"A chamber of horrors": The Union army's collection of human remains and the development of the Army Medical Museum

This research follows the development of the Army Medical Museum (AMM) during the Civil War and its subsequent collection and display of human remains originating from the field of battle. Curatorial practices surrounding human remains have changed rapidly in the past century, and the AMM played a significant role in the nineteenth-century display of human remains as the first nationally-affiliated institution in the world to actively collect such materials for study and display. This is a multidisciplinary study, engaging with sociology, history, and disability and Indigenous studies. Analyzing photographs of remains in the AMM’s collection alongside those of living veterans photographed both during and after the war determines the differences in how various groups approached the living and the deceased, both in museum spaces and in daily life. Veterans of the Civil War who chose to participate in the AMM’s Living Collection used their autonomy to seek social veneration in a time where the American public was becoming increasingly resentful of their presence. The Deceased Collection, which did not offer such choices to these soldiers, provided a space through which veterans and families could mourn their loved ones while the public would engage with these same spaces by objectifying the individuals on display. By connecting the history of the AMM to other institutions with similar curatorial practices, the AMM is situated at the forefront of systematic remains collection and curation in the United States. This history is significant because it connects the history of human remains curation in museums to fields such as disability and Native American studies, giving a deeper understanding of the pervasive nature of casual dehumanization in museums and its effects over time.