The Bodies Exhibition at the South Street Seaport in New York City is one of several exhibitions of its kind around the world that was first displayed on August 20, 2005 in Tampa, Florida. Similar exhibitions are showing in Vienna, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Cincinnati, Santiago, Prague, Branson, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Hartford, and Washington D.C. The exhibit is unique, consisting of real human bodies in various forms of disembowelment. Each body system was addressed in its own individual exhibit, starting with the skeletal system and progressing through the muscular, nervous, circulatory, digestive, respiratory, urinary, and reproductive systems plus an exhibit on fetal development. Healthy and diseased
Although it was a bit odd at first, one wouldn’t know that it was a real specimen unless told. I definitely made sure to wash my hands when I was done with that part of the exhibit. There was a reproductive exhibit, which had both healthy and diseased specimens of each gender. There were examples of prostate and breast cancer, ectopic pregnancies, cervical cancer, etc. The healthy specimens were explained through small cards placed next to the specimens. I found it was amazing to see the uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes on display out in the open. It gave me the chance to see how they’re really fit together instead of relying on drawings and diagrams. I feel that this exhibit was educational and revolutionary, because the general public doesn’t get to see the human body in the ways that medical professionals do. This exhibit allows them to see and understand how their reproductive system works. The other part of the exhibit was the fetal development room, which at first was extremely hard to look at. The exhibit consisted of fetuses in various stages of development, from conception to nearly full term. They also had conjoined twins and a baby with spina bifida. However, my favorite exhibit was the circulatory system. With the way the polymer preservation process works, the dissectors were able to inject a red polymer into the arterial system and a blue polymer into the venous system, melt away the rest of the body tissue, and the result was the entire human