Does the Ohio Historical Society have human remains in its collections and are any from the Octagon Earthworks?
After inventorying 6,733 sets of human remains in 2001, Society staff members estimate that there are between 2,500 and 3,000 individuals in the Society’s collections. However, the large majority were excavated and removed from their burial places in the 19th and early 20th centuries, long before institutions like OHS understood the cultural implications of these actions. To our knowledge, none of the human remains in the collection were removed from the Octagon Earthworks. On July 12, 2002, OHS implemented a moratorium on the practice of removing human remains from their place of discovery. The moratorium implements our policy that unless the burials are at imminent risk of loss, formal burials located on OHS-administered property will not be removed from their original context and that measures will be taken to protect the burials from further disturbance. Some are concerned that OHS retains human remains and burial items in its collections. OHS has formal legal responsibilities rega
