History & local legend
The Soap Lady is an unidentified woman whose preserved body became one of Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum’s best-known exhibits. She was exhumed in 1875, her remains encased in adipocere, a waxy substance that can form from body fat under particular burial conditions.
Physician Joseph Leidy acquired the body and believed she had died during the yellow fever epidemics of the 1790s. Because she had no teeth, he also assumed she had been middle-aged or elderly. Later examinations changed both parts of that story.
X-rays taken in 1987 revealed clothing fasteners made no earlier than the 1830s, ruling out Leidy’s proposed death date. A new examination in 2007 suggested she had been significantly younger, perhaps in her late twenties. Her name remains unknown.
