Exhibition at the Mütter Museum tracing the history of medical advertising, from colonial American medical texts to modern wellness marketing.
Marketing Medicine: The Art of Selling a Cure is on view at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia through December 31. It's a special exhibition that looks at the history of medical marketing and the advertising of remedies, and it draws from the College of Physicians of Philadelphia's collection of medical trade ephemera.
The show traces how medicine and advertising grew up together. It starts with colonial American medical texts and moves into the 19th-century explosion of therapeutics, the rise of the pharmaceutical sales representative, and the shift toward direct-to-consumer marketing in the 20th century. From there, it carries through to today's wellness industry. Along the way, it shows how jingles, patient testimonials, and celebrity endorsements taught medicine how to sell itself.
If you've never been, the Mütter Museum is the public face of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, founded on an 1858 donation of teaching specimens by surgeon Thomas Dent Mütter. Its Victorian galleries hold some 6,500 objects—wet specimens, wax moulages, antique surgical instruments, the Hyrtl skull collection, and Chevalier Jackson's 2,374 swallowed foreign bodies—designed to disturb and instruct in equal measure. The Hyrtl collection, 139 human skulls acquired in 1874 from Viennese anatomist Josef Hyrtl, was gathered to disprove the phrenologists' racist claim that cranial shape reveals character.
Every week we pick 🏆 the 5 best 🏆 things to do in Philadelphia and send them to your inbox. Just one weekly email, no spam.
By submitting your email, you accept our Privacy Policy
Tickets are $25. The exhibition runs through December 31, so you've got plenty of time to catch it.
