Just Visiting : The Mutter Museum

Sometimes there's an oddity you can't explain. But through the years people have learned how to explain them. But that doesn't mean that the morbid curiosity some events and discoveries have created has disappeared now that there is more knowledge. Science has often been used to explain the peculiar, as well as to find solutions to cure oddities. And that's where we find the Mutter Museum.

The Mütter Museum
19 South 22nd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103

To be quite honest the best way I can explain some of the things that I've seen associated with this museum fall under the category of bizarre and grotesque. That doesn't mean it's a bad thing, I happen to find it intriguing personally. The displays vary as to content, as the museum's collection has been collected over a very long period of time. The museum was originally established as a teaching tool for medicine in 1849. This was before X-rays and antibiotics, so there were a number of maladies that may not have been diagnosed without the knowledge that they existed.

One exhibit in particular that they have is of interest to me. They're calling it "Grimms' Anatomy" but why is it of interest to me? Well it's a study of Grimms' fairy tales and the bodies and instruments presented in the stories. The actual book of fairy tales is very long and full of a wide variety of tales that have become fluffy in our modern times. Some of them are quite gruesome.

But what's fascinating to me is that they're using real world examples alongside the stories to help illustrate what  might be the reasoning for a deformity. Or maybe the result of some of the details in the stories. I'm not entirely certain. All I know is that it's an exhibit that I'd be interested in seeing at some point. I read that it should be there through 2015 sometime. So maybe if I dream really big I'll get a chance to see it. You never know.