A Repository for Bottled Monsters

Fragility of Man photos graphs

2026-02-15T12:43:00.002-05:00

https://www.instagram.com/fragility_of_man

My neighbor Roger, as well as being a firefighter, is an artist. He's more in the momento mori tradition than a medical museum one, but I think readers here will enjoy these. It's a plastic skeleton of course.

Beneath the Sheets: Anatomy, Art and Power exhibit at Thackray Museum of Medicine

2026-02-08T23:36:00.001-05:00

The shocking truth behind historic anatomical art
Deborah Nicholls-Lee

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260203-the-shocking-truth-behind-historic-anatomical-art

The Maude Abbott Medical Museum's website

2025-12-04T15:35:00.001-05:00

I got a very kind note from a staff member today, so for the first time in years, I popped over to their website. It's a nice, sleek guide, and I'm looking forward to checking out their newsletters. It's so nice to see photos of the museum; when I tried to find it about 35 years ago (sigh), I had no luck at all. Dr. Richard Fraser really revitalized the collection.

If anyone can recommend a good paper on Abbott, her role in the International Association of Medical Museums, and her work with the Army Medical Museum, I'd be grateful. I was starting to look into that via the IAMM's journal but never finished that research. I literally just moved cubicles again at my current job and was able to put my books on a bookshelf for the first time since COVID so I got to see all the medical museum histories again.

A history of The Medical & Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion is online

2025-12-03T14:02:00.001-05:00

Over 20 years ago, I wrote a couple of papers - ""An enduring monument" : Philadelphia's contributions to The Medical & Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (1870-1888)" lecture for "Philadelphia, the 'Mecca' of North American Medical Publishing" session, Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing, London, 10-13 July 2002 and "'The Extent of These Materials is Simply Enormous': The Creation and Publication of The Medical & Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion from 1862 to 1888," lecture for the American Association for the History of Medicine, 2 May 2004. These evolved into a version prepared for print that was never accepted for publication. This fall I was surprised to see that a good version isn't online anywhere, so I attached the slides from the original talk, and uploaded it to the Medical Heritage Library at

'The Extent of These Materials is Simply Enormous': The Creation and Publication of The Medical & Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion from 1862 to 1888

https://archive.org/details/mshwr-final

Mutter Museum launches massive expansion

2025-11-20T22:29:00.001-05:00

I'm somewhat surprised by this (ok, very surprised as the director was forced out this year) and hope it works out well for them.

College of Physicians and Mütter Museum will undergo a $27 million expansion and renovation

Story by Rosa Cartagena, The Philadelphia Inquirer

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/college-of-physicians-and-m%C3%BCtter-museum-and-will-undergo-a-27-million-expansion-and-renovation/ar-AA1QC8aY

Family Destinations Guide recommends the NMHM

2025-10-09T00:07:00.001-04:00

It's closed at the moment due to the government shutdown though.

The Bizarre Museum In Maryland You've Probably Never Heard Of

By: Author Joshua Campbell

Posted on July 2, 2025

https://familydestinationsguide.com/heard-bizarre-museum-maryland/

Military medicine displays at the Canadian War Museum

2025-09-27T12:45:00.001-04:00

Canadian War museum medical displays from my friend M McMahon. The first one is from the war of 1812. Then WWI and WWIi.

The kits look to be in fantastic shape.

Walter Reed Forest Glen Annex painting

2025-08-20T23:01:00.001-04:00

I rescued this painting from a leaking building when I worked for the medical museum -

From Girls' School to Army Hospital: Retired U.S. Army Col. Donald E. Hall, Ph.D. Explores the Legacy of the Walter Reed Forest Glen Annex

https://www.dvidshub.net/news/546039/girls-school-army-hospital-retired-us-army-col-donald-e-hall-phd-explores-legacy-walter

“Carry On:” The History and Innovation of Physical and Occupational Therapy in Military Medicine Exhibit

2025-07-24T22:09:00.001-04:00

Images of the National Museum of Health and Medicine exhibit, which is mostly Army-focused, are at https://www.dvidshub.net/image/9200656/carry-history-and-innovation-physical-and-occupational-therapy-military-medicine-exhibit

Mutter Museum articles

2025-06-25T09:15:00.001-04:00

Letter from Philadelphia

A Medical-History Museum Contends with Its Collection of Human Remains

Supporters saw the Mütter's preserved fetuses, skulls, and "Soap Lady" as a celebration of human difference. New management saw an ethical and a political minefield.

By Rachel Monroe

June 23, 2025

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/30/a-medical-history-museum-contends-with-its-collection-of-human-remains

From Spectacle to Stewardship

What Ethical Leadership Looks Like When Museums Are Entrusted With the Dead

Kate Quinn

June 23 2025

https://medium.com/@quinnkate610/from-spectacle-to-stewardship-38861415afba

Curator Anna Dhody resigns from the Mütter Museum

2024-08-16T14:35:00.001-04:00

Longtime curator Anna Dhody resigns from the Mütter Museum

by Rosa Cartagena, Rita Giordano, The Philadelphia Inquirer August 14 2024

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/wellness/longtime-curator-anna-dhody-resigns-from-the-m%C3%BCtter-museum/ar-AA1oNCJh

Aug 7: Military Medicine and the Hidden Costs of War lecture at Library of Congress

2024-07-30T14:05:00.001-04:00

Military Medicine and the Hidden Costs of War

Join the John W. Kluge Center and University of Minnesota Political Science Professor Tanisha M
Fazal for an event examining the effect improvements in medical care in conflict zones
on the long term costs of war. Fazal is the author of State Death: The Politics of Geography and
Conquest, Occupation, and Annexation, and Wars of Law: Unintended Consequences in the
Regulation of Armed Conflict. This event will be available to watch live, virtually as well as in person in room LJ-119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress.

Request ADA accommodations 5 days in advance at
202-707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov
August 7, 2024
4:00pm
Thomas Jefferson Building,
Room LJ-119
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Michael Stratmoen - 202-707-3751

Swann Fellow Lecture, Tuesday, March 12 in Library of Congress

2024-02-28T15:20:00.001-05:00

Were They so Torturous? Reevaluating Modern Surgery's Underdog Story
12:00-1:00 pm Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Swann Fellow Lecture

Dining Room A, 6th Floor Madison Building

Swann Fellow, Zoe Copeman, PhD candidate in Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland, argues that the history of surgery relies on the narrative of
surgery's so-called "torturous" past to legitimize the practices of elite, university-trained medical men, reducing the once valued work of middling and lower-class practitioners to quackery. Drawing from the Library of Congress's eighteenth- and nineteenth-century caricatures, her research traces changes in the public perception of surgery and how visual media across disciplines would transform the surgeon (and his tools) into powerful metaphors of European and American modernity. This event will be recorded.

For more information:

Sara W. Duke, Curator, Popular & Applied
Graphic Art, sduk@loc.gov

WaPo articles on Smithsonian human remains collections

2024-02-26T08:51:00.001-05:00

Smithsonian should speed up return of human remains, task force says

By Nicole Dungca and Claire Healy

February 23, 2024

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/02/23/smithsonian-return-human-remains-report/

A Washington Post investigative series into the Smithsonian's collection of at least 30,700 human bones and other body parts, including more than 250 brains. This series reveals the museum's "racial brain collection," the anthropologist behind its curation and the stories of those whose brains were taken.

Have a tip or story idea about the collection? Email our team at thecollection@washpost.com.

Read the stories

Revealing the Smithsonian's 'racial brain collection'

The Smithsonian's 'bone doctor' scavenged thousands of body parts

After Maura died in 1904, a Smithsonian anthropologist likely took part of her brain. Read the story in English or Filipino

Read the stories

How The Post reported Maura's story

How The Post reported on the Smithsonian's human remains

Key findings from The Post's investigation on the Smithsonian's human remains

Smithsonian returns woman's brain to family 90 years after it was taken

Read the stories

Smithsonian targeted D.C.'s vulnerable to build brain collection

Former employees say Smithsonian resisted action on human remains

Search the Smithsonian's records on human remains

Listen on Post Reports

When Mary died in 1933, her brain was sent to Ales Hrdlicka, the Smithsonian's "bone doctor." The Post couldn't find any records that Mary or her family consented to this. So what happened to Mary's brain? And what is the extent of the Smithsonian's "racial brain collection"?

"Brain desirable," Part 1

"Brain desirable," Part 2

Watch the videos

"Searching for Maura": Animated illustrated reporting. Also available on YouTube.

"Paghahanap kay Maura": Animated illustrated reporting. Also available on YouTube.

How The Post reported on the Smithsonian's human remains. Also available on YouTube.

Order "Searching for Maura" and "Paghahanap kay Maura"

Maura came to St. Louis from the Philippines to be put on display at the 1904 World's Fair. Records suggest that after she fell ill and died, a world-renowned anthropologist took part of her brain. Few people would know what happened to her for more than a century.

Available in English and Filipino. Order your copy now.

Tune in on Washington Post Live

The Post's Nicole Dungca interviews Michael Blakey, a member of the newly created Smithsonian human remains task force, about The Post's year-long investigation and how the organization is reckoning with this history. Watch the interview.

About the reporters

Claire Healy is a freelance journalist and newsroom copy aide who has written for The Post.

Nicole Dungca is an investigative reporter for The Post.

Andrew Ba Tran is an investigative data reporter for The Post.

1/9

Washington Post graphic novel on Maura, free to read

2023-08-20T12:17:00.000-04:00

https://wapo.st/3sgQnUC

Anatomical collections under attack

2023-08-14T11:03:00.001-04:00

Revealing the Smithsonian's 'racial brain collection'

By Nicole Dungca and Claire Healy

Aug. 14 2023

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2023/smithsonian-brains-collection-racial-history-repatriation

'Macabre curiosities': top US medical museum confronts skeletons of its past

Mütter Museum in Philadelphia at centre of ethics dispute over provenance of its collection of skulls, fetuses and body parts

Edward Helmore in New York

Sun 13 Aug 2023 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/13/medical-mutter-museum-philadelphia-specimen-ethics

A Museum of 'Electrifying Frankness' Weighs Dialing It Down

The Mütter Museum, a beloved 19th-century collection of medical curiosities and human remains in Philadelphia, wants to adopt a more "respectful" approach. Some fans won't have it.

By Franz Lidz

Aug. 13, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/science/mutter-medical-museum.html

NMHM featured in WaPo

2023-06-09T10:33:00.001-04:00

Get bitten by bug fever this Saturday at the medical museum

Perspective by John Kelly

Columnist

June 7, 2023

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/06/07/bugapalooza-military-bug-museum/

Civil War doctor Mary Walker coming to a quarter in 2024

2023-03-31T15:13:00.001-04:00

https://www.aarp.org/home-family/friends-family/info-2023/notable-women-to-appear-on-quarters.html

https://www.coinnews.net/2023/03/31/designs-recommended-for-2024-american-women-quarters/

Exhibit at Walter Reed Highlights African Americans in Civil War Medicine

2023-02-01T10:16:00.001-05:00

Exhibit at Walter Reed Highlights African Americans in Civil War Medicine

https://www.dvidshub.net/news/437560/exhibit-walter-reed-highlights-african-americans-civil-war-medicine

To kick off Black History Month, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center welcomes Dr. Robert Slawson, from the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, as a guest docent Feb. 2 for an exhibit highlighting the contributions of African Americans in Civil War medicine. The exhibit is on display throughout February on the first floor of the America Building (Bldg. 19).... click through the link for the rest of the article.

Scott Schoner, former Army Medical Dept. Museum curator has passed away

2023-01-30T11:04:00.001-05:00

Scott Schoner, a former Army Medical Dept. Museum curator, passed away around January 23 2023, in Cookeville, TN of complications of congestive heart failure and RSV. Rather than medical history, Schoner's true love was the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, and he hoped to create a foundation to continue the documentary history work he was doing after his death.

Hunterian museum removes Irish Giant from display

2023-01-24T09:15:00.001-05:00

London Museum Removes 'Irish Giant' Skeleton From Display

The remains of Charles Byrne, a 7-foot-7 man who died in 1783, will no longer be on public view, an effort to address what one official at the Hunterian Museum called a historical wrong.

By Claire Moses

Jan. 21, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/21/world/europe/charles-byrne-irish-giant-museum.html

Condoms on exhibit in French National Archives

2023-01-15T22:28:00.001-05:00

https://entre-temps.net/lhistoire-sous-vitrine-capotes-en-vitrine/

The former AFIP in the news

2022-12-12T09:41:00.001-05:00

The founding as the Army Medical Museum is mentioned in passing, AFIP's name is not, and the museum's continuing existence as a separate entity isn't either.

Inside Google's Quest to Digitize Troops' Tissue Samples

by James Bandler Dec. 12,2022

https://www.propublica.org/article/google-human-tissue-jpc-military

Centers for Disease Control Museum on Atlas Obscura podcast

2021-12-03T12:02:00.001-05:00

Visit a museum inside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, which documents how public health officials have slowed the spread of disease through history.

Dec 2 2021

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7bGNhYFdLrb0miAOrF7U4H?si=YEsU_0-sTeyzch1JQQrg8w

FDA History Office Recruiting Museum Specialist

2021-11-08T20:35:00.000-05:00

The US Food and Drug Administration's History Office is currently recruiting a Museum Specialist at the GS-09 level: https://www.usajobs.gov/Search/Results?k=museum%20specialist&p=1 The position is located at the FDA headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. The announcement is only open this week, from 11/8-11/15.

A Repository for Bottled Monsters

Fragility of Man photos graphs

Beneath the Sheets: Anatomy, Art and Power exhibit at Thackray Museum of Medicine

The shocking truth behind historic anatomical artDeborah Nicholls-Lee

The Maude Abbott Medical Museum's website

A history of The Medical & Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion is online

'The Extent of These Materials is Simply Enormous': The Creation and Publication of The Medical & Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion from 1862 to 1888

Mutter Museum launches massive expansion

College of Physicians and Mütter Museum will undergo a $27 million expansion and renovation

Family Destinations Guide recommends the NMHM

The Bizarre Museum In Maryland You've Probably Never Heard Of

Military medicine displays at the Canadian War Museum

Walter Reed Forest Glen Annex painting

From Girls' School to Army Hospital: Retired U.S. Army Col. Donald E. Hall, Ph.D. Explores the Legacy of the Walter Reed Forest Glen Annex

“Carry On:” The History and Innovation of Physical and Occupational Therapy in Military Medicine Exhibit

Mutter Museum articles

A Medical-History Museum Contends with Its Collection of Human Remains

From Spectacle to Stewardship

What Ethical Leadership Looks Like When Museums Are Entrusted With the Dead

Curator Anna Dhody resigns from the Mütter Museum

Longtime curator Anna Dhody resigns from the Mütter Museum

Aug 7: Military Medicine and the Hidden Costs of War lecture at Library of Congress

Swann Fellow Lecture, Tuesday, March 12 in Library of Congress

WaPo articles on Smithsonian human remains collections

Smithsonian should speed up return of human remains, task force says

Washington Post graphic novel on Maura, free to read

Anatomical collections under attack

Revealing the Smithsonian's 'racial brain collection'

'Macabre curiosities': top US medical museum confronts skeletons of its past

A Museum of 'Electrifying Frankness' Weighs Dialing It Down

NMHM featured in WaPo

Get bitten by bug fever this Saturday at the medical museum

Civil War doctor Mary Walker coming to a quarter in 2024

Exhibit at Walter Reed Highlights African Americans in Civil War Medicine

Exhibit at Walter Reed Highlights African Americans in Civil War Medicine

https://www.dvidshub.net/news/437560/exhibit-walter-reed-highlights-african-americans-civil-war-medicine

Scott Schoner, former Army Medical Dept. Museum curator has passed away

Hunterian museum removes Irish Giant from display

London Museum Removes 'Irish Giant' Skeleton From Display

Condoms on exhibit in French National Archives

The former AFIP in the news

The founding as the Army Medical Museum is mentioned in passing, AFIP's name is not, and the museum's continuing existence as a separate entity isn't either.

Inside Google's Quest to Digitize Troops' Tissue Samples

Centers for Disease Control Museum on Atlas Obscura podcast

FDA History Office Recruiting Museum Specialist

The shocking truth behind historic anatomical art
Deborah Nicholls-Lee