Forensic and Archaeological Investigation of Civil War Military Remains
February 28, 2019 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
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Renowned forensic anthropologist Dr. Douglas Owsley will discuss his work and how he’s helped to reveal the stories of those who fought in the Civil War.
Join us at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum on Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 6 PM as Dr. Douglas Owsley discusses his work with the remains of Civil War soldiers. Dr. Owsley recently participated in the recovery of the remains of two Union soldiers at Manassas National Military Park in Virginia.
Over the past three decades, Smithsonian forensic anthropologists have examined the skeletons of several hundred soldiers. Unmarked military burials have been disturbed by construction projects, exposed by natural processes such as erosion or animal burrowing, and found by relic hunters using metal detectors. Under specific circumstances, military burials have been recovered and evaluated through archaeological investigations
This presentation will demonstrate how a forensic investigative process contributes to American military history.
This is a “pay-what-you-please” program. Pre-registration is required.
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About the speaker
Douglas W. Owsley, Division Head for Physical Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., is considered one of the foremost forensic anthropologists at work today. He has identified remains from news-making crime scenes, mass disasters, and war zones. Owsley received his B.S. degree in Zoology from the University of Wyoming and his Ph.D. in Physical Anthropology from the University of Tennessee. Doug is fascinated with the wealth of information that can be recovered by studying the human skeleton – not just the cause of death, but also details about the life of a person. In addition to forensic casework, he conducts extensive research on historic and prehistoric populations from North America. These include the remains of 17th-century colonists, Civil War soldiers, and ancient Americans – such as the nearly 9,000 year-old Kennewick Man. Highlights of his work at Jamestown and Historic St. Mary’s City were featured in an exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History entitled Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake (2009-2014).