Over the centuries, surgical tools have been preserved in the Medical History Library in Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia, special shelf in the pea museum steaks.
For years, a person’s giant intestine was anonymously for exhibition at an American medical museum in Philadelphia, identified only by his early JW.
Today, for Joseph Williams, the donor display not only shows his physical record, but also shows a powerful story of his life.
After a two -year controversy about humanitarian exhibitions morally, the Pea Museum announced last week that it had changed its policy to “context” and its reservoir to change their name.
“The problem is not whether we should display human remains,” said Sarah Ray, senior director of the museum’s interpretation and engagement.
“But instead, can we do the same way that justice to these individuals and their stories when we detect the tools and treatment prepared for medicine, physical diversity, and their treatment?”
Founded in 1863 with a personal collection of local surgeon Thomas Pea, the museum now has 35,000 items, including 6,000 biological samples. Visitors can see a wide medical library that has human skulls, skin conditions wax molding, medical tools and more.
Under its new policy, the museum will only accept donations from living donors or their offspring, to help them identify.
In Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia, the skull from the Joseph Heritral Collection at the Pea Museum.
In 2020, the Heart Transplant recipient donated his old extension heart to the collection.
The size of the organs, football ball, now floats in the next one of the 139 human skulls collected by the 19th century Austria’s anatomist.
Post -mortem project
In 2023, after a change in leadership, Mittar launched a post -mortem project, which is a two -year public engagement to discuss its reservoir and discuss the morality of humanitarian remnants.
As part of the re -diagnosis, the museum deleted hundreds of videos from its YouTube channel, which have more than 110,000 followers, as well as digital exposure from its website.
“The controversy started,” former peas director Kate Queen, who started the project, started. ” “It was an internal conversation that became very prominent in the public sector after the videos were removed from YouTube.”
Philadelphia, visitors to the pea museum of Pennsylvania review a famous display: Madam Demanch’s wax model, a Paris -based woman who has a horn -like development.
He added, “We did not want to change the museum dramatically. It was never intended. We intended to bring people into conversation and we had to bring this journey together because we are trying to find it.”
The Museum’s Annual Halloween Party, known as peas, was also canceled.
The reaction was fast.
A former director of the museum published a hardship in the Wall Street Journal, condemning “Cancel Culture” and accused “a handful of awakened elite” of jeopardizing the future of the museum.
Soon, a worker group called Protect The Pea was formed. His request was demanded by Queen’s removal, which has increased more than 35,000 signatures.
“Online content (was) was just about to end, and staff changed and events,” an administrator of the Protect The Peas told AFP on the condition of anonymity.
Anxious about the dispute, a heart transplant patient had already called for his heart before changing the museum.
Visitors get out of a special function at the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Pea Museum, a medical library that contains more than 37,000 items in its collection, including twins from twins to 139 skulls and a combination of medical devices.
‘Did they choose to stay there?’
With the passages of this two -storey building of brick, visitors can see the cast data of two adult semi -twins or study the small pieces of the brain of Albert Einstein.
They can also know about Ashbiri’s lives, the sowing woman, and Williams, whose “megacolone” was 8 feet (2.4 meters) long. A common human colon is about 5 feet long.
In recent years, similar conflicts have shook several other Western organizations like the British Museum, which, a humanitarian, is part of a wider conversation about morality.
The museum’s visiting “are thinking about people who are represented in these collections. And you know, do these people choose to be there? Are their skeletons being exploited for ‘entertainment’?” Delon told AFP.
Queen left her post this spring and the new administration of the museum moved to its YouTube channel to restore 80 % of the videos, the decision was welcomed by the Matteter members.
Pennsylvania Philadelphia’s pea museum wax molding of various eye diseases.
But there are more difficult questions, such as what to do with the 2.29 meter skeleton that cannot be identified.
The anonymous protection Matteter worker believes it should be displayed.
The worker said, “This example of Akromigali should be revealed with respect and helps the coming generations better understand an ongoing condition that affects people every day.”
“It becomes a confession rather than erasing the past.”
25 2025 AFP
Reference: Unknown skeleton? The American Museum (2025, 27 August) at the Center for Ethics (2025, August 27) https://phys.org/news/2025-08-named-skeletons-museum-tencal-thical.html recovered
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