Smithsonian scientists conclude that the body in a cast-iron coffin discovered by utility workers in Washington, D.C. two years ago is that of 15-year-old William Taylor White, who died in 1852, most ...

In Washington, D.C., in the winter of 1852, a teenager died of pneumonia. He was dressed in a white cotton suit, his face covered by an oval glass plate, and buried in an air-tight, cast-iron coffin.

MU's Anthropology Department took a look inside. It's not a funeral or Halloween, but one coffin is the center of attention. Grave diggers in Lexington, Missouri unearthed a 150 year-old mystery, and ...

Sophie Nance was only 28 when she died in 1853. Everyone agreed the young woman was beautiful even in death, so much so that her family planned an unusual way to remember her. She was buried beside ...

Monet Watson is a graduate student in William & Mary’s anthropology department. Her research focuses on bio-cultural anthropology with a concentration on chemical isotopic analysis. She usually works ...

An iron casket that remained sealed for over 100 years has been opened by researchers at the Smithsonian Institution. The well-preserved body offers clues to life in an era that has long passed.