The Museum’s four floors are filled with extraordinary artifacts, as well as paintings, illustrations, and sculptures that interpret the pre-modern and modern healing practices of human civilization. From early practices to today’s revolutionary techniques, the Museum’s collections and exhibits portray the mysteries, breakthroughs, failures, and milestones that have shaped modern surgical science.

Currently on View

Upcoming

Pick Your Poison: Intoxicating Pleasures and Medical Prescriptions (February 26, 2024 – April 6, 2024)

The Creative Mind: African American History (April 19, 2024 – June 9, 2024)

Health in Space: Daring to Explore (May 31, 2024 – August 25, 2024)

From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry (June 17, 2024 to July 27, 2024)

Take Two and Call Me in the Morning: The Story of Aspirin Revisited (November 12, 2024 – December 21, 2024)

Floor 1

Welcome Room

Reception & Gift Shop

Nineteenth Century Apothecary

Dental Office: A Checkup on Dental History 

Floor 2

The Hall of Immortals – Sculptures by Louis Linck & Edouard Chaissing 

The Hall of Murals – Paintings by Count Gregorio Calvi di Bergolo

The Library: Max Thorek Rare Book and Manuscript Collection

Polio and the Iron Lung

Windows to the World: The Science of Sight & The Ophthalmic Art  

Floor 3

IF/THEN Contemporary Women in STEM

Anatomical Illustration

Diagnostic Detectives: Pathology in Modern Medical Practice  

Japan Hall of Fame

Obstetrics and Gynecology

Pain & Pain Management

Taiwan Hall of Fame

Nursing: Care for a Changing World

X-Rays and Medical Imaging 

Floor 4

Surgical Technology: Then and Now in Surgery

Spanish Mural Gallery

Contemporary Art Galleries


Past Exhibitions

Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature

Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War

Rx For Success: Health Career Center

Wound Healing: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Technologies 

Norman Rockwell: The Season of Care (December 6, 2019 – January 26, 2020)

Understanding Lipoproteins: Research, Treatment and Relationship to Cholesterol

Surgicogenomics: Genes and Stem-cells in Surgery  

This House Was Once a Home

Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race (May 17, 2019 – July 28, 2019)

A World Without Polio (2009-2018)

Provident Hospital: A Living Legacy (February 2016 – March 2017)

Beyond Broken Bones: The Story of Orthopedics and Prosthetics (2007-2016)

Supporting Structure: Understanding the Spine & Spinal Surgery (2007-2016)

Then and Now: 35 Years of HIV/AIDS (December 2015)


To inquire about exhibitions presented or ending before 2015, please contact Museum staff.