![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKYMg8MBJQgUTInNEyYQ1ItxleXXje1IxJfkp4TzGUVVOoS-ahdCppAh2N-BSdwkbWGJ2RQmHmfHrkwnGYiRCZob6GLDhCuyTX3GDoxO5Y3X6oXXQToronygSTFKw0vyyY-NOWqlhjHb8/s200/death.jpg)
Robert
Kennicott was a well-liked and respected young naturalist for the
Smithsonian Institution in its early days, when naturalists actually
lived in the museum together. He was dedicated to collecting specimens
for the institute, up until his untimely death at age 30. Kennicott's
bones will be put on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of
Natural History on March 10 as part of an exhibit called “Objects of
Wonder.” For Kennicott, that might be the ultimate honor. But his story
did not end with his death. Over a hundred years after burial,
Kennicott's coffin was exhumed for examination to determine the exact
cause of death.
The mystery begins with Kennicott’s
death on May 13, 1866. He had been on another long mission to the
Yukon—this time for the Western Union Telegraph. He was the only person
who had lived in Russian America, and was to help that company find a
route to lay a cable connecting the United States with Europe via the
Bering Strait. Kennicott and two fellow naturalists also planned to
collect rare specimens, but they arrived just below the Arctic Circle as
winter began in 1865. They made a grueling trip to Fort Nulato on the
Yukon River, 500 miles from any other fort, in temperatures as low as 60
below zero.
By spring, Kennicott intended to begin his own work
as a naturalist. But he didn’t show up for breakfast that day, and his
men found him dead by the bank of the river near the fort. Rumors began
that he had committed suicide by swallowing the strychnine he often
carried to preserve specimens. His friends spent eight months on a
journey to bring Kennicott’s body back. He was buried in January 1867 at
The Grove, in an airtight metal coffin.
Kennicott's
family never really bought the idea that he had committed suicide. In
2001, forensic anthropologist Kari Bruwelheide and the museum’s division
head for physical anthropology Doug Owsley performed a thorough
examination and a chemical analysis to find out why he died. In
analyzing Kennicott's remains, they also got a glimpse at the chemicals
that 19th century people were exposed to, both accidentally and
medicinally (such as lead, strychnine, and mercury), and the effects of
diseases that were common at the time.
Read the story of Robert Kennicott at Smithsonian.
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