Hundreds of 19th-century skulls collected in the name of medical science tell a story of who mattered and who didn’t

Illustration of just one of almost a thousand skulls Morton and colleagues collected. Crania Americana by Samuel Morton, CC BY

When I started my research on the Samuel George Morton Cranial Collection, a librarian leaned over my laptop one day to share some lore. “Legend has it,” she said, “John James Audubon really collected the skulls Morton claimed as his own.” Her voice was lowered so as not to disturb the other scholars in the hushed archive.

As my work progressed, I uncovered no evidence to substantiate her whispered claim. Audubon had collected human skulls, several of which he then passed on to Morton. But birds and ornithology remained Audubon’s passion.