Cholera was once one of the most dreaded diseases in crowded early industrial cities. It claimed thousands of lives, sweeping away whole families in one epidemic after another.

Once it was complete, London never suffered a major cholera outbreak again. London’s problem was not a new one for humanity. Natural and industrial waste is a fact of life.

But the Industrial Revolution came at a cost to overall health. Museum of London curator of human osteology, Jelena Bekvalac, has launched a three-year project with Gaynor Western of Ossafreelance ...