Mütter Museum

A skeleton covered in bone growths, a body transformed into soap and thousands of objects once swallowed by patients are among the unusual specimens at Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum. Founded in 1863 from a donation by physician Thomas Dent Mütter, the museum explores the human body and the history of medicine through preserved anatomical specimens, medical instruments and historical models. The collection includes the skeleton of Harry Eastlack, who had a rare condition that progressively turned soft tissue into bone, the preserved remains known as the Soap Lady, and more than 2,000 objects retrieved from patients by physician Chevalier Jackson. Together, these collections reveal how the body can challenge medical understanding and how diagnosis and treatment have changed over time.