Displaying the dead: public reactions to human skeletons in museums
Katherine Baxter (Leeds Museum & Galleries)
Univeristy of Bradford, Richmond Building, JSB

In 2018 Leeds City Museum was the final venue for the UK tour of Skeletons: Our Buried Bones exhibition, a partnership project with Wellcome Collection and the Museum of London. The exhibition unearthed the stories of twelve people from Yorkshire and London through the study of their skeletons and provided a rare glimpse into the lives and health of the individuals who have gone before us. Human remains collections in museums have often been at the centre of ethical debate, so as part of the exhibition we conducted research with our visitors to find out more about their reaction to the display, research and photography of human remains in museums. This talk will look at these interesting and often conflicting results and consider the ways in which 21st century museum visitors engage with human remains, and how museum policy can in turn to respond to these attitudes.

Biography
Katherine Baxter is Curator of Archaeology at Leeds Museums and Galleries, and is responsible for both British and overseas archaeological collections, including human remains. She is secretary of the Society for Museum Archaeology, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Medieval Studies at Leeds University. One of her main interests is the ethics and care of human remains in museums.

Location

Richmond Building, JSB Bradford