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Collections
In 1799 the government purchased the collection of the surgeon and anatomist John Hunter FRS (1728-1793). It was placed in the care of the Company (later the Royal College) of Surgeons. Hunter's collection of around 15,000 specimens and preparations formed the nucleus of one of the greatest museums of comparative anatomy, pathology, osteology and natural history in the world.
The Hunterian Collection
In 1799 the government purchased the collection of the surgeon and anatomist John Hunter FRS (1728-1793). It was placed in the care of the Company (later the Royal College) of Surgeons. Hunter's collection of around 15,000 specimens and preparations formed the nucleus of one of the greatest museums of comparative anatomy, pathology, osteology and natural history in the world.
The Hunterian Collection today contains approximately 3,500 specimens and preparations from John Hunter's original collection. The collection still includes many of Hunter's most famous specimens, including those showing his successful ligation of the femoral artery for popliteal aneurysm and his experiments on collateral circulation. Other specimens demonstrate Hunter's extensive and varied researches on subjects such as bone growth, transplantation and freemartins.
Many specimens are associated with other significant figures, such as Joseph Banks, who supplied Hunter with many items; King George III and Queen Charlotte, for whom Hunter prepared a selection of specimens for the royal collection at Kew; and Edward Jenner. Also included in the collection is the skeleton of Charles Byrne, the 'Irish Giant'.
The College's Museum Collection also contains about 2,500 specimens acquired after 1799. Many specimens were prepared or collected by the conservators of the museum, such as Richard Owen, John Quekett, William Flower and Arthur Keith.
Other items that are part of this collection and on display in the museum are a set of four anatomical tables prepared for the diarist John Evelyn in Padua in 1646, as well as scientific and surgical instruments belonging to Joseph Lister, one of the pioneers of antiseptic surgery.
Also on show are wax anatomical models prepared by Joseph Towne in the nineteenth century and corrosion casts made by David Tompsett in the 1950s.
The Odontological Collection
The Odontological Collection contains an extensive collection of skulls, jaws and teeth from humans and hundreds of species of animals. These show normal dental anatomy and a wide range of dental pathologies. The collection also contains post-cranial skeletal remains, both human and animal, as well as dental casts, dentures and prostheses and dental instruments.
The collection is rich in material of historical importance, including:
- Sir John Tomes' collection of human jaws and skulls of known sex and age at death and his pathological specimens;
- Sir Charles Tomes' collection of 1,800 microscope slides illustrating dental development in many species;
- William Cattlin's preparations of the maxillary antrum (the sinus just below the cheek bone);
- Seven preparations made by Alexander Nasmyth in about 1839, illustrating 'Nasmyth's membrane';
- A collection of skeletal remains, teeth and microscope slides of humans and other primates prepared by William Osman-Hill.
Amongst many other items of interest are teeth retrieved from soldiers on the battlefield of Waterloo, a necklace of human teeth brought from the Congo by the explorer Henry Morton Stanley and a denture belonging to Sir Winston Churchill.
The Odontological Collection was extended in the post-war period with the acquisition of two collections of Anglo-Saxon human remains; one from a cemetery in Breedon-on-the Hill, Leicestershire and the other from Polhill, Kent. The Breedon collection was used by AEW Miles to develop a system for the ageing of human remains on the basis of tooth wear.
The Polhill collection is currently housed at Anglia Polytechnic University but is still available for study by arrangement with the Hunterian Museum and APU. Please contact the museum for further information.
See the Odontological Section of the Royal Society of Medicine
Historical Surgical Instrument Collection
The first recorded donations of surgical instruments to the College museum took place in 1816, just three years after the opening of the museum. Today the College has an extensive collection of about 7,000 historical surgical and dental instruments. These include instrument sets dating back to the 17th century, as well as a large number of instruments from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The collection contains instruments used, modified or donated by a number of famous surgeons including Benjamin Brodie, William Fergusson and William Macewen.
Amongst the most important are the instruments and scientific apparatus of Joseph Lister (1827-1912). They include some of Lister's prototype carbolic sprays and samples of the catgut ligatures which he developed, as well as his microscope and glass vessels used in his experiments on fermentation.
Parts of the collection are on display in the Silver and Steel and Science of Surgery Galleries in the Hunterian Museum.
Reserve collections
The College holds more objects and specimens than it can display. Material that is not on display is held in our reserve collections, and is available for use for teaching or research. Important reserve collections include:
- The Odontological Collection: a large collection of human and animal skulls, jaws and teeth showing normal dental anatomy and dental pathology.
- The Hunterian Museum Collection: this collection contains mostly wet specimens, post-war additions to the museum that reflect the classification systems used by John Hunter. It includes over 200 sagittal sections of animals prepared by Sir Victor Negus.
- The Historical Surgical Instrument Collection: this collection contains over 7000 medical, surgical and dental instruments dating back to the 17th century.
- The Osman-Hill Collection: A collection of primate skeletal and wet-tissue specimens and microscope slides collected by the primatologist William Charles Osman-Hill.
- The Quekett Collection: over 10,000 microscope slides collected or prepared in the 1840s and 1850s by John Thomas Quekett.
The reserve collections are available for study, teaching and research in The MacRae Gallery: Room to Discover.
For more information about the reserve collections please contact the museum on 020 7869 6560 or email museums@rcseng.ac.uk.
