The Mutter Museum, owned by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, has revised policies governing the collection and display of human remains to align with evolving modern medical ethical standards. The museum will limit acceptance of additional specimens and restrict public photography and videography of remains, allowing images only with museum permission for educational purposes. Most of the 6,500 organs, bones and body parts were collected between about 1840 and 1940, largely from Philadelphia for medical education. Researchers are investigating personal histories in existing records to identify individuals when possible, without using DNA analysis, and to contextualize exhibits within medical history and treatment practices.
The great majority of the remains were collected from about 1840 to about 1940, mostly from Philadelphia, largely body parts and organs that were considered to be helpful in medical education and taken during autopsies or surgery. Such collections were not uncommon among medical societies at a time when specimens were critical to understanding how the body is structured and how it works. But most of those museums are long gone.
The Mutter Museum said it is also working to "de-anonymize" its collection by looking into the personal histories of its human remains to figure out who they are, if possible, and to "do justice" in how it displays them and tells their stories. The goal is to exhibit them in the context of the history of medicine, bodily diversity and the tools and therapies used to treat them.
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