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Surgeons' Hall is the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. This is one of the oldest surgical institutions in the world, founded in 1505 as the Incorporation of Barbers and Surgeons of Edinburgh. The collection was originally used for the teaching of anatomy and pathology, and includes bone and tissue specimens, artifacts and works of art. It developed in 1699 after 'natural and artificial curiosities' were publicly sought. In the 1800s, the original museum expanded to include the remarkable collections of surgeon and anatomists, Sir Charles Bell and John Barclay. It has been open to the public since 1832, making it one of Scotland's oldest museums.
On display currently is an exhibition called A Model Education, which explores the intimate relationship of art and anatomy and the way these subjects combined to teach medicine throughout the centuries. It brings together models in media such as wax, papier-mâché and plaster from five anatomical teaching collections from across the UK: the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cambridge and Aberdeen, and King’s College London, as well as Surgeons’ Hall’s own collections. It showcases the ever-changing teaching aids used to supplement dissection and the artistic talent found in their creation, accompanied by The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh’s rich illustrated text collections
The exhibition can be seen until the 26th June 2022, but in this online tour of the exhibition by Cat Irving, Human Remains Conservator at Surgeons’ Hall Museums, you can learn about the models on display, and the way they fit into the history of anatomical teaching.
Cat Irving has been the Human Remains Conservator for Surgeons’ Hall since 2015 and has been caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for nearly twenty years. After a degree in Anatomical Science she began removing brains and sewing up bodies at the Edinburgh City Mortuary. Following training in the care of wet tissue collections at the Royal College of Surgeons of England she worked with the preparations of William Hunter at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University. Cat is a licensed anatomist, and gives regular talks on anatomy and medical history, as well as writing the blog Wandering Bones