The Hamann-Todd osteologic collection at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History consists of nearly 3000 disarticulated human skeletons gathered approximately at the beginning of the 20th century from the unclaimed dead of the Cleveland city morgue
The Hamann-Todd osteologic collection at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History consists of nearly 3000 disarticulated human skeletons gathered approximately at the beginning of the 20th century from the unclaimed dead of the Cleveland city morgue. We obtained 200 adult skeletons from this collection for this study. To select a study sample representing the normal human population, we diversified the sample in terms of race, age, and gender and excluded femora that were anatomically abnormal. Specifically, the initial sample was divided equally among genders and available races (50 white males, 50 white females, 50 black males, and 50 black females being selected at random from the collection’s sample of each subpopulation) and femora from individuals older than 18 years were included, excluding femora not fully mature at the time of death. Additionally, we excluded individual femora that on gross visual inspection appeared anatomically abnormal, ie, those affected by disease, such as arthritis, osteonecrosis, or other deformity. This yielded a total of 375 femora available for study (Table ).
Sample selection and demographics
Each of the specimens was digitally photographed in two standardized positions, termed AP and lateral. For the AP photographs, we first placed each pair of femora in a supine position on a flat laboratory bench with anterior surfaces directed toward the ceiling and femoral shafts parallel to one another. In this position, specimens rested distally on the convex surfaces of the medial and lateral condyles and proximally on the greater trochanter. The femoral neck then was made parallel to the superior surface of the laboratory bench by either rotating the femoral shaft internally and supporting the lateral condyle if the neck axis was anteverted or rotating the femoral shaft externally and supporting the medial condyle if the neck axis was retroverted. Parallelism between the 