Travel: Things get weird at the Mutter Museum
- With about 25%2C000 objects%2C the cabinet-style museum attracted 152%2C000 visitors in 2014.
- Not surprisingly%2C after visiting the museum%2C many patrons are interested in donating medical items.
- Thomas Mutter bequeathed 1%2C700 specimens to the college%3B they became the foundation of the museum.
People tend to be inclined to donate after traveling to meaningful institutions, but the Mutter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia is one of the few that inspires visitors to donate body parts.
The internationally renowned medical museum houses items such as one of the only two segments of Einstein's brain in existence; the Mutter American Giant, who at 7-foot-6 is the tallest skeletal exhibit in America; and an 8-foot and 29-inch in circumference colon, which held 40 pounds of feces at the time of the original owner's death.
With about 25,000 objects, the 19th-century cabinet-style museum attracted 152,000 visitors in 2014, an increase of about 20,000 people from 20 years ago. According to J Nathan Bazzel, operations and events liaison who has been associated with the museum since 1993, the reason is that the primary demographic of the institution is "humans."
"I think that some people are into art and some are into history, but we all have an interest in what it means to be human," he said.
Bazzel said some people believe that only "Goths or steampunks" would be interested in visiting the Mutter, but in standing in the main lobby of the National Historic Landmark building, built in 1909, it becomes obvious that there is no typical demographic. Senior citizens, middle Americans, foreigners and college students all walk through its doors, many of them repeat visitors, including Somerville resident Michele Adams, who has visited three times.
After seeing the museum featured on the Travel Channel, one of the many high-profile media outlets that has showcased the museum along with CNN, NBC-TV and Martha Stewart, Adams visited and found many of the medical oddities to be very interesting and educational, including the well-preserved fetuses of conjoined twins, as well as the Jackson Collection, which includes 2,374 foreign objects that have been removed from humans.
"This is a must-see museum for those who are fascinated by science, medicine and the human body," she said.
The packed two-story museum is also home to Hyrtl Skull Collection, which contains 139 distinctly different human skulls, labeled with their original owner's name, method and time of death, as well as 1,300 wet exhibits that hold body parts with malformations, such as tumors and cysts, and diseases such as leprosy.
For Bazzel, choosing a favorite item is like "asking a parent to choose their favorite child," but the Soap Lady, a body exhumed in 1875 encased by adipocere, and the death cast of Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker are popular exhibits.
"The true treasure of the museum is something that we have yet to discover," Bazzel said.
The Mutter also presents various special exhibits throughout the year, including "Hidden Beauty: Exploring The Aesthetics Of Medical Science," a series of micro and macro images of various cells and causes of life and death that opened Jan. 16.
However, unbeknownst to most visitors, the Mutter isn't just a medical museum or a "museum of oddities."
"This is a functional scientific institution that is still involved in research," Bazzel said. "We use everything here to advance medical science. A lot of people don't realize that, and they think that it's just a collection of relics from the past."
Recently, the Mutter worked with McMaster University in Canada to document the genetic history of cholera. In extracting a piece of tissue from 1849 alcohol-sealed jars of cholera, they were able to retrieve DNA strains that, by comparing past and current samples, can help researchers develop new treatments.
Not surprisingly, after visiting the museum, many patrons are interested in donating medical items, but the Mutter accepts only items that they think will be beneficial to the collection. They rarely need to seek out new items and never pay for them. Plus, if someone wants to donate their body to the Mutter and the museum decides that they want it, the potential donor must finance their own harvesting and preparation, an expensive undertaking.
Through the acquisition of new items, the museum has expanded several times and continues to look at new opportunities to grow, but they must also consider that they are a functional medical society that hosts many other events, as well as classes, that need space in the 20,000-square-foot building.
Regardless of the size of the museum, the plethora of medical items is no laughing matter, which originally came from Thomas Mutter, a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, who bequeathed 1,700 specimens to the college.
It is these historic medical items, sometimes frightening yet always educational, that have brought humans to Rittenhouse Square for more than 150 years.
Jenna Intersimone's "Life Aboard The Traveling Circus" column appears Tuesdays. Her "Life Aboard The Traveling Circus" blog is at MyCentralJersey.com, as well as LifeAboardTheTravelingCircus.com. Tweet her at @JIntersimone or email her at JIntersimone@MyCentralJersey.com.
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MUTTER MUSEUM
19 S. 22nd St., Philadelphia
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
General admission $15
215-563-3737