Hobart and William Smith Colleges will house a collection of forensic records assembled by alumnus Lowell Levine during investigations into some of the 20th century's most closely examined deaths.
The collection of documents, photographs, books, X-rays and correspondence will be kept permanently in HWS Archives & Special Collections in Geneva. Levine, a forensic odontologist and 1959 Hobart graduate, said he wanted the materials to remain together for research and teaching rather than be sold to private collectors.
The gift includes records connected to the identification of the Romanov family and Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, as well as materials concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the MOVE organization in Philadelphia. It also includes books signed by their authors and research materials Levine acquired through professional contacts around the world.
Among the items is a copy of the Warren Commission Report signed by Levine and forensic pathologists involved in the Kennedy investigation, according to HWS. The collection also contains reports, photographs and correspondence from Levine's work with a scientific commission that traveled to Brazil to identify Mengele's remains. Levine helped experts from Brazil, West Germany and the United States compare their findings and measurements.
Materials will become a teaching resource
HWS archivist Brandon Moblo will process the collection and prepare a finding aid so students, faculty and other researchers can search it. The college said students Sophia Mughal and India Buff have already inspected an X-ray from the materials in Archives & Special Collections.
Moblo said the records will let students handle material connected to people and events they study in class. Levine said his goal was for future generations of faculty and students to use the collection.
Levine has also donated materials from the Mengele investigation to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City and records from his Romanov investigation to the Russian History Museum at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York. Those donations are separate from the collection going to HWS.
Career spanned several forensic investigations
Levine was a forensic consultant to a U.S. House committee investigating Kennedy's assassination and traveled to Russia to examine the remains of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. HWS said he also worked on the investigation into sailors killed aboard the USS Stark, testified in the Ted Bundy case and assisted inquiries into Argentina's disappeared people and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
A retired U.S. Navy Reserve captain, Levine trained forensic scientists and military personnel in several countries and has consulted with the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii on identifying service members missing from past wars. He has led the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the American Board of Forensic Odontology and the Forensic Sciences Foundation.
Levine studied biology and chemistry at Hobart. The college awarded him its Hobart Medal of Excellence in 1992.
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