Remains of Black New Orleanians, used for research in Germany, are back home. See the list – NOLA.com

The remains of 19 New Orleanians are seen loaded into a vehicle for transport to a private memorial service held earlier this month to honor their lives. A team led by Dillard University historian Eva Baham worked with University of Leipzig researchers to ship the remains home to New Orleans, 155 years after their skulls were used in widely discredited and racially based phrenology research.
Dillard University President Monique Guillory, second from left, joins others in listening as the names of 19 individuals are read aloud during a repatriation press conference at the university in New Orleans on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. More than a century after their remains were sent to Germany for racially biased phrenology research, the skulls of 19 African Americans have been returned to New Orleans to be laid to rest. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
Dillard University historian Eva Baham speaks during a repatriation press conference at the university in New Orleans on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. More than a century after their remains were sent to Germany for racially biased phrenology research, the skulls of 19 African Americans have been returned to New Orleans to be laid to rest. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
Dillard University President Monique Guillory speaks during a repatriation press conference at the university in New Orleans on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. More than a century after their remains were sent to Germany for racially biased phrenology research, the skulls of 19 African Americans have been returned to New Orleans to be laid to rest. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
Mayor LaToya Cantrell speaks at a private memorial service hosted by Dillard University’s Repatriation Committee this month to honor the 19 New Orleanians whose remains were experimented on in Germany in the 19th century. Officials at the University of Leipzig in Germany shipped their remains back to New Orleans earlier this month.
The remains of 19 New Orleanians are seen loaded into a vehicle for transport to a private memorial service held earlier this month to honor their lives. A team led by Dillard University historian Eva Baham worked with University of Leipzig researchers to ship the remains home to New Orleans, 155 years after their skulls were used in widely discredited and racially based phrenology research.
Dillard University President Monique Guillory, second from left, joins others in listening as the names of 19 individuals are read aloud during a repatriation press conference at the university in New Orleans on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. More than a century after their remains were sent to Germany for racially biased phrenology research, the skulls of 19 African Americans have been returned to New Orleans to be laid to rest. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
Dillard University historian Eva Baham speaks during a repatriation press conference at the university in New Orleans on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. More than a century after their remains were sent to Germany for racially biased phrenology research, the skulls of 19 African Americans have been returned to New Orleans to be laid to rest. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
Dillard University President Monique Guillory speaks during a repatriation press conference at the university in New Orleans on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. More than a century after their remains were sent to Germany for racially biased phrenology research, the skulls of 19 African Americans have been returned to New Orleans to be laid to rest. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
Mayor LaToya Cantrell speaks at a private memorial service hosted by Dillard University’s Repatriation Committee this month to honor the 19 New Orleanians whose remains were experimented on in Germany in the 19th century. Officials at the University of Leipzig in Germany shipped their remains back to New Orleans earlier this month.
More than a century after their bodies were dismembered and their skulls sent to Germany to aid in racially-biased phrenology research, the remains of 19 African Americans have been returned to New Orleans to be laid to rest.
A research team led by Dillard University historian Eva Baham has identified 17 of the 19 people whose skulls were returned earlier this month. Two remain unidentified. All 19 were living in New Orleans at the time of their death at the now-defunct Charity Hospital in New Orleans between 1871-72.
In the 1880s, New Orleans physician Dr. Henry D. Schmidt sent the 19 crania to Dr. Emil Ludwig Schmidt of Leipzig, Germany for the research, a precursor to the eugenics Nazi scientists practiced in late 19th and early 20th centuries. The pseudoscience that believed personality traits and intellectual abilities could be determined based on skull shape.
In 2023, researchers with the University of Leipzig started the return process, with the remains arriving in New Orleans earlier this month.
A public visitation is planned for Saturday at 9 a.m. at Dillard University’s Lawless Memorial Chapel followed by a memorial service at 11 a.m.
Researchers say the 13 men, four women and two unidentified people whose skulls have been returned ranged in age from just 15 to 70 and died of various natural causes.
They are:
A note to readers: The Times-Picayune is trying to connect with the families of the men and women listed above. If you have any information, please contact Desiree Stennett at desiree.stennett@theadvocate.com.
Email Desiree Stennett at Desiree.Stennett@TheAdvocate.com.
Alice Brown, 15, had lived in New Orleans her whole life before she died in 1871 and became a research subject.
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