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The M�tter Museum: Macabre, Morbid, and a Must-See!

by Willy Volk (RSS feed) on Mar 6th 2007 at 7:34AM

Located in the heart of Philadelphia, the Mütter Museum was born in 1858. Designed to educate future doctors about anatomy and human medical anomalies, today the Museum's collection boasts over 20,000 objects and serves to feed the brains of the public about our medical past. It's also beautifully disgusting. If you've got a strong constitution, then you'll delight in the unusual pieces on display, like:

The plaster cast of the torso of the Siamese Twins, Chang & Eng, and their conjoined livers!
Joseph Hyrtl's collection of skulls!
The collection of 2,000 objects extracted from people's throats!
The tallest skeleton on display in North America!

Yeah...this ain't no ordinary museum -- in fact, many people may not be able to stomach it. Can't make up your mind if this is the destination for you?

Put your eyeballs on some of the trip reports and Flickr photos featuring the Museum.
Get your hands on a copy of Gretchen Worden's book, Mütter Museum: Of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (the reviews are to die for!).
Wrap your ears around SoundAboutPhilly's audio clip concerning the museum.

Finally, you should have a look at the Virtual Tour of the Museum -- just don't lose your head over the sliced section of human head.

[Photo: Istolethetv]

Filed under: History, Learning, United States

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