Sharp Minds: Bones!

Much like a diary or journal, our bones can record our history—where we live, who our ancestors are, and even what we eat. Our bones can reveal some of our daily activities, lived experiences, and access to health care. The research introduced in this talk examined lower limb fractures and other occupational and biocultural stresses to find a deeper understanding of how lower socioeconomic populations in St. Louis and New York City lived during the turn of the 20th century. At that time people in the United States were living in a fast-changing world industrially, socially, politically, economically, globally, and even navigating a pandemic not too different from today.