Hunterian Museum, London

11/04/2025

⭐NEW EVENT⭐
Thursday 1 May
6:30 – 8pm

Did you know that less than 1% of all collections are on display in natural history museums around the world? These museums are one of the most popular tourist attractions on earth, and a crucial source for scientific research. But what is chosen for display and what is left out? Can these collections tell new stories in the 21st century?

Join Jack Ashby, Assistant Director of the Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, for a talk on his new book, ‘Nature’s Memory’. Jack will explore some of these hidden stories of museum collections and reveal some surprising discoveries along the way.

To find out more and book a ticket, click here:
https://hunterianmuseum.org/events/natures-memory-book-launch

Far less than 1% of all collections are on display in the world’s natural history museums, and they consistently top the polls for the most popular tourist attractions. Yet we don’t often stop to think about what they tell us about our world, how crucial they might yet be to saving life on earth...

02/04/2025

This April, join us for FREE family activities at the Hunterian Museum! Bring the whole family for interactive experiences suitable for all ages!

🪡 Try your hand at tying essential surgical knots and get a taste of what it’s like to be a surgeon

🪚 Discover the history of surgery by handling fascinating surgical instruments from the 18th and 19th centuries

🫀 Have a closer look at the human body with hands-on anatomy models

Join us on Tuesday 8 April, find out more: https://hunterianmuseum.org/events/half-term-family-activities

26/03/2025

Enjoy family time at the Hunterian Museum’s friendly and inclusive environment!

Join us on Monday 7 April for a fun day for SEND families.

Discover the mysteries of the human body through our interactive drop-in activities, with hands-on anatomy models, and surgical instruments from the 18th and 19th centuries in a dedicated learning space. The Hunterian Museum will be open exclusively to SEND families. Don’t forget to take the time to explore the museum’s incredible collection while you're there!

🦴🔎🧠

To find out more and book your place, click here: https://hunterianmuseum.org/events/send-family-day

18/03/2025

This Thursday!

Thursday 20 March, 6:30pm

Join author Wendy Moore for a talk exploring the incredible story of Jack and Eve - two women who were suffragettes, life-long partners and heroes of the First World War who saved the lives of wounded soldiers. Together they carved radical new paths, demonstrating that women could drive emergency vehicles, run military hospitals and bear arms in the face of constant danger.

To find out more and book your ticket, click here:
https://hunterianmuseum.org/events/jack-eve

19/02/2025

NEW EVENT

📅 Thursday 20 March
⏰ 18:30 - 20:00

Join author Wendy Moore for a talk exploring the incredible story of Jack and Eve - two women who were suffragettes, life-long partners and heroes of the First World War who saved the lives of wounded soldiers. Together they carved radical new paths, demonstrating that women could drive emergency vehicles, run military hospitals and bear arms in the face of constant danger.

To find out more and book your ticket, click here:

Vera ‘Jack’ Holme was a cross-dressing actress who became official chauffeur to suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst. Evelina Haverfield was the twice-married daughter of an English baron. They met in 1909, fell in love and became public faces of the suffragette movement, enduring prison for th...

05/02/2025

Looking for something to do with the kids this February half term? 🤔

Join us and have some fun with free drop-in family activity sessions!

Come and meet a surgeon and discover more about surgery both past and present. Explore 18th- and 19th-century surgical instruments, practice essential surgical knot tying, and have a taste of being a surgeon. There will be booklets with colouring in and crosswords to unlock the mysteries of the human body, with hands-on anatomy models to explore 🧠 🫁 🦷

Join us at:
Hunterian Museum
Saturday 15, Tuesday 18, Thursday 20 February
11am – 3pm

Or

Royal College of Physicians
Wednesday 19 February
11am – 3pm

Find out more:

Free

04/02/2025

Sexual body-parts and same-sex desire were unmentionables, unrepresentable in 18th- and 19th-century print culture. Yet one science – anatomy - had license to picture intimate details of the human body. The anatomical image could be soberly technical, but also monstrous, flirtatious, theatrical, transgressive – and sensual.
This LGBT History Month we are delighted to be joining the Royal College of Physicians Museum to host American historian of the visual culture of medicine and science, Michael Sappol. Join one of two fascinating talks inspired by his research into aesthetics and desire in the anatomical image for new book Q***r Anatomies.

⭐️ Thursday 20 Feb, 6.30pm - head over in person to the Hunterian for his talk on ‘The Odd Case of Mr. Joseph Maclise and his Figures’ with exclusive after-hours access to the Hunterian Museum. Find out more https://hunterianmuseum.org/events/queer-anatomies

⭐️ Tuesday 25 Feb, 6pm – join the RCP Museum in person for an illustrated talk about book Q***r Anatomies with a drinks reception and chance to explore a display of some of the original source materials held in the RCP archive and heritage library. You can also join the talk and Q&A online. Find out more https://history.rcp.ac.uk/event/queer-anatomies-michael-sappol

24/01/2025

What happens if you break a kneecap?

This preparation was used by John Hunter to teach his students what happens when someone fractures their kneecap (also known as the patella).

Springs have been added to human leg bones, with the kneecap split in two. The springs replicate the action of the muscles in the thigh that straighten the leg (the extensor muscles) on a fractured kneecap. It shows how the muscles can adapt, shortening, once the fractured parts are united by a band of ligament.

John Hunter taught that in fractures of the kneecap, the fragments should be brought together as closely as possible.

Credit
Bones of the lower leg, mounted with springs to illustrate the separation of a fractured patella, Hunterian Collection, Royal College of Surgeons of England. 1760-1793. RCSHC/P 376

16/01/2025

NEW EVENT

📅 Thursday 20 February
⏰ 18:30 - 20:00

Sexual body-parts and same-sex desire were unmentionables, debarred from representation in 18th- and 19th-century print culture. Yet one scientific discipline — anatomy — had license to picture intimate details of the human body.

Join Michael Sappol, historian of the visual culture of medicine and science, for an evening talk on his new book 'Q***r Anatomies'.

Illustrations from 'Surgical Anatomy' by John Maclise, 1856

To find out more and book your ticket, click here:
https://hunterianmuseum.org/events/queer-anatomies

03/01/2025

📢 Museum update 📢

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Hunterian Museum is closed and will reopen on Tuesday 7th January. The 19th century surgery gallery will be closed until further notice.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

28/11/2024

This is an English guitar belonging to and played by Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) playwright and poet, and niece of John Hunter (1728-1793).

The English guitar was popular from about 1750 until 1810 during which time a huge amount of music was published for it both in England and Scotland. Tuned in the key of C it is a close relative of the cittern, an instrument still used today in European folk/trad music. It decreased in usage and popularity in the early 19th century, being replaced by the Spanish guitar.

A proficient musician Joanna Baillie was best known for her poems and plays. Her work was widely acclaimed by fellow poets Byron, Wordsworth and Coleridge and Scotland’s most popular author, Sir Walter Scott. Born and raised in Scotland Baillie came to live with her brother Matthew in London in 1784, as he had recently inherited their uncle William Hunter’s house and anatomy school at Great Windmill Street. John Hunter’s wife, the poet Anne Hunter took her niece under her wing and introduced her to many leading women intellectuals including F***y Burney, Elizabeth Carter and Elizabeth Montagu, members of the famous Blue Stockings circle.

Images: 1-3 Joanna Baillie’s guitar, Hunterian Society
4. Portrait of Joanna Baillie by John Henry Robinson, after Sir William John Newton, published 1851 © National Portrait Gallery, London
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw67737/Joanna-Baillie

25/11/2024

📢 Calling all teachers 📢

Are you a teacher or do you know a teacher?

The Hunterian Museum runs different workshops aimed at GCSE, A-Level, T-Level and BTEC students.

History of Medicine in Britain Workshop - looking at Anatomy, developments in surgery through history, as well as the chance to chat to a surgeon and handle historical medical instruments.

Surgical Skills Taster Workshop - for those interested in a career in medicine this gives students the opportunity to take part in a practical workshop where surgeons will teach basic suturing skills and surgical knot tying.

Mary Shelley Frankenstein Workshop - a chance to explore themes in the Hunterian Museum as well as look at contemporary sources from the library.

To find out more about these workshops or to discover available sources for a self-led visit, check out the Hunterian Museum Website Learning section:

With a focus on object-led and curriculum-linked sessions, the Museum welcomes learners from secondary (minimum age 14) through to further and higher education.

19/11/2024

Thomas Norman - a case of aortic aneurysm

This image depicts Thomas Norman, shortly before his death at the age of 55. Norman was a soldier in the 8th Regiment and was admitted to Chelsea Hospital, London, with a lump on his chest. The lump was gradually growing in size, and 'rebounded very forcibly' against his finger. It was an aortic aneurysm - an abnormal swelling of the major blood vessel that leaves the heart.

The aneurysm continued to grow. Three months later it measured 26 inches (around 66cm) and began to bleed, causing Norman's death. Part of Norman's ribcage, including the aneurysm, was preserved and is now in the Hunterian Museum.

1. Drawing of Thomas Norman, possibly by William Bell, 1785. Part of the Hunter Drawing Book collection, Royal College of Surgeons of England.
2. Dried section of thorax with the arch of the aorta, showing a large aortic aneurysm, 1785. Part of the Hunterian Collection, Royal College of Surgeons of England.

13/11/2024

Would you eat a 'crab's eye'? 🦀

These 'crab's eyes' are from the late 1700s, when they were used to treat conditions including ulcers, colic, pleurisy and fevers.

Despite the name, they have nothing to do with crabs! They are crayfish gastroliths - stomach stones that provide a source of calcium for growing a new shell.

They are part of the Hunterian Collection, and date from 1760-1793.

30/10/2024

Why do cats have rough tongues? 🐱🦁

If you have a pet cat you might of noticed that its tongue has a rough, sandpaper like texture.

This is because their tongues are covered in sharp, curved, backward facing spines, called papillae.

Big cats are just the same - this lion's tongue is covered in papillae, although on a much larger scale than pet cats - the whole tongue is around 16cm long, which is larger than most smartphones!

The papillae are thought to help cats of all sizes to groom themselves, strip meat from bones and lap up water.

1. Front of a lion's tongue, Hunterian Collection, 1760-1793
2 & 3. Detail of tongue and papillae

18/10/2024

Exhibition ‘Body Parts: the art and application of medical illustration’ at the Hunterian Museum until 9 November. To celebrate World Anatomy Day this Tuesday 15 October, some highlights from 'Body Parts' shown alongside specimens displayed in the Hunterian Museum.

This illustration by Lydia Carline of the mid brain of a human shows anatomical structure with smoothly drawn lines, in pencil/charcoal, making details clearer than can be achieved even with a photograph. Text annotation is added to identify specific areas to aid learning.

John Hunter’s collection contains brain specimens of humans and other animals. The specimen shown is from a tiger. Hunter compared the anatomy and structure of the brain from different species of cat, including domesticated cats, lions and tigers.

The midbrain and optic tracts by Lydia Carline.
Tiger brain, on display in the Hunterian Museum (RCSHC/1324)

16/10/2024

Exhibition ‘Body Parts: the art and application of medical illustration’ at the Hunterian Museum until 9 November. To celebrate World Anatomy Day this Tuesday 15 October, some highlights from 'Body Parts' are shown alongside specimens displayed in the Hunterian Museum

This digital illustration by Maurizio de Angelis, shows the development of a blood clot (thrombus) which gradually causes the vein to narrow before blocking it completely. The illustration allows the structure of the vein and valve to be seen, as well as the individual blood cells. By showing the blood cells at a much larger size it allows the structure and formation of the clot, meshed in fibrin protein, to be better understood.

The specimen was prepared by John Hunter between 1760 and 1793, and shows a small section of artery and vein that contain a thrombus, caused by the vessels being tied with a ligature. While it shows the thrombus in place, it cannot show the structure in the same way an illustration can.

Venous thrombosis by Maurizio de Angelis, currently displayed in Body Parts at the Royal College of Surgeons
Artery and vein showing a thrombus, on display in the Hunterian Museum (RCSHC/P 1159)

14/10/2024

Exhibition ‘Body Parts: the art and application of medical illustration’ at the Hunterian Museum until 9 November. To celebrate World Anatomy Day this Tuesday 15 October, some highlights from 'Body Parts' are shown alongside specimens displayed in the Hunterian Museum.

The human body has many different systems hidden beneath the skin, continuously working together. Today, medical illustration can show these different systems clearly in bright colours. ‘Body Systems’ by Debbie Maizels shows the arterial system (red), venous system (blue), lymphatic system (green), and the nervous system (yellow).

The Evelyn tables displayed at the Hunterian Museum also reveal these structures. Dating from 1645/6, they are thought to be the oldest surviving anatomical preparations in Europe. This example shows the venous system of the body, carefully dissected and pasted to a wooden board. Unlike modern illustrations the dissected veins cannot be seen in relation to other systems and are shown flat.

Body Systems by Debbie Maizels, currently displayed in Body Parts at the Royal College of Surgeons
Evelyn Tables, on display in the Hunterian Museum (RCSHM/Z 35)