International Museum of Surgical Science

This small museum on Lake Shore Drive is the perfect size, specific enough to be fascinating, but not too large and overwhelming that museum-fatigue sets in. The museum is a strange but effective mix of scientific and surgical ephemera, and art based on the body. There are iron lungs, old-school surgical equipment, technical analysis of viruses and infectious diseases, plasticized circulatory systems (a la ‘Body World’) and enormous cringe inducing gallstones. The museum also features a hall of larger-than-life sculptures which commemorate pioneers in medicine and surgery from ancient Egyptian times to the present. Additionally, the museum hosts contemporary artists-in-residence who create works about science and the body, inspired by the holdings of the museum. WARNING: This is not a museum for the squeamish, unless you think you can stomach seeing a plasticized body cut into one inch slices and spread the length of a room, you should steer clear. (Like that one scene with the horse from the movie The Cell, with J-Lo)