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Tal Simmons ’84 has crossed the globe to do forensic anthropology in post-conflict situations, but a recent project was much closer to home. Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where Simmons is chair of the forensic science department, recently completed work on the East Marshall Street Well Project.

In 1994, construction for the Medical College of Virginia on the VCU campus uncovered an abandoned well containing human remains dating from the mid-1800s. The bodies, primarily of African descent, were exhumed by graverobbers who sold them for use as teaching cadavers before they were disposed of in the well. Construction was halted long enough for approximately 600 bones to be recovered. The remains were taken to the Smithsonian, which released an anthropology skeletal report in 2012.

A documentary about the anatomy pit called Until the Well Runs Dry: Medicine and the Exploitation of Black Bodies was released the year prior, helping to raise awareness and galvanize the community. VCU brought the remains back to campus in 2019 and partnered with the Family Representative Council on the community-engaged East Marshall Street Well Project. The Smithsonian had been able to determine that there were at least 53 individuals represented by the remains. Simmons and her team did DNA work that revealed characteristics such as sex, regional ancestry, and hair and eye color. They studied the microbiome from dental calculus to identify diseases and studied anthropological clues for arthritis or traits such as right- or left-handedness.

“I hope that will give these individuals their personhood back in some small way,” Simmons says.

The remains will now be respectfully reburied and memorialized.

Simmons also secured a grant to create a curriculum for the Richmond public schools on forensics and the ethical treatment of human remains. “There is very little taught to students in Virginia about this aspect of history,” she says. “This brings forensics home in a very different way.”