Mutter Museum Reviews (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

A Mother of a Museum

London, England, United Kingdom

October 17, 2010

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Best of IgoUgo For every interest; for every hobby, there is a museum. There is a lawnmower museum, a penis museum (I kid you not), a museum of bad art, along with the more mainstream art, natural history and science museums. Many museums include interactive ...Read more For every interest; for every hobby, there is a museum. There is a lawnmower museum, a penis museum (I kid you not), a museum of bad art, along with the more mainstream art, natural history and science museums. Many museums include interactive displays – buttons to push, levers to turn. Some, however, have remained resolutely Victorian. The displays are in dimly lit rooms, and in cases of mahogany and glass. The Mütter Museum in Philadelphia can safely be called both Victorian and quirky, yet is still educational, in a slightly morbid way.

The name of the museum, though pronounced ‘mooter’ as in the German for mother, has little to do with either German or mothers. Instead, it was created in 1858 by Thomas Dent Mütter, retired Professor of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College (thank you to both the brochure and http://www.collphyphil.org/mutter_hist.htm for this background information). He donated his vast collection of specimens to The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. And what a collection it is. You may gather that the Mütter Museum is a Victorian medical museum. It therefore has a whole case of skulls (complete with descriptions of the race, age, nationality and cause of death, where known, of their previous owners), dead babies in jars, skeletons with various deformities – everything you might expect from a Victorian freak show of the dead. But the fascination goes beyond that.

The museum is within walking distance from Suburban Station (one of three main rail stations in Philadelphia – unusually, all trains seem to go through all three stations), at 19 South 22nd Street. It is not a large museum, and it shares its premises with the College of Physicians, so only takes up a small portion of the rather stately building. Upon entering the rather grand foyer, you pay your money ($14 a person), you must check any bags (including rucksacks), and you are told photography is strictly prohibited inside the museum (though you can photograph the foyer). Heading towards the back, past the grand staircase, you’ll see a little entrance – that’s where you need to go.

The museum itself is split into two levels, though the upper level is little more than a large balcony. You enter the top level, where you will find the aforementioned skulls. You’ll also see a display of bones and wax models demonstrating the scourge that was syphilis (that’s seriously gross), and further wax models showing various skin diseases. Up here too is the (somewhat) famous ‘soap woman’ – a body of a woman who died in the 19th century. Her body, due to a unique combination of circumstances turned into a substance closely resembling soap. This substance is apparently called adopocere. You will also learn of the dangers of tight corseting – there is a skeleton of a woman who virtually lost her ribcage due to overtight lacing of her corsets.

Moving downstairs, the first two things you’ll probably notice are the plaster casts of the conjoined twins that gave the condition the name Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng Bunker. There is also a large case containing three complete skeletons – one of a normal man, one of a ‘dwarf’ woman, and one of a ‘giant’ man. The cases are arranged both along the walls and in the centre of the room, so whilst the museum isn’t huge, you could spend a happy, if gruesome couple of hours in there, especially if you investigate the drawers (which you may open) of stuff that has been removed from people’s stomachs, digestive tracts and tracheas (and pretty much anywhere else you can get buttons, pins and the like stuck). It is also down here you’ll find the foetuses in jars (most of which are terribly abnormal with hideous malformations). If that’s a bit too morbid for you, you can marvel at the intestine of the chap who died essentially of constipation. It is, as you can imagine, very large and distended.

I’ve given you a rough overview of what you might find, and the website has a virtual tour with some excellent descriptions of many of the exhibits, with far more detail than I have, or even could, give here. I have been to the museum twice now, once many years ago, and again this year. It is a fascinating place. The museum is laid out, refreshingly, in a Victorian fashion. The curators have wisely avoided turning it into a modern day freak show, leaving it, admittedly, as a Victorian freak show. However, it is worth noting that that is not why the museum was created. It was a learning tool in the days when medical students did not routinely dissect human bodies. These were, apparently, at that time in the US, rather hard to come by. Students, and even many physicians, didn’t often come across a sufficient number of examples of disease pathologies to necessarily recognise all the symptoms of a complaint such as TB or syphilis each time a patient presented. Therefore, such establishments were invaluable to the increasingly sophisticated science of medicine. This peek in to this history is perhaps the best reason to visit the Mütter Museum. Not only can you goggle at the specimens, but you will leave with a greater understanding of the history of medicine and the diseases we rarely see now but were a part of Victorian life.

The museum isn’t perfect. It is quite compact but they cram so much into many of the displays that the signage is often quite basic and poor. They try to make up for this with an audio option; however, this is available through your mobile phone. You are given a number to call, which would, I imagine, talk you through what you are looking at. As I was visiting from the UK with a UK mobile phone, I declined to spend a small fortune on this. Some signs are there, but some are located either very high up or low down, or are blocked by the frames of the cases (remember, these are Victorian cases so don’t have the single expanse of glass you see nowadays) that they are nearly illegible.

The museum is expensive for its size. I do realise, though, that such a museum must take a fair amount of maintenance, and you do hope that your money is going to a good cause, attached to the Philadelphia College of Physicians.

The Mütter Museum is not for the squeamish, and I probably wouldn’t take very young children there. If you have an interest in science, medicine and indeed the past, though, you will find it an entertaining and educational couple of hours. It’s not a place I’d visit every time I went to Philadelphia, but I’d certainly recommend it as a quirky diversion, with more education value than simply running up the Rocky steps (especially if you don’t bother to visit the art museum once you’d achieved the top).
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From journal Philadelphia and Environs

Great for Some

by sengpan

Peekskill, New York

March 5, 2010

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The items in the Mutter were originally for teaching physicians. It's great for anyone with an interest in medical history, anatomy, abnormality physiology, or simply the morbidly curious. Not for young or squeamish children, but fine for ...Read more

Disturbingly Informative Mutter Museum

by zabelle

Portland, Connecticut

July 14, 2008

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Best of IgoUgo The sign in front of the building claims the collection is "disturbingly informative" and it certainly is just that. I was very surprised at how popular this museum was, it was packed with people and it isn’t exactly in the middle of the action. ...Read more The sign in front of the building claims the collection is "disturbingly informative" and it certainly is just that. I was very surprised at how popular this museum was, it was packed with people and it isn’t exactly in the middle of the action. This was Jeanna’s favorite of everything that we did this weekend. Usually you would think that boys would be more into all these gruesome and truly gross things that are on display here but obviously when it comes to teens the gross gene affects both sexes.

We began by looking at small cases that flank the inner opening of the room. These cases document the most famous sets of conjoined twins. There were many more than I was aware of. For instance I had never heard of the Hilton twins who obviously were quite famous in the 1930’s and 40’s. One of the most famous exhibits is the conjoined liver of the famous twins Eng and Chang. I also wasn’t aware of all the different ways that twins can be con joined and that each of these conjoining has a specific name.

From here I went on to the case of skulls. Who would have thought that skulls could come in such a wide variety of sizes and shapes? This case came from a collection that was done by a European Dr Joseph Hertyl.

Another really gross display is called the soap lady. She was buried right here in Philadelphia. If the conditions are exactly right a body can be preserved in just the way that this one was. It isn’t a pretty sight I can assure you of that.

What I found the most disturbing though was all the little fetus’ that were preserved in jars. Some of them looked the size of a full term infant. Their deaths were from a variety of causes but some of them were just beautiful and so perfect looking, I can’t imagine a family donating their child in this way, but of course that is just me.

On the lower level there is a case that has a giant and a dwarf along side a normal sized person. Ever want to see a liver with cirosis? A foot with gangrene? An ovarian tumor the size of a basketball? A man with a horn growing out of his forehead? Those were nothing in comparison to the colon that was about two feet around, no kidding it was really big and painful to look at. If you are easily made queasy this isn’t the museum for you.

A morbidly fascinating collection was items that have been removed from people’s throat and trachea by one Doctor. For some reason he saved everything he removed. There are pins of every size, a peach pit and way too many items to list. You have to open drawers to see all of these items.

Another exhibit that was very interesting dealt with the health of the presidents of the United States. I wasn’t ware of many of the things that they talked about. This is where you get to see the tumor that they removed from Grover Cleveland’s jaw. I’ll bet you were wondering when I would get around to that, weren’t you?

So if you like the bizarre, the unusual the truly weird then you will love this museum and even if you don’t it really is a fascinating place. Allow about 2 hours for a visit.
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From journal Philly: The Good, the Bad, the Outrageous

Mutter Museum

by BabylonExodus

New York, New York

April 9, 2006

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Do you love the CSI TV series? Are you interested in the human body on a level that most would find disturbing? Then the Mutter Museum is the place for you. Located at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the Mutter is the oldest physicians' ...Read more

From journal Philadelphia Story

Mutter Museum

by ravenb27

New Haven, Connecticut

April 30, 2005

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The Mutter Museum is amazing if you are interested in medicine or fascinated with strange things. Believe me, Ripley's has nothing on this place. If you have some extra time in town or just want to do something different, I think that you will enjoy ...Read more

From journal Philadelphia - From Someone that Knows

Mutter Museum

by cindylou11157

Pottstown, Pennsylvania

March 25, 2004

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Best of IgoUgo The Mutter Museum has a unique collection of bones, tumors, organs, and medical instruments. The Travel Channel voted this one of the MUST things to do before you die. If you are squeamish, I would not recommend this place. The day I visited the ...Read more

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