A Museum of Skulls, a Murder, and the Grief That Follows

Beyond the Glass

Daniel Barnum recounts visiting Philadelphia's Mütter Museum, where the Hyrtl Skull Collection—139 skulls assembled largely through grave robbing—stares down every visitor. He was there to see a special exhibit of shrunken heads, and later interviewed for a job there. Midway through the essay, a call from an estranged aunt delivers devastating news: his mother was murdered and her body left in a dumpster. The skulls become a lens for thinking about grief, estrangement, and what we preserve.