Museum to Feature Human Specimens
Bodies Revealed Prepares for Sacramento Opening
A new museum educates its patrons by revealing everthing about the human body.
What happens when someone donates their body to science? Well, that depends. Some of the more interesting ones are put on permanent display.
As an innovative addition to the downtown museum scene, a Sacramento exhibit will soon give visitors the chance to learn the form and function of the many systems in the human body through meticulously preserved human specimens.
The new Bodies Revealed exhibit will open its doors to curious onlookers December 1, 2007 at 2040 Alta Arden Way in California's capitol city. The venue's whole- and partial human specimens are expertly disected and posed to convey the complexity of the human body and how to keep it healthy.
"Visitors will have the opportunity to view a beautifully designed, groundbreaking exhibition that will leave them inspired to make healthier and more educated lifestyle choices." said Bruce Eskowitz, president and CEO of Premier Exhibitions, Inc.
The Exhibition takes visitors through galleries providing an up-close look inside the skeletal, muscular, reproductive, respiratory, circulatory and other systems of the human body. Many whole body specimens are dissected in athletic poses, allowing the visitor to relate them to everyday activities.
Authentic human specimens are also used to illustrate the damage caused to organs by over-eating and lack of exercise. A healthy lung, for example, is featured next to a black lung ravaged by smoking in a vivid comparison that's much more memorable than a picture in a textbook.
Bodies Revealed has few fellows in the business of human exhibits, but one pioneer in this curatorial niche is the Mütter Museum in Philadalphia, which has been fascinating – and slightly unnerving – its guests for decades.
Every exhibit in the museum has its own compelling story to tell," said Dick Levinson, the Mütter Museum's director of public relations. "This is the perfect destination for anyone interested in medicine and the human body. And it's a must-see for anyone with a child or grandchild who dreams of becoming a doctor.”
A word of caution may be wise, however, as not all children would enjoy seeing a pickled fetus that looks like a mermaid, or a 27-foot-long human colon. Started in the 19th century as a physician's personal collection, Mütters specimen's include several medical anomalies infamous for puzzling the museum's patrons. A further description of the museum's beginnings, and its intriguing one-of-a-kind specimens is available on the Mütter Museum website.
For further information regarding Bodies Revealed, patrons can visit www.bodiesrevealed.com/index-home.html. For the Mütter Museum, visit www.collphyphil.org/mutter.asp
