The Hunterian Museum is a museum of anatomical specimens in London, located in the building of the
Royal College of Surgeons of England.
History
In 1799 the government purchased the collection of the Scottish surgeon
John Hunter which they presented to the college. This formed the basis of the Hunterian Collection, which has since been supplemented by others including an
Odontological Collection (curated by
A E W Miles until the early 1990s) and the
natural history collections of
Richard Owen
Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils.
Ow ...
.
The first museum building was considered inadequate in terms of space, and was closed in April 1834 to allow for an expansion project which added additional East and West galleries, completed in February 1837. A third room was added in 1852, and two further galleries were added between 1888 and 1892.
In May 1941 the college building was badly damaged by bombs, with Rooms IV and V of the museum being completely destroyed along with their contents. After a slow process of entirely new construction in which some of the original design features were maintained, the Hunterian Museum reopened in a reduced form in 1963.
Collections
The Hunterian Museum is a member of
The London Museums of Health & Medicine group, and displays thousands of anatomical specimens, including the
Evelyn tables, instruments belonging to
Joseph Lister, and the skeleton of the "Irish giant"
Charles Byrne (procured against Byrne's dying wishes), surgical equipment, and paintings and sculptures about medical individuals and medicine. The museum's
odontological collection includes teeth retrieved from soldiers at the battle of Waterloo, a necklace of human teeth brought to England by explorer
Henry Morton Stanley
Sir Henry Morton Stanley (born John Rowlands; 28 January 1841 – 10 May 1904) was a Welsh-American explorer, journalist, soldier, colonial administrator, author and politician who was famous for his exploration of Central Africa and his sear ...
, and a set of
dentures
Dentures (also known as false teeth) are prosthetic devices constructed to replace missing teeth, and are supported by the surrounding soft and hard tissues of the oral cavity. Conventional dentures are removable ( removable partial denture ...
belonging to
Winston Churchill.
The museum closed in May 2017 for renovation work, to reopen in 2023.
Curators
* From 1862 until 1884
William Henry Flower was curator of the museum.
Gallery
File:The skeleton of Charles Byrne (1761–1783).jpg, The skeleton of Charles Byrne (1761–1783)
File:Scyllarides latus - 1.jpg, '' Scyllarides latus'', the slipper lobster
File:Dinornis novaezealandiae - 1.jpg, Skeleton of '' Dinornis novaezealandiae'', the extinct North Island giant moa
File:Bufo sp. - 001.jpg, A species of large toad dissected to show ripe ovaries and contracted oviducts
References
{{Authority control
Museums in the City of Westminster
Medical museums in London
Museums established in 1799