Mütter Museum

The mothers Museum in Philadelphia is one of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia Museum of Medical History connected with over 20,000 collectors' items.

History

1849 was explained by Dr. Isaac Parrish († 1852), a collection of pathological- anatomical specimens for scientific purposes. Only through the donation of the personal collection of Dr. Thomas Dent Mütters that this 1856 offering, the book grew out of 92 so far exhibits by more than 1700 copies. Mothers had collected bone, wet preparations, replicas medical features in wax and other materials, and medical illustrations. The offering consisted addition to the collection with a capital of $ 30,000, which was intended for the construction of a museum building within five years of the contract as well as for its maintenance. Up to Mütters donation, the collection was housed in rented premises.

1859 approved the college about this offer and in 1862 the first own museum building at the corner of 13th and Locust Street was purchased. The collections were supplemented by acquisitions in Europe and by donations from numerous doctors. From 1871, old medical instruments were also collected. In the course of the Civil War, the mothers Museum by the then Army Medical Museum received in Washington (now the National Museum of Health and Medicine ) material to war injuries. In return, the Army Medical Museum received from mothers museum exhibits, could learn where the military surgeon.

Due to the continuous growth of the collection and the library began in 1908 with a new building of the museum in 22nd Street. In the style of the time the exhibits were then kept tightly packed in wooden boxes. Took place in 1986 a comprehensive renovation. The building was air conditioning and instead of the old wooden boxes glass display cases were installed.

Special exhibits

1874, the autopsy of the Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker Museum in mothers has been made. The museum remained after the burial of the twins a plaster cast of her body and connected livers. The mothers museum also has a piece of equipment Benjamin Rush, a wooden stethoscope, which was allegedly made ​​by René Théophile Hyacinthe Laënnec personally, Florence Nightingale's sewing kit, an electric meter, the Marie Curie in 1921 personally gave him, and a model of the first functional heart - lung machine, which was built in 1953. Furthermore, a part of the thorax of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, seen in mothers Museum. Among the photographs in the archives of the museum also has pictures of the first two patients in the U.S., the triple amputations are survived. Both were operated by James Buckner Luckie.