on permanent display. Exhibitions Many of the museum's collections comprise a permanent exhibition. The museum also hosts thematic exhibitions: A Stitch in Spine Saves Nine An exhibition demonstrating the development of spinal medicine and surgery Broken Bodies, Suffering Spirits: Injury, Death, and Healing in Civil War Philadelphia This large exhibit examines the history of medicine through the Civil War, and specifically how the conflict contributed to improvements in medical science in the Northeast US. It displays a collection of Civil War-era tools and instruments, contextualized via historical documents from the Medical History Library. Other artifacts include a USCT Muster Roll, which recorded soldier's military histories, health, and death. The exhibition is accompanied by lesson plans and a nine-part documentary mini-series about the Civil War experience in Philadelphia. Dr. Benjamin Rush Medicinal Plant Garden Dr. Rush helped to found the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1787, which is now home to the Mütter Museum. Dr. Rush pushed for the maintenance of a medicinal garden to allow College Fellows to replenish items in their medicinal chests. The Garden was eventually founded in 1937. It displays between 50 and 60 medicinal herbs and plants, and is accompanied by an audio-tour for visitors to learn more about the original medicinal properties and uses of the botanical specimens, which include strawberries, wormwort, and bugleweed. Special exhibitions The museum is also host to a variety of changing special exhibits. Currently on display: Vesalius on the Verge: The Book and the Body, celebrating the 500th birthday of the famous anatomist Grimm's Anatomy, including rare illustrations from the Brothers Grimm A bi-annual art exhibition in the museum's art space, Thomson Gallery. These art exhibits invite established artists to complement the themes of the Mütter Collection, presenting medicine as both a science and an art. Philadelphia Neuroscience-Artist Greg Dunn's collection of neuron paintings and etchings have been shown. Gretchen Worden Gretchen Worden remains perhaps the best known person associated with the Mütter Museum. She joined the museum staff as a curatorial assistant in 1975, became the museum's curator in 1982 and its director in 1988. Worden was a frequent guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, "displaying a mischievous glee as she frightened him with human hairballs and wicked-looking Victorian surgical tools, only to disarm him with her antic laugh" and appeared in numerous PBS, BBC and cable television documentaries (including an episode of Errol Morris' show