in the history of Earth sciences. He is also teaching French language and literature to undergraduates.


 


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Samuel J. Redman, "Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums" (Harvard UP...

On an afternoon in January 1865, a roaring fire swept through the Smithsonian Institution. Dazed soldiers and worried citizens could only watch as the flames engulfed the museum’s castle. Rare objects and valuable paintings were destroyed. The flames at the Smithsonian were not the first—and certainly would not be the last— disaster to upend a museum in the United States. Beset by challenges ranging from pandemic and war to fire and economic uncertainty, museums have sought ways to emerge from crisis periods stronger than before, occasionally carving important new paths forward in the process.

The Museum explores the concepts of the multiple “crises” of the museums, and these historic institutions attempts to dealt with challenges ranging from depression and war to pandemic and philosophical uncertainty.
Samuel J. Redman speaks to Pierre d’Alancaisez about the fires, floods, wars, and existential crises that have redefined what museums do and how they think of themselves and their public, asking challenging questions about American cultural life. Not deterred by these institutions’ tendency to forgot their even recent past, Redman argues that cultural institutions can, and should, use their history to construe their future identity.

Samuel J. Redman is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the author of Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums and Prophets and Ghosts: The Story of Salvage Anthropology.

The Museum
A Short History of Crisis and Resilience
Samuel J. Redman
Published by NYU Press, 2022
ISBN 9781479809332

https://petitpoi.net/samuel-redman-the-museum/

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The Museum - interview with Samuel J. Redman - Pierre d'Alancaisez

When oral histories end up in an archival repository, they live alongside other sources. How do historians bring these different kinds of sources together when they write? 

This talk explores methods for blending oral history interviews and archival materials in developing narrative driven writing. Oral histories provide unique opportunities for scholarly and popular writers, especially when combined with "traditional" primary sources drawn from archives. By tracing several recent examples, the talk will explore how oral histories might provide unique and invaluable insights into important historical questions while also engaging different audiences. Through embracing the unique voices expressed in oral history sources, writers can learn to make their narratives more engaging while simultaneously supporting significant scholarly arguments.

Samuel J. Redman is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he leads the recently organized UMass Oral History Lab. The UMass Oral History Lab serves to improve oral history projects of all kinds, building collaborations with students, scholars, and community organizations. Before starting at UMass, Redman served as Lead Interviewer for the Rosie the Riveter / World War II Home Front Oral History Project at the University of California, Berkeley. He also helped to launch oral history projects on the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge, Japanese American Confinement during World War II, and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. His first book, Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums was published by Harvard University Press in 2016.

When: Thursday, April 4 2019, 6:10- 7:30pm
Where:  509 Knox Hall, 550 West 606 West 122nd Street, 5th floor

Samuel J. Redman | Oral History &amp; Archives: Voice, Storytelling &amp; Narrative in Historical Research

Samuel J. Redman, author of the new book, THE MUSEUM: A SHORT HISTORY OF CRISIS AND RESILIENCE (NYU Press, April 2022). Beset by challenges ranging from pandemic and war to fire and economic uncertainty, museums have found ways to emerge from crisis periods stronger than before, occasionally carving important new paths forward in the process. 

Samuel J. Redman retraces the trials and tribulations of some of America’s most prestigious institutions and how they triumphed in the face of disease, economic distress, disaster, art strikes, and culture wars. Using key points in history such as the Great Depression, World War II, the infamous Smithsonian fire, the 1970 art strike as well as today’s COVID-19 pandemic and issues surrounding race and gender, Redman presents a concise and enlightening examination of the art institutions in crisis and recovery. 

The Douglas Coleman Show now offers audio and video promotional packages for music artists as well as video promotional packages for authors. Please see our website for complete details. 

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The Douglas Coleman Show VE with Samuel J Redman

Bone Rooms explores the history of human remains collecting. The collection and display of bodily remains became central to debates about ethics, repatriation, and scientific authority that continue today.

For more information on Bone Rooms, the history of physical anthropology, and human remains collecting, visit https://www.chstm.org/video/65

Samuel Redman — Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums

If you've ever wanted to buy a human skull, good news: there are websites happy to sell you one. But where do the bones come from? VICE News' Dexter Thomas met with a TikToker who runs a business based on human remains.

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