NORA L. JONES graduated from the University of California, Riverside with a BS in Anthropology. She received her Ph.D. (2002) in Anthropology from Temple University. She entered Temple with an interest in studying art and anthropology, but quickly got sidetracked by the Mütter Museum of pathology and anatomy, where she did her fieldwork, studying the physicians, artists, and tourists who interpret and use the specimens on display in distinctive ways. Nora will be moving to Venezuela in 2003, where she will work to develop a visual anthropology program at the Universidad Central in Caracas, and continue to pursue her interests in museums, semiotics, and photography. Until the move, Nora is working as a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics. Contact Nora at zagad12@hotmail.com. 

 

 

The Mütter Museum: The Body as Spectacle, Specimen, and Art

 

__________________________________________________

 

A Dissertation
Submitted to
The Temple University Graduate Board

 

__________________________________________________

in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

__________________________________________________

by
Nora L. Jones
May, 2002

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS


ABSTRACT

LIST OF FIGURES

CHAPTERS

1. INTRODUCTION
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
The Mütter Museum
Methodology
Conclusion

2. MUSEUMS AND RECEPTION
The Anthropology of Museums
Reception Studies
Reception in Museums
Conclusion

3. WAYS OF SEEING
Culture and the Study of Communication
Semiotics and the Meaning of Visual Objects
Interpretive Communities
Conclusion

4. POPULAR WAYS OF SEEING &endash; THE ENTERTAINING BODY
The Reception Study
The Mütter as a Site of Education and Entertainment
The Mütter as a Freak Show
Conclusion

5. MEDICAL WAYS OF SEEING &endash; THE CLINCIAL BODY
Clinical Photography in the CPP and Mütter Museum
Early Years of Clinical Photography, 1855-1872
Medical Photography in the Transactions, 1872-1939
Contemporary Medical Photography, 1940 to the Present
Conclusion

6. ARTISTIC WAYS OF SEEING &endash; THE AESTHETIC BODY
Overview of the Artistic Way of Seeing
The Mütter Museum Calendars, 1993-1996
The Aesthetic Body from the Perspective of the CPP
Return of the Mütter Museum Calendar, 2000
Conclusion

7. CONCLUSIONS
Ethnography and Fieldwork
Museums
Medicine, Power, and Exclusivity
The Body in Society, Medicine, and Art
Different Viewers, Different Interpretations
Symbolism, Communication, and Culture

REFERENCES CITED