The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, provided specimens and expertise to an exhibition within the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History which has been awarded one of the Secretary’s of Research Prizes for 2010.
The award goes to museum curator and UT alumnus, Doug Owsley and his colleague, Kari Bruwelheide. The exhibition, “Written in Bone,” examines history through 17th-century bone biographies, including those of colonists teetering on the edge of survival at Jamestown, Virginia, and those living in the wealthy and well-established settlement of St. Mary’s City, Md. The exhibition includes selected specimens from the William M. Bass donated skeletal collection which better reflects the present-day American population. All of the 800-plus skeletons in the still-growing collection were generous donations to science.
The exhibition and hands-on lab remain favorites with museum guests and will remain in place through January 6, 2013.