Customer Reviews

Mutter Museum Historic Medical Photographs

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an amazing book. Anyone interested in oddities, this will settle your craving. Lots of pictures and stories and well worth the money. There is so little time to spend at the Philadelphia museum and this book includes everything that is there plus more.

The Mutter Museum took me into a most surreal world of photography. What some might consider disgusting, disturbing, and grotesque, The Mutter Museum turns into a form most beautiful without exploiting those being photographed.

The truth is this books is in between two worlds, that of the scientific and that of the freakshow. I could say I'd prefer the former being a person with a disability myself (some of the photos here of people with "afflictions" like cerebral palsy would today lead normal lives) but also like any human being can understand your Malady of the Month curiousity about the whole thing and for that I'd reccomend the book "Death Scenes" (if you can stomach it and frankly the intro to that book has far more informative analysis of the photos than anything in this book). But the Mutter Museum although a sort of "odditorium" is also a scientific museum to inform people so I want facts. Obviously, the photos taken at the time and their captions don't depict current scientific knowledge. Many say "unknown disease" although a current scientist or medical provider could make a good guesstimate from the photo alone. What was the treatment at the time? What would the people have gone through? What would happen now? One photo particulary striking (among many though I'll choose one) says "meningitis, injected with serum, discharged 5 days later". The photo (striking to me because I have a neurological disability as well and after recovery from this disease people have long term after effects and disabilities that are neurological) unconsciously reminisant of the famous Victorian era photo "Fading Away" shows a girl in what appears to be a coma from that disease and one would assume she died after. But when it says she was "discharged five days later" she recovered, at least enough to be released. What happenend? A good "update" might read "the antitoxin available at the time would stop the progress of the disease and enable people to live though not nearly as effective as antibiotics did save some lives. But with the long term after effects of the disease people would often develop mental retardation or mental illness and in those times eventually end up in institutions which would not occur today". But that infomation (scientifically correct) is missing. The museum promises to be "shockingly informative". Good enough. Shock value I'll grant you but its a little lacking in the "informative" department.

I've seen a couple of tours of the museum on television, and thought this would make nice gift for my daughter who is interested in such things. One small photo with caption on each otherwise empty page was not what I expected. Not enough information, and considering all the exhibits that are in the museum, not enough photos. Save your money and just borrow this from the library.

I got this as a gift for my sister and having previously been to the museum, she was thrilled to have a book about it to look at whenever. It is packed with eerie pictures and information and is definitley worth giving it a look. If you or someone you know is interested in strange things, this is a perfect book for you. She said more than once that this was her favorite Christmas gift. Enjoy!

This book is very interesting if you are intrigued by medical history. but I wouldn't necessarily call it fascinating, like I was thinking it might be. it does, however, provide an insight to 19th century medicine that I had no idea existed. pioneering lifesaving medical techniques and even astoundingly advanced corrective procedures that I had no idea were even possible during this period are shown.

oh my my my... i've seen a few programs on television that spotlighted the mutter museum, and one day i should so love to visit. but this book has given me more insight into the history of medicine and such. i was smitten by the pictures, and it makes me want to visit the museum even more! beautiful photographs. i poured over each one intently before turning the pages.
i would have liked just a little bit more information about the subjects, otherwise it is a beautifully edited book!

I lived a couple blocks from this museum while I was in grad school and I kick myself now for never going to see it. This book is awesome. I wish there was a little more description of each photo, but then again I am a nerd :). The photos are amazing and as a medical practitioner, I think the procedures they did on some of these people 100, 130 years ago, were pretty groundbreaking. Definitely a great buy for anyone interested in oddities

I got this as a gift off my wishlist and I'm pretty happy with it.
The medical photos are very graphic and interesting, the descriptions are well written. The only thing I didnt like was that one small photo would take up a whole page of space. It just seemed like if each photo wasnt framed by a page they could have fit more into the book. I looked through it twice and I feel like I got all I needed from it. Kind of wish there were more stories and photos.

I'm the sort of person who deliberately seeks out medical museums while traveling. I haven't been able to make it out to really see the Mütter Museum, so this is the next best thing for now. The photography is wonderful, and some times photographs of things can bring out aspects of objects in a unique way as it is.