Exhibitions
Anatomy of an Athlete
Elite sport, surgery and medical art
Tuesday 13 March-Saturday 29 September
Qvist Gallery, Hunterian Museum. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm.
The Hunterian Museum has worked with the Medical Artists’ Association of Great Britain to generate new artworks that explore the anatomy and physiology of elite athletics. Ranging across different media and sporting disciplines, the artists illustrate the key role played by sports and exercise medicine, and surgery in particular.
Find out about the latest techniques in orthopaedic surgery, innovative developments in prosthetics and the importance of training to muscle development. World-leading medical artists Joanna Culley, Emily Evans, Richard Neave/Denise Smith and Catherine Sulzmann have used have used a variety of art-forms including watercolour, video and sculpture to represent a selection of sports and para-sports. Their art provides a unique opportunity to study in detail the best of British at running, hurdling, canoeing and hockey.
This dynamic exhibition will be accompanied by a series of events over the summer.
Image: Emily Evans
Anatomy of an Athlete Video
Model Anatomy
Levy Case exhibition, College entrance hall
Open Monday – Friday 9am–5pm, Saturday 10am-5pm.
Free
This small display features a recently conserved plaster and papier-maché anatomical teaching model from the Hunterian Museum collection. The striking male torso was made by the German company SOMSO Modelle in the early 20th century.
Extinct
Art Cases, Hunterian Museum. Open Tues-Sat 10am-5pm
Free
The museum’s stored collections include specimens and images of extinct and endangered animals. This temporary exhibition will display the remains of prehistoric giants, such as the impressive woolly mammoth, and the immense Megalodon shark, alongside creatures lost only a few decades ago, including the Tasmanian tiger. ‘Extinct’ raises questions about human interaction with the natural world and will also highlight the plight of critically endangered species.
Treasures from the Odontological Collection
Ivory
Levy Case exhibition, College entrance hall
Open Monday – Friday 9am–5pm, Saturday 10am-5pm
Free
The Odontological Collection at The Royal College of Surgeons contains over 250 ivory specimens, the majority of which are of zoological interest. This small exhibition includes a variety of specimens from terrestrial and marine mammals that have teeth or tusks large enough to be classed as ‘ivory’. From the extinct woolly mammoth to the elusive narwhal, these rarely seen items are on display for a limited period. Also included are a selection of historical medical instruments and dentures fashioned from ivory.
"BIG"
Large Levy Case, College entrance hall
Open Monday – Friday 9am–5pm, Saturday 10am-5pm
Free
“BIG; oversized treasures from the Odontological Collection” displays a selection of the largest animal skulls and jaws held within the varied museum collections. This temporary exhibition includes, amongst other objects, the cranium of a killer whale, the tusks of a hippopotamus and the skull of a black rhino. All of this material has been kept within the stores since the mid twentieth century, but will now be on public display for the remainder of 2011.
Exhibition archive
Find out more about all previous exhibitions in our Exhibitions archive »

