(22 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Philadelphia – 21 August 2025
1. Various of visitors looking at an exhibit of human skulls
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Sara Ray, Mutter Museum:
“So most of the specimens, if we knew anything at all about them in terms of their human identity, it was maybe initials or just sort of bare biographical details. So one of the things that I found really exciting, again, as someone that spent a lot of time giving tours of these remains is that now we have names for many of those people. And by identifying names using the archival materials in our collection, we were able to take that information and work with other databases such as vital records, the historical society, other archives throughout the city to really build out rich biographies of specific specimens that are on display in the museum now.”
3. Various of giant colon exhibit
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Sara Ray, Mutter Museum:
“So for instance, the mega colon, which is one of our most well-known specimens, has always been someone that’s identified by initials. We are now able to name him as Joseph Williams and take that name again further into city archival records so that we can build a really rich portrait of how Joseph Williams was not just a remarkable colon. He was more than just the sort of remarkable anatomical specimen from his body. He was also a very active patient that was very agentive in his own health care and spent his entire life with this very debilitating condition, seeking out care from all sorts of practitioners throughout Philadelphia, seeking out work as a dime show performer at the Philadelphia Dime Museum.”
5. Various of exhibit about medical racism with feedback boards
6. Various of human skulls on display
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ashley Davis, visitor:
“I think it’s important to know where these come from. These were human beings. They were living people with lives and families. And so having an understanding where they came from is very important.”
8. Various of human skulls exhibit
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Sara Ray, Mutter Museum:
“Yes, I know that it seems a little bit like this is a niche conversation that’s happening just with the Mutter Museum, but the Mutter Museum is part of a much larger community of legacy human remains collections across the world that have been really grappling with these questions of how to responsibly steward and exhibit legacy human remains collections in a modern context in a way that both serves the public while also showing respect and reverence for the people whose remains that we hold.”
10. Various of exterior
STORYLINE:
A medical museum in Philadelphia has redrawn its policies on the collection and display of human remains, limiting its acceptance of additional specimens and working to follow “evolving modern medical ethical standards” in how it handles the 6,500 organs, bones and other body parts in its collection.
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, which owns the Mutter Museum, announced this week it is restricting the taking of photos and videos of human remains, allowing it only with the museum’s permission. Photography by the public will remain prohibited.
The museum “will allow photography as long as it sort of serves an educational purpose,” said Sara Ray, its director of interpretation and engagement. “But education itself is a pretty broad net that we’re working through.”
About 50 of its specimens are thought to be of Native American people. Since April 2024, nine remains have been repatriated to two tribes and one Native Hawaiian group.
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