History/Museum
overview
Karen’s years of experience in the forensic art field have translated into multiple projects for use as museum exhibits. Some exhibits showcase her actual crime-fighting artwork along with the resulting identifications and apprehensions.
For other exhibitions, she has been commissioned to create new works using knowledge and techniques honed from doing thousands of forensic art cases. Forensic facial reconstruction based on skulls is particularly useful in historical projects involving skeletal evidence. Faces of the long dead can be revealed, either as drawings or sculptures, using methods similar to those used in a forensic context. This can bring history to life for museum-goers.
Through multiple museum venues and television documentaries, Karen’s special projects have been seen by millions of people throughout the world.
For historical and/or museum commissions, each case must be specifically discussed with Karen to receive a price quote. Contact her studio, Facial Images.
history projects for television
Karen particularly enjoys participation in history-related projects for television. In this genre, her forensic art skills bring faces of the long-dead into focus. These projects meld in-depth research with the expertise of numerous collaborators, elements of the process that she especially likes.
Karen’s history-based facial reconstruction projects for television have aired internationally on networks including The History Channel, the Smithsonian Channel, the BBC and the Discovery Channel.
Shine Television in London created the series The Decrypters for the National Geographic Channel. In this series, Karen was honored to be a part of a team of forensic experts who examined historically interesting skeletal cases from all across the U.S.
Patient and silent while we live, our skeletons shout to heaven and posterity after we die.
- Dr. William Maples, Anthropologist
museum projects
Karen has contributed artwork to various exhibits which have been seen at museum venues throughout the United States, including:
Museum of Science and Industry; Chicago, Illinois
National Museum of Crime and Punishment; Washington, D.C.
Museum of Discovery and Science; Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Worth Museum of Science and History; Fort Worth, Texas
Center of Science and Industry; Columbus, Ohio
Museum of Science; Boston, Massachusetts
The Franklin Institute; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Science Museum of Minnesota; St. Paul, Minnesota
The National Mississippi River Museum; Dubuque, Iowa
California Science Center; Los Angeles, California
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![Karen T Taylor Deadwood Pioneer Portrait Muscle Overlay Drawing]()
Deadwood Pioneer Project
Members of the Deadwood Historical Society approached Karen with a request to develop a skull-to-face reconstruction based on a skull found in their city of Deadwood, South Dakota. Archaeologist Katherine Lamie determined that the burial would have been part of their first cemetery, with an interment between 1876 and 1878.
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![Karen T Taylor Deadwood Pioneer TV SD Public Broadcasting]()
Deadwood Pioneer Documentary - PBS
Karen was privileged to be one of a series of specialists who examined and analyzed the remains of this young Deadwood Pioneer. Their findings were combined to suggest a profile of this individual. A special documentary entitled "Deadwood Pioneer" was created by Chad Anderson at South Dakota Public Broadcasting and aired on PBS.
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![Karen T Taylor Mayan Red Queen]()
Red Queen of Palenque
The Discovery Channel International commissioned Karen to produce the first facial reconstruction of an important Mayan ancestor. Discovered in 1994, a pre-Columbian tomb in the ancient city of Palenque dated from about 600 A.D. Therein contained were the remains of a woman who was embellished with jewels, gold, turquoise and jade. In situ, she was covered in cinnabar, hence the name the Red Queen.
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![Karen T Taylor Fort William Henry]()
Fort William Henry
Shine Television in London created four hour-long programs called The Decrypters for the National Geographic Channel. Each episode featured a historically significant skull. Karen was part of a team of specialists who studied and evaluated these cases. The episode called "The Last Mohican?" centered around a skeleton found at Fort William Henry in Lake George, New York. She created skull-based drawings to depict how the individual might have looked in life.
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![Karen T Taylor Julien Dubuque]()
Julien Dubuque
Members of the Dubuque County Historical Society and curators at the National Mississippi River Museum approached Karen with a unique challenge. They sought the creation of a facial reconstruction based on the skull of Julien Dubuque, founder of the city of Dubuque, Iowa. Input was given by practitioners in several fields of expertise.
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![Karen T Taylor Hanging Coffins of China]()
Hanging Coffins of China
In the remote mountains of Southwest China, precarious hanging coffins are all that remain of the mysterious Bo people. The film follows a team of archaeologists into the unexplored depths of Yunnan. How did the Bo people hang their coffins so high, and why? For the first time, Karen was able to give this 800-year-old skull a face in the form of a forensic sculpture.
WINNER -- BEST DOCUMENTARY: ASIAN TV AWARDS 2004
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![Karen T Taylor CSI: The Experience]()
CSI: The Experience
CSI: The Experience is a traveling exhibition about crime lab forensic science and technology inspired by the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Karen was proud to be a consultant for this educational exhibit which was featured in museums across the USA and beyond. It helped introduce forensics-related techniques to millions of museum-goers.
