Human remains are at the center of attention at one Philadelphia museum.
The Mütter Museum, part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, announced the launch of a new initiative called "Postmortem: Mütter Museum". The museum recently was granted $285,500 from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage to fund the launch of this project.
The museum is asking the public to be a part of this collaborative 2-year project and provide feedback on the interpretation and display of the human remains collection.
In an Instagram post, the museum made the project announcement by writing in part:
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"The goal of Postmortem will be to encourage feedback on the Museum through town hall discussions, on-site workshops, and feedback stations in the building. Along with this will come a new exhibition and new online videos exploring complex questions about respect, consent, and ethics related to the collection, interpretation, and display of the human remains in the Mütter Museum."
“Over the past few months, many in the Mütter community have passionately expressed their thoughts about the Museum’s future and we’ve been listening,” Executive Director of the Mütter Museum and Historical Medical Library at the College Kate Quinn said in a press release.
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The museum's human remains collection consists of approximately 6,500 biological specimens, including human bones, skeletons, organs, and tissue samples, according to the museum.
The museum said only 3.5 percent of those represented in the collection gave consent for their remains to be displayed.
This collection has caused a lot of controversy in the past and the postmortem project hopes to gain insight into how the collection should be presented.
“The mission of the College is to ‘advance the cause of health while upholding the ideals and heritage of medicine.’ Postmortem aligns with our mission and will benefit both the College and the Fellowship for years to come” President and CEO of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Dr. Mira Irons said in a press release “We are committed to owning our past and learning more from feedback that the project will provide.”
In August, the museum launched an online collections database where people can have access to it's collection of medical history which features more than 20,000 collection records and 5,100 high-resolution photos. Additionally, the museum finished a two-year state-of-the-art renovation for its collections storage and lab facilities.
The first town hall will be held on Oct. 17. For more information on how you can join the project click here.
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