People

The museum contains the skeletons and other remains from some famous and infamous people from Scottish history including the serial killer William Burke, ‘Bowed’ Joseph and John Howison, the ‘Cramond Murderer’.

Ancestral remains

The University holds one of the largest and most historically significant collections of ancestral remains, notably skulls. 

The majority of the skulls in Edinburgh’s collection were assembled by Turner and like many UK universities with anatomical collections, the skulls came from the British Empire’s colonies or through their global networks. 

Human skulls were used in the study of anatomy and anthropology as well as the now discredited idea of phrenology. Popular in the UK and other parts of Europe in the colonial era, phrenology formulated racist theories of inferiority based on the shape and dimensions of a skull. 

The University now works with communities around the world to engage with its collections and repatriate remains to the communities they were taken from.

Find out more about our repatriations.

Famous and infamous people from Scottish history