Book Description
Home to over 20,000 mind-boggling anatomic specimens, plaster casts, wax models, and paintings, the Mutter Museum, founded in 1858, is part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. This book features over 100 photographs by a select group of renowned photographers whose work appears in the award-winning Mutter Museum calendars. Highlights include a bust of an early-19th-century Parisian widow with a six-inch horn protruding from the forehead; the connected livers of Chang and Eng, the world-famous Siamese twins; the skeleton of a 7’6" giant from Kentucky; and a collection of 139 skulls showing anatomic variation among ethnic groups in central and eastern Europe. Historical photographs from the museum’s archives, brief background texts about the collection, stunning photographs by acclaimed photographers including William Wegman and Joel-Peter Witkinand, and an introductory essay on the museum are also included.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Home to over 20,000 mind-boggling anatomic specimens, plaster casts, wax models, and paintings, the Mutter Museum, founded in 1858, is part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. This book features over 100 photographs by a select group of renowned photographers whose work appears in the award-winning Mutter Museum calendars. Highlights include a bust of an early-19th-century Parisian widow with a six-inch horn protruding from the forehead; the connected livers of Chang and Eng, the world-famous Siamese twins; the skeleton of a 7'6" giant from Kentucky; and a collection of 139 skulls showing anatomic variation among ethnic groups in central and eastern Europe. Historical photographs from the museum's archives, brief background texts about the collection, stunning photographs by acclaimed photographers including William Wegman and Joel-Peter Witkinand, and an introductory essay on the museum are also included.

FROM THE CRITICS

New Yorker

The images have an almost classical quality...gorgeous and repulsive at once.

Newsweek

Superb...Mutter Museum teaches you indelibly how strange life can be, how unpredictable and various. The [photographs], sometimes ghastly, sometimes heartbreaking, are mysteriously mesmerizing [and] will revise and enlarge your idea of what it is to be human.

Library Journal

Focusing attention on the premier medical museum that she has directed since 1988, Worden makes a noteworthy attempt to promote the Philadelphia-area attraction to wider audiences. Featuring over 100 captioned, mostly black-and-white photographs by 17 well-known artists-such as Rosamond Purcell, Harvey Stein, and Joel-Peter Witkin-this work also includes an introduction and a 12-page appendix pertaining to some of the collections, medical curiosities, specimens, and media showcased here. While many of the photographs appeared previously in annual calendars, some are newly published. The images, of a uniformly high quality, often turn the grotesque into the beautiful. However, the text is less consistent; Worden might have divided the appendix into several essays of greater length, more detailed analysis, and broader coverage of contemporary issues. Another incongruous and indiscriminate aspect is the use of medical jargon throughout the book. Still, the rare reproductions and image quality recommend this for academic libraries.-Cheryl Ann Lajos, Free Lib. of Philadelphia

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Sherwin B. Nuland