Eugenics: The Well-Born Science · Episode 1 of 9 · 30 min
The Smithsonian Kept a Child's Brain for 79 Years
In 1928 a Tlingit boy named George Grant died in Juneau, Alaska, and a doctor removed his brain and shipped it to the Smithsonian without his family's consent. It stayed there for 79 years. His story opens the series by exposing the racial brain collection built in the era of eugenics and the long road to apology and repatriation.
Who's who
- George Grant+1 more episodeTlingit boy who died in 1928; his brain was kept 79 years
- Aleš Hrdlička+1 more episodeSmithsonian anthropologist who amassed the racial brain collection
- Dr. FirestoneJuneau physician who removed the brain and shipped it east
- Charles Davenport+1 more episodeEugenics leader who sat with Hrdlička on a 1926 committee
- Lonnie G. Bunch III+1 more episodeSmithsonian Secretary who issued the 2023 apology
Where it happens
- Juneau, Alaska+1 more episodeWhere George Grant died and his gravestone records the story
- Sitka, Alaska+3 more episodesWhere the family reburied his brain in 2007
- Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Held the brain and a large collection of human remains
Timeline
- May 27, 1928George Grant dies in Juneau; his brain is removed and shipped to Hrdlička
- 1989National Museum of the American Indian Act requires Smithsonian repatriation
- 1990NAGPRA enacted for other federally funded institutions
- 2007Smithsonian returns the brain; family reburies it in Sitka
- 2023Washington Post investigation and Smithsonian apology
- January 2024Revamped NAGPRA rule takes effect
Still debated
Reports differ on whether George was nine or ten, and 79 versus 70 years is rounded differently by sources. Historians also disagree on whether Hrdlička should be called a eugenicist, since he was entangled with the movement yet dissented from parts of it.
