Mütter Meet and Geek with Sara Ray

Tag along for our Mütter Meet and Geek on the topic of Teratology and the History of ‘Normal'! 

Join Sara Ray, the Mütter’s Senior Director of Interpretation and Engagement, to learn about the remarkable early history of teratological collecting. Learn how “monstrous births” in the 18th century brought mothers, midwives, physicians, and anatomical collectors together to try and answer a deceptively simple question: why did this happen? Ray will share how teratological collecting produced the modern science of developmental embryology and fundamentally shaped ideas about what it means to be normal. 

On the lower level of the Mütter Museum is one of its most compelling exhibits: teratology, or the science of congenital abnormalities. These are fetuses preserved in jars that display remarkable anatomical diversity, including spina bifida, the absence of a brain, shortened or fused limbs, and conjoined twins. While these specimens remain fascinating to look at today, one might ask why they were collected in the first place – and how?

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NOTE: By entering the event premises, you consent to photography, audio recording, video recording and its release, publication, exhibition, or reproduction to be used for news, promotional purposes, advertising, inclusion on websites, social media, or any other purpose by The College of Physicians/The Mütter Museum and its affiliates and representatives.