May 13, 2023
WHYY ran a story on the Mütter Museum’s temporary removal of online content in mid-May. Part of the story is below and the entire piece is available to read .
There has been , in the museum world around displaying human remains, which has brought up some difficult questions many institutions are grappling with.
Kate Quinn, the new executive director of the Mütter Museum, explained that the online content has been removed because the museum is reviewing all of it to think about how to ethically and responsibly present the collection.
“(Pendarvis’ heart) is still on display. His story is still on display in the museum physically. It’s just temporarily removed from our online presentation,” she said. “I don’t have reason to believe that it won’t come back up. But until we have these wider discussions, I can’t say that for sure.”
She said the collection involves people who are no longer living, and had values that may differ from what people now believe. She also said while some people clearly consented to be in the collection, others did not, so the museum has to think about how to handle those cases.