Terry Collection
Definition
A documented skeletal collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (Washington DC), assembled from cadavers donated to Washington University's anatomy department in the 1920s-1940s, predominantly Black and White Americans. The primary reference collection for Phenice's original validation.
- Location
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC
- Size
- Approximately 1,728 individuals
- Date Range Accumulated
- 1898 to 1967
Common questions
What is the Terry Collection and where is it housed?+
The Terry Collection is a skeletal reference collection of approximately 1,728 individuals housed at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. It was accumulated between 1898 and 1967, primarily sourced from cadavers donated to Washington University's anatomy department in the 1920s-1940s.
Why is the Terry Collection important in forensic anthropology?+
The collection served as the primary reference for validating sex estimation methods like Phenice's technique. It is also the source of the Trotter-Gleser stature regression equations and has been used in numerous sex and age estimation validation studies.
What populations does the Terry Collection represent?+
The collection predominantly includes skeletal remains of Black and White Americans.
Related terms
- Bass Donated Skeletal Collection
- A consent-based skeletal collection of over 1,750 individuals at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, established by William Bass in 1981. All individuals...
- Cultural Affiliation (NAGPRA)
- The link, established by a preponderance of evidence, between a present-day tribe or Native Hawaiian organisation and human remains or cultural items...
- Culturally Unidentifiable Remains
- Human remains in US museum and agency collections whose cultural affiliation with any present-day tribe cannot be established by the preponderance-of-evidence standard....
- De Montfort Precedent (2018)
- The return by De Montfort University Leicester of skeletal remains (Asaru-Ojo) to the Ogoni community in Nigeria, conducted voluntarily under the Human...
- Greater Sciatic Notch
- The posterior notch on the ilium between the posterior inferior iliac spine and the ischial spine. Narrow and V-shaped in males; wide...
- Hamann-Todd Collection
- A skeletal reference collection of approximately 3,100 individuals at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, accumulated 1893 to 1939 from unclaimed bodies...
- Klales 2012 Revision
- An ordinal revision of the Phenice method by Ashley Klales using a 1-5 scale for each trait and a logistic regression to...
- NAGPRA
- The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (Public Law 101-601, 1990), a US federal statute requiring museums and federal agencies to...
- Obstetric Trade-Off
- The evolutionary conflict in humans between the biomechanical benefit of a narrow pelvis for efficient bipedal locomotion and the obstetric requirement for...
- Phenice Method
- A non-metric morphological sex estimation technique published by Thomas Phenice in 1969, based on scoring three traits of the pubic bone: the...
- Population Affinity
- The preferred modern forensic-anthropological term for the relationship between an unidentified individual's skeletal morphology and a modern reference population. Replaces the older...
- Pre-Auricular Sulcus
- A groove anterior to the auricular surface of the ilium, associated with parturition stress at the sacroiliac joint. Present in 58-70 per...
Explained in these topics
- NAGPRA, Repatriation and the Ethics of Skeletal Reference CollectionsA skeletal reference collection of approximately 1,728 individuals at the Smithsonian NMNH, accumulated 1898 to 1967. Source of the Trotter-Gleser stature regr...
- Sex Estimation from the Pelvis: Phenice, Sciatic Notch and Sub-Pubic AngleA documented skeletal collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (Washington DC), assembled from cadavers donated to Washington Universit...