03/25/2026
Oddly, I didn't love the Museum of Death LA.
Strap in, this is a rare paragraph post.
I'm your gal for all things death, funeral, and mourning history, practices, and advocacy, so you'd think that this museum would be right up my alley. And while I did enjoy the sections on funeral history (there was even a section on mourning hair jewelry, which is what I collect, exhibit, and speak on!), some of the true crime and cult history content, and that it does talk about a subject that many avoid, I walked away with a bad taste in my mouth.
Because what I'm not about is a pageantry of human suffering without context, or at least a disclaimer that certain exhibit pieces are parts of real humans and should be respected in death. That's my first point - I had visited the California Science Center's Mummies Around the World exhibit a few days before, and the first thing you see when you step into the exhibit is a slide with language around being respectful of the humans shown there and that they are human beings, not just exhibit pieces. If you know me, you know I feel very strongly about human remain collecting, especially bones, and I feel that a museum is usually the right place for them, with context.
The second thing I didn't love were the crime scene photos plastering the walls. They do say in the lobby and everywhere that it is graphic content, and that is not my problem. There are photos of suicides, twisted and bloodies bodies of people from all walks of life, bodies that lacked any identifying pieces. The photos are largely public domain and archival photos, so they're legal to show, but seeing them all just made me wonder how the subjects would feel, knowing that their bloated body hanging from a tree (in one example) after their last act would be displayed in the "Su***de Corner". Perhaps, I would feel better if a contextual statement recognized their humanity first, before the sideshow. Yes, it makes a difference.
What are your thoughts on this? I still think it's very important that this museum and spaces like it exist, I just found some details wanting. , did I just miss wherever this context was posted? Open to conversation!
