‘Useful Ornaments to His Cabinet’: An Analysis of Anatomical Study and Display in Colonial Williamsburg

Summary

Most published research on the study of anatomy in colonial America has focused on the extensive grave-robbing practices during the late 18th and 19th centuries, which were driven by the demand for cadavers in medical schools and sparked public unrest and riots. However, my bioarchaeological analysis of remains from mid-18th century Virginia reveals that practices of dissection and anatomical preparations were quite different in the decades before the establishment of the first American medical schools. This paper presents isolated human remains recovered from refuse pits at two urban Williamsburg sites, the Brush-Everard House and the Cary Peyton Armistead House, which represent examples of anatomical preparations and dissections. Combined with existing archaeological, historical, and biographical research into Williamsburg’’s colonial period, these isolated finds shed light on the development of professionalized medicine, economic and social competition, and attitudes towards scientific knowledge in colonial America.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Discovering what Counts in Archaeology and Reconstruction: Lessons from Colonial Williamsburg   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-9,08