More than a century after the end of World War I, a U.S. medical museum has returned the partial human remains of 12 Canadian soldiers so they can be laid to rest in their original graves in France.
Canada’s Department of National Defence confirmed the remains had been collected by American medical personnel at a military hospital in the French port town of Le Tréport during the war.
The remains were later sent in 1919 to the Mütter Museum, part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, where they were preserved for medical research and study.
Officials declined to specify exactly what the remains consist of but said they will now be interred in the individual soldiers’ graves, most of which are located in a cemetery in Le Tréport.
The return comes after the museum conducted a lengthy ethical review that concluded in 2025 and led to a reassessment of how it handles human remains in its collection.
The Mütter Museum is widely known for its displays of medical curiosities, including fragments of Albert Einstein’s brain and other unusual medical specimens. Following the policy review, the museum began dismantling some historical collections and evaluating potential repatriations on a case-by-case basis.
Canada’s military said the effort to reclaim and properly bury the remains is part of a broader international initiative led by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which maintains graves of war dead from the two world wars on behalf of governments including Canada and the United Kingdom.
A spokesperson for the Department of National Defence said the remains were transferred directly from the United States to the commission’s recovery unit in northern France, where specialists will oversee the burial process with dignity and respect.
Military historian Andrew Burtch of the Canadian War Museum said the repatriation of wartime pathology specimens is rare and unusual.
During the First World War, it was common practice for military hospitals on both sides of the conflict to collect medical samples from battlefield injuries for teaching and research purposes.
Burtch noted that hundreds of such samples were collected at Canadian field hospitals during the war, some of which were later displayed in Montreal in 1921.
Historian Tim Cook, author of the book Life Savers and Body Snatchers, previously said the samples were intended for a planned Canadian medical museum that was never built. Some may have later been used as teaching materials at McGill University.
The Department of National Defence said it is working to contact family members of the soldiers whose remains were identified in the museum’s collection and has encouraged relatives to reach out to its history and heritage branch.
Among those identified are members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and other wartime units, including soldiers from cities such as Vancouver, Kingston and Edmonton.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission said the remains are now under its care in northern France and will be interred in the soldiers’ existing graves following detailed verification and record research.