Edith Howard Cook

[1] Her cast iron casket and mummified body were found in 2016 during a home renovation project in San Francisco, California.

[2] The Odd Fellows Cemetery was initially on the outskirts of the growing city of San Francisco, but was closed around 1903 and all bodies were exhumed in the 1930s to make way for new residential neighborhoods.

Under most circumstances, Edith would be just another name in a book of historical records, one of hundreds of thousands of children who died before the age of 5 years in the 19th century United States, mostly due to a range of infectious diseases.

Friends are respectfully invited to attend the funeral, at 1 o'clock p.m. tomorrow (Sunday) from the residence of the parents, 635 Sutter street, near Taylor".

A study published in 2017 on carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of hair samples removed from the individual's head,[5] revealed a pattern that is consistent with wasting away or nutritional starvation.

The 2020 study using hydrogen isotopes on sequential segments of hair sets a precedent in Forensic Anthropology showing that the season of death information can be recorded in biological tissues.