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Short abstract:

What can a series of 14 gorilla skulls, taken from Congo in the early 20th century, prepared as specimens in France and currently shelved in an Amsterdam museum depot, teach us about the entanglements of colonialism and past and present scientific practices concerned with human evolution?

Long abstract:

The anatomy museum Vrolik in the Amsterdam Academic Medial Center, houses the remains of many human and non-human primates. Amongst them 14 skulls of gorillas taken from the region where the Kadeï flows into the Sangha river in Congo in the early 20th century under French colonization. In Paris the skulls were prepared to show dental development in gorillas from juvenile to adult. Dutch anatomist Lodewijk Bolk started to amass gorilla skulls after 1919 and bought the series from trading house Tramond-Rouppert in 1925. Bolk considered it a valuable addition to the collection, not only for his own work on evolution. In funding requests to the municipality of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam University Association, Bolk anticipated the extinction of the gorilla and envisioned that a large and interesting collection of gorilla skulls would increase in scientific and monetary value over time to become a great future asset to the university. Gorillas did not go extinct and today the chimpanzee and bonobo, instead of the gorilla as Bolk believed, are considered the closest to human primates based on genetics and became key figures in human evolution science. In the past decades, no researcher has shown interest in the skulls on the shelves in the museum depot. Until they were enrolled in my research into colonialism and scientific practices, focused on the remains of great apes in institutions. In this presentation I explore what the 14 skulls, as (de)valued colonial matters, can teach us about past and present practices of knowledge production.