'Brain desirable,' Part 2

Published: Aug. 15, 2023, 8:04 p.m.

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Who is Mary Sara, the Sami woman whose brain was taken for the Smithsonian\\u2019s \\u201cracial brain collection\\u201d? Today, we find her descendants. And we find out how the Smithsonian is addressing the dark legacy of its \\u201cbone doctor,\\u201d Ales Hrdlicka. 


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The brain of a Sami woman who died at a Seattle sanitarium in 1933. The cerebellum of an Indigenous Filipino who died at the 1904 World\\u2019s Fair. These are just two of the brains collected, seemingly without consent, by the Smithsonian\\u2019s first curator of its physical anthropology division, Ales Hrdlicka. They were part of the institution\\u2019s \\u201cracial brain collection.\\u201d 


Now, a hundred years after this brain collection began, The Washington Post has pieced together the most extensive look at this work to date. In this second episode, we conclude our search for the descendants of Mary, the Sami woman whose brain was taken in 1933, and we hear from the Smithsonian about how it\\u2019s grappling with Hrdlicka\\u2019s troubling legacy.


If you haven\\u2019t listened to the first episode, make sure to listen to \\u201cBrain desirable,\\u201d Part 1

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