1947-1949 Catalogue of the Mütter Museum

In June 1947, Museum Curator Ella Wade wrote:

"For almost one hundred years the Mutter Museum of the College of Physicians has existed with no published catalogue of its thousands of specimens.

Except for listing and numbering new specimens as they were received, little was done in the way of cataloguing until 1884, when Dr. Guy Hinsdale, the curator, undertook the enormous task of compiling the first complete and compre- hensive catalogue. This consists of three large typewritten volumes. Through the years these suffered through much handling in making cor- rections and insertions, so in 1940 it was copied, giving the museum three new volumes which are also typewritten. In this first catalogue lengthy detailed descriptions are given in most instances, yet it is not a practical catalogue for use by the public, in locating desired material.

In 1946 Dr. Leandro M. Tocantins, a member of the Committee on the Mutter Museum, and Mr. W. B. McDaniel, 2d., the librarian and editor, conceived the idea of obtaining a simple published catalogue with a minimum of expense by having installments of it printed periodically in the Transactions & Studies of the College, and then assembling the reprints.

Before attempting this, various sources were consulted as to the best way to go about it, but strange to say, other museums of similar scope had no published catalogue either, and we were left more or less to our own devices."

This volume, and the brief description of it above, is a reprint of the Transactions and Studies of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 4th ser., vol. 15, no. 2, June 1947.