New leaders at the Mütter Museum ponder ‘diving into the fantastic’ in a post-pandemic future

For the first time since its 1863 founding, the Mütter Museum on 22nd Street south of Market Street, a part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, has hired an executive director to focus solely on the museum, its historical medical library, its research arm, and its future.

Kate Quinn, most recently the director of the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, and for nearly 15 years, director of exhibitions and special programs at the Penn Museum, will join an institution that possesses a burgeoning reputation as a full-blown cabinet of medical curiosities. Einstein’s brain, the Hyrtl skull collection, the Soap Lady (she’s encased in adipocere, the “fat of graveyards”), President Grover Cleveland’s preserved jaw tumor, plus conjoined skeletons and weird organs galore have driven the museum’s growing visitorship, which hit about 180,000 in 2019.

That’s when the Dr. George Wohlreich, college president and chief executive, announced a $25 million expansion campaign for the cramped museum and library. By the middle of the middle of the year, about 75% of the funds had been raised.

Then came the pandemic.

The capital campaign was put on hold. Dr. Wohlreich retired in 2021. And Dr. Mira Irons, a pediatric geneticist, took over as head the college, a non-profit organization (founded in 1787) devoted to advancing the cause of health while upholding the ideals and heritage of medicine.

Dr. Irons has determined that the pandemic has altered the public landscape to the extent that the Mütter and the College of Physicians need to reassess how to move forward. One of her first acts has been hiring Quinn.

“We’re at an important juncture in the college’s history,” said Dr. Irons. “We’re working to increase accessibility of our offerings, take a leading role among our peers in addressing ethical questions, and grow our visibility worldwide.”

In an interview Wednesday, Dr. Irons said “the pandemic has taught us a lot of things” -- including the necessity of rethinking approaches to operations.

“One of the things that it’s taught us is that you have to look at things differently,” she said. “You have to think outside of the box, and so we’re doing that. I’m a physician, museums and libraries are my avocation. But I also believe in expertise and and I think that bringing Kate Quinn on as part of the team, she has expertise in those specific areas of knowledge.”

The museum, the historical library, the college’s educational programs for young people and underrepresented groups are critical for the success of the college, she said. Quinn will oversee all of those activities and will also help “to incorporate art and the humanities into our programming, and to work with our public-health staff in really focusing on public-health issues, and educating the public.”

For her part, Quinn said she has “some sense of what draws people who are not museum goers” to the Mütter,

with more informed analysis to come. But based on her experience growing up in working-class Delco, where the Mütter was the “the number one choice” when it came to museums, she said she believed that “the idea of the fantastic” is the museum’s most powerful lure.

“We’re seeing parts of the body that you can’t see and it’s awesome, and it’s amazing,” she said. “I think there’s something about that really diving into the fantastic that you can’t get anywhere else.” The Mütter is “where you can see tumors and you can see the hearts you can see the brain. You can see lots of aspects that are detrimental to human health, in ways that you can’t see anywhere else, I think. Fantastic is what people are drawn to. And I believe that can still be what happens in a 22nd century museum.”

Dr. Irons said the capital building plan and attendant fundraising are currently being evaluated, particularly in the wake of what the pandemic demonstrated about digital potential. That said, there are some “building enhancements” underway that involve work in the basement storage areas of the historic South 22nd Street building.

The press of visitors remains an issue. But Dr. Irons said that the importance of timed tickets was another important pandemic lesson.

“I think having more space, or different types of space actually allows us to do different things,” she said. The cabinet of curiosities look may be an important part of the Mütter’s appeal, but there are different kinds of museum spaces ”that may actually attract people who would never think of coming here,” she said.

“I’d like to open the doors to more people in Philadelphia. I’d like to get more kids into the museum. There’s so many stories, we can tell.”