May 31, 2023
At the end of May, we became aware of a change.org petition circulating regarding the perceived “changes” at the Museum and leadership’s role in the future of the institution.
Our response to the petition and its claims is below:
There is no “deconstruction” of the Mütter Museum being attempted. The focus of this controversy remains the removal of online content pending a review to determine how and whether the materials at issue serve the mission of the Museum and the College – that is, to facilitate health. As we have stated on multiple occasions the removal of the online content is temporary. The review is currently underway, and we fully expect that content will begin returning in the coming days and weeks. We believe the review is critically important to the future of the institution, and that its completion ultimately will improve the visitor experience at the Mütter.
Context matters – both with respect to statements made by leadership and to the human remains that the Museum chooses to display. To be clear, it's not about telling viewers what to think. Rather, it’s about adding information to provide a better understanding about the material and its relationship to improving health. We seek to look to the past (through the collections) to help inform our present and future. There are a multitude of great stories that we can tell through our collections, and we want to tell more stories using more of the College’s resources, including those of the Mütter. Our goal is to improve the visitor experience, and any suggestion to the contrary is false and deliberately misleading.