Weights, measures and classification systems may seem like innocuous ways of taking stock of the world around us. But the tools are anything but objective, a new exhibition suggests.

Measuring Difference, which opened Oct. 20 at the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard University, looks at the history of measurement during and after European colonization of the New World from the 15th century to the present. It shows how European colonists used measurements to quantify and explain their new discoveries — justifying everything from worker exploitation to eugenics along the way.

The exhibition uses historical artifacts from the museum’s collection and a variety of loaning institutions to tell the story of colonial measurements.

— The Washington Post