The Haffenreffer Museum at Brown University wants to return the roughly 86 human remains in its collection to their rightful tribes of origin before transferring its full collection to Providence in the fall of 2025. The repatriations are long overdue, as a federal law requiring them has been in effect for more than three decades.
Condensing the two locations into one will make it easier for more people, including staff, students, and faculty, to interact with the museum’s nearly 1 million ethnographic objects and archaeological specimens representing human cultures and societies across the world, according to Brown.