Explore collections

Today the village of Wanlockhead is a picturesque gem in the centre of an area of great natural beauty. The visitor centre is housed in the old Smiddy, which was still in use in 1900.

Straitsteps Cottages demonstrates what it was like to live as a miner in the 18th and 19th centuries. One cottage depicts a cottage interior around 1750, the second around 1850 with the third and final cottage at around 1910. The artefacts on show, illustrate how the people of Wanlockhead lived, worked and played.

The village has existed for over three hundred years. The first miners came to pan for gold and lived in tents through the summer months, but it was impossible to stay in the winter because of the severe weather conditions. By the time the lead mining industry had started the tents were replaced by stone buildings made from local stones and thatched with heather or sods. These buildings mostly consisted of ‘but and ben’ cottages consisting of one room with rushes on the floor and a fire place which was no more than a hole in the wall. The room was ventilated through a hole in the roof which acted as a chimney. Fuel for the fire was peat. The windows did not have any glass in as it was too expensive due to the window tax and the elements were kept at bay by wooden shutters.

In the 1800’s new mining families moved into the area and they were allowed to build their homes on any free ground they liked. When the Duke of Buccleuch took over the mining operations, housing substantially improved. The houses now had two rooms, the roofs were covered with slate and there was an outside toilet. The windows were fully glazed, but they were small to keep the heat in. Peat fires were replaced by coal by 1809 which was burned in the cooking ranges with a proper chimney.

Wanlockhead remains an isolated place and many generations of the same families lived and worked here. During the recessions in the lead industry, many of the families left to start new lives in Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and United States.

The history of Lochnell Mine extends over a period of 150 years and reflects the various changes which took place in winning the lead ore, draining the workings, organising the miners to carry out their activities, and rewarding them for their efforts.

The origin of the mine goes back to the early years of the Quaker Company which held leases on the lead veins at Wanlockhead from 1710 to 1756. Messrs Crawford & Company succeeded to the Quaker Company’s Lease between 1756 and 1842. They re-opened the trial drifts in 1757 but abandoned them in 1759 because of poor ventilation. This is referred to in the mining records as follows: –

“August 1758 – Williamson’s Drift on the south end of the Coves vein, was laid on the 30th July last for want of air. The price was £5 per fathom. The small progress made was owing to the miners not having air enough to enable them to work. In place of six pickmen employed formerly, only two pickmen could work and these only on two or three days in the week….”

The mine was worked for a further 24 years until it finally closed in 1861. By that time the workings had reached a depth of 500 feet below Thomson’s Drift. Again, closure was caused by the failure of the hydraulic pumping engine to cope with the quantity of water entering the workings, and the ore was still putting-down in the vein when the workings were abandoned. The mine environment was dangerous and men worked without the benefits of modern safety methods. Accidents happened frequently.

Gold and lead miners were free men, unlike coal miners and this allowed them to move around from mine to mine. Men came from different parts of Britain and some even from different European countries. Women were not employed down in these mines, but boys as young as 8 years old were expected to start work. They would work in the streams washing the lead ore in all weather conditions, all year round for 2 pennies a day. By the age of 12 boys could then work in the mine, hauling out the galena in small troughs or sledges.

The part of the mine, which is open to visitors, is described in terms of the minerals found, the methods used in cutting the rock, winning the ore, ventilating the workings, and transporting men and materials to the surface.

The atmosphere in the Miners’ Library has to be experienced to fully understand the influence that the books had on the lives of the miners and their families. Only 40 miners’ sons ‘escaped‘ from the mines in the 40 years between 1835 and 1875 and this was due in great part to the Miners’ Library and the books it held. Wanlockhead has given the world many famous ‘sons’ and ‘daughters’, whose first taste of education, was with the books at Wanlockhead Miners’ Library.

Membership of the Library was a privilege and new members were subjected to a rigorous interrogation by the Librarian before being admitted to membership.

The library originally started in the school but as the subscription numbers increased and the number of books in stock increased, it was necessary to move the library to a cottage, which was given to them by the mine overseers in 1787. However, the cottage was too small and it was found to be necessary to build a larger building, which came into use in July 1788. As the stock of books rose to over 2,000 again the problem of space forced them to build a new library from subscription money. This was opened in January 1851 and this is the library you can see today. Once the library was fully repaired and the interior environment had stabilised the books were no longer in danger of further deterioration and the collection was returned to the shelves.

The idea for a Museum was the inspiration of Geoff Downs-Rose, a Mining Engineer, who had business in the Scottish coalfield area in the late 1960s. Fortunately, he visited Wanlockhead and was excited when viewing the remnants of the mining activity that was still evident after some 250 years. Downs-Rose talked to the villagers about preserving and establishing a small a museum to inform the public of the importance of the ore field. Thus in 1974 the cottage at Goldscaur, now an archive centre, was gifted to the nascent museum as a small exhibition and information centre.

Through the mid-seventies until the end of 1989, considerable industrial archaeological work was undertaken by such entities as Glasgow University. In addition, job, creation schemes were initiated resulting in signed footpaths and the erection of a facsimile of Pates Know smelter on the original site.

During this time the museum acquired collections, some loaned as the Hunterian minerals and many as outright donations. It became evident that the existing premises were not robust enough to accommodate the growing number of artefacts.

In early 1990, substantial grants were obtained from the European Community funding resulting in the Museum and Visitor centre as extant today.

The present Museum is following in the footsteps of Downs-Rose, in acquiring the Village Bowling Club premises that are presently being converted into a study centre. The name of the study centre will be “The DOWNS-ROSE Study Centre “.

Today the library houses a collection of books which have been Recognised as of National Significance and can be seen as a legacy of the lead miners’ culture and education.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Museum currently has a diverse collection of items including:

Approximately –

• 1500 items in the document and photographic archive.
• 2800 books in the Miners’ Library collection.
• 230 items of costume and costume jewellery.
• 100 items relating to craft and community.
• 400 items relating to geology.
• 250 items relating to mining and mineral extraction.
• 50 items relating to smelting and ore preparation.

Agriculture

This collection includes approximately 20 items and consists of largely hand tools. There are gaps in this collection; in the dairy and sheep farming areas.

Archaeology

This collection includes 18th and 19th century industrial material relating to the mining, smelting and transport of lead. The majority of this collection has been collected on excavations carried out by the Museum over the last 25 years and in a programme of underground exploration.

Archives

The archive collection consists of books, bound records, photographs, newspapers and other printed material, maps, plans, manuscripts and ephemera relating to the human and industrial history of Wanlockhead, Leadhills and to lead and metal sites throughout Scotland. There are approximately 1200 items.

Books

There are approximately 2800 books in the collection in the Miners’ Library. Books bearing the Miners’ Library book plate will continue to be collected.

Costume and Costume Accessories

The costume collection consists of approximately 230 items, of which 76 items are early 20th century costume jewellery. The majority of the costume collection dates from the 19th and early 20th centuries. There are some rare examples of 19th century working costume which were found in the local mines. Also notable is the collection of Ayrshire Whitework and local Muslin Flowering.

Craft/Industry and Commerce

There are about 100 items in this collection reflecting local crafts such as thatching, carpentry and smithery. Commerce in the Wanlockhead and Leadhills area is not yet adequately represented in the collection.

Geology

The Museum has a mineral collection of about 400 specimens. The majority of the specimens have either been collected in Wanlockhead or Leadhills and are associated with lead. There is a small number of specimens from other lead mining sites in Scotland. There is a good collection of local quartzes, calcites and galena. There is also a good range of sphalerite, pyromorphites, chalcopyrites and barytes on galena. There is a small but representative collection of the rarer lead associated secondary minerals such and leadhillite, witherite, linerite and susannite.

The Museum intends to maintain a reference collection of mineral specimens on display and a small handling collection for educational purposes will be established.

Mining and Mineral Extraction

The collection consists of approximately 250 items, the majority of which are archaeological material recovered locally. There is a representative collection of hand tools and safety equipment from the Wanlockhead mines. A small number of objects relate to mines in Leadhills and other sites in Scotland. Water and air pumping equipment has also been recovered from the Wanlockhead mines, including a rag and chain pump. Approximately 10 objects relate to the extraction of gold from the local streams.

Smelting and Ore Preparation

This is a small collection of about 50 objects. It consists of largely excavated material recovered from excavations carried out in Wanlockhead by the Museum at the Pates Knowe smelt mill in 1974, the ore crushing plant at Meadowfoot in 1988, and the lead slimes treatment plant in 1989. There are several items from other lead mining and smelting sites in Scotland, including the ore stamp from Woodhead lead mine in Carsphairn.

Social History

This is a large collection of approximately 500 items including a wide variety of material relating to daily life, leisure, religious and educational activity largely associated with the collecting area. There are good collections of certain types of material e.g. curling stones, and society trophies and tokens. With such a wide variety of material covered in this collection, there will always be scope to improve it by further acquisitions.

Transport

There are about 100 items in this collection, which can be divided into two areas: material directly relating to transport and haulage in the lead mines, such as tramways, plate rails, small wagons, kibbles and stowes, and material relating to the Wanlockhead-Elvanfoot branchline of the railway. The majority of the material relating to the lead mines is archaeological material collected during underground research and excavation work. There is a good collection of the different rails and chairs used in the local mines, but there are gaps in material relating to other lead mining sites in Scotland.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

The museum collection is a varied social history that reflects and celebrates the culture of the county of Lincolnshire and its people from 1750 to the present day. Exhibits illustrate commercial, domestic, agricultural, industrial and community life. The story of the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment and Lincolnshire Yeomanry is explained and illustrated by a variety of methods.

The museum has a collection of tanks. It is thought that it housed one of the first tanks developed during the First World War by the local firm of William Foster & Co. of Lincoln. The tank was believed to be named “Flirt II”, a Mark IV Female; however during the filming of inside the tank for the museum’s new digital tour guides, a different serial number was discovered than the one that was expected. This led to the discovery that this tank was called “Daphne” and not “Flirt II”. They were two completely different tanks. Research has shown that she was issued to the 12th Company, D Battalion of the Tank Corps. She was mentioned in regimental diaries as having been involved in the attacks at Passchendaele in August 1917.

The museum also has exhibits featuring recreations of old shops, house interiors along with an extensive collection of early farm machinery, with examples of machines built by local companies, such as the Field Marshall tractor built in Gainsborough, by Marshall, Sons & Co.

Two early Ruston-Bucyrus excavators are on display in the yard, an RB4 of 1929 and an RB17 of 1937.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Museum of Lincolnshire Life”, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Source: Wikipedia

Date: 2025

Licence: CC-BY-SA

Arms and Armour

The Army Medical Services Museum collection comprises the four formerly discrete collections of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC), Royal Army Dental Corps (RADC) and the Royal Army Veterinary Corps (RAVC), which have been amalgamated under one new governing body. This includes flags, instruments, weapons, enemy items and transport items.

Medicine

200 professional items and equipment depicting the connection between the medical professions and the Army from the origins of the British Army following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 to the present.

Costume/textiles

400 items of uniforms.

Personalia

500 diaries and personal papers.

Medals

Over 5000 medals.

Archives

Over 4000 documents, books and pamphlets.

Photographic

1000 photographs, prints and paintings.

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Museum of North Craven Life was established by the volunteers of the Settle and District Civic Society following an exhibition of material loaned by local people that was mounted in 1977 in Twisleton’s Yard, Upper Settle, to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II. The museum’s purpose was to collect, preserve and make accessible artefacts, photographs and ephemera from North Craven that were in danger of being lost or destroyed. With a small number of exceptions, the collections have been acquired through donation or loan. Over time, the museum collections and exhibitions programme have greatly expanded to include most aspects of the social history, working life and built heritage of the area and, more recently, to reflect its natural environment. There has also been a limited programme of collecting oral histories and contemporary material. It was first awarded Accreditation in 2013. The museum continues to be volunteer led, but appointed its first permanent member of staff in 2020.

When the Civic Society was reconstituted as the North Craven Building Preservation Trust and the North Craven Heritage Trust, the collections were passed to NCBPT, which had charitable objects enabling it to own property. However, the two organisations continue to work closely, with NCHT regularly publishing research from the collections in the North Craven Heritage Trust Journal. The museum’s first home was in Coneygar, a former 18^th century warehouse on Victoria Street, Settle, repaired with support from the Manpower Commission. It moved to larger premises at nos. 6/8 Chapel Street, acquired 1986-89; purchase of no. 4 Chapel Street in 1993 provided offices and visitor reception.

In 1997, NCBPT purchased the Central and South Ranges of The Folly, a Grade I listed gentleman’s residence on Victoria Street, Settle, built in 1679. The museum moved to The Folly in 2001, after renovation work was completed; it was officially opened by HRH The Prince of Wales. In 2010, The Folly’s North Range was acquired with grant funding, reuniting the whole building for the first time since the mid-18^th century. In 2019, the Chapel Street premises were sold and the collections moved to The Folly, where a former garage was re-equipped as a large object store.

The Trust is managing The Folly’s ongoing restoration, making the building publicly accessible as a tourist attraction welcoming around 40,000 visitors a year, housing the Museum and its award-winning Coffee House, as well as offices, stores and meeting rooms. With support from NLHF, ACE, AHF, Historic England and other agencies, in 2020 NCBPT began a further programme of renovation and repairs, provision of a new catering kitchen and offices, and extensive upgrades to fire and electrical safety and security systems. Work to overhaul roofs, drainage, insulation and plasterwork will be completed in 2024, supported by Arts Council England’s Museum Estate & Development (MEND) Fund.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2020

Licence: CC BY-NC

The primary aim of the Museum’s acquisition strategy is to collect a range of materials in order to promote a clear understanding of North Craven and its heritage by local people and visitors alike. This aim is pursued by adopting a consciously theme-based approach. The Museum collection of around 16,000 artefacts, photographs, archives and books includes items relating to the geographical area known as North Craven, comprising the parishes of Airton, Arncliffe, Austwick, Bentham, Burton-in-Lonsdale, Clapham, Giggleswick, Halton Gill, Hawkswick, Hellifield, Horton-in-Ribblesdale, Ingleton, Kirkby Malham, Langcliffe, Litton, Long Preston, Malham, Otterburn, Rathmell, Settle, Stainforth, Thornton-in-Lonsdale, Tosside and Wigglesworth. The collections relate mainly to the period from 1600 to the present, but include geological specimens and some mediaeval materials.

Existing collections fall within the following main categories:

Fine Art

Paintings, drawings, sketches, prints, sculpture, photographs and images depicting local topography, events and personalities or work by local artists or with a strong local provenance.

Decorative Arts

Furniture, furnishings and objets d’art are collected, if locally made or with strong local associations, or which are compatible with the decorative style of the Museum building.

Literary and Musical Heritage

Work by local writers and musicians, or with local provenance, including dialect writings, folk songs and recordings.

Built Heritage

Local building materials and features, plans, photographs, printed and documentary materials.

Local Community Life

Material relating to local government, law and order, education, welfare, amenities, local organisations, entertainment, sport, communications, currency, warfare and defence.

Domestic and Family Life

Material relating to all aspects of running the household, domestic records, house structure and infrastructure, heating, lighting, water and sanitation, cleaning and maintenance, food and drink, hobbies, crafts, pastimes, customs and traditions.

Personal Life

Material relating to personal administration and records, diaries, oral reminiscences, relics and memorials, toilet, tobacco, health and child rearing.

Working Life

Material relating to local trades and professions, agriculture and farming, mineral industries, textile industries, services, transport and tourism.

The common thread linking all items in the collection is their close connection to the area and their ability to promote a better understanding of this distinctive region and its heritage to all. This aim is furthered by adopting a theme-based approach to collecting by acquiring material which complements other items in the collection.

The collection ranges in importance from local to international significance. Some of the most important items are:

• a collection of material relating to the Burton-in-Lonsdale pottery industry, including some 100 examples of Burton pottery dating from the late 18th to the mid-20th centuries, together with complementary photographic, documentary and oral history material, tools and clay samples.
• the entire archive of Settle’s Zion Independent Chapel spanning a period of 200 years; consisting of around 1,000 artefacts, documents, photographs and ephemera, it provides a superb record of the social, religious and working life of the town through a time of great change
• a family archive of around 1,000 artefacts, documents, photographs and diaries spanning a period of 100 years which both complements and enhances the Zion collection
• copies of original letters from Elgar to his great friend and Settle doctor, Charles Buck, together with musical scores and photographs and evidence of how these were discovered and recorded
• examples of local building materials and features, together with a comprehensive collection of photographs illustrating the uses of each
• comprehensive collection of early 20th century medical artefacts from local doctors, illustrating the changing nature of general practice and the reasons behind it
• comprehensive collection of blacksmiths’ tools and locally made objects, together with supporting documentation in the form of account books dating from the 19^th century
• the Horner Photographic Studio Collection, comprising around 2000 glass plate negatives, film negatives, prints and equipment from the studio in Settle run by three members of the Horner family between 1864 and 1960.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2020

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Museum of Oxford focuses solely on the history and culture of the City of Oxford, with a focus on the people of the city who are residents rather than the University of Oxford. Such themes included within the displays include football, women’s rights, policing, entertainment, engineering, social history, Jewish and Christian history, archaeology, and British military history. In recent years there has been a shift towards creating more displays featuring Black British history and LGBTIQA+ history. In 2021 following the refurbishments the Museum of Oxford had unveiled a temporary Windrush display celebrating the history of Caribbean people in Oxford since the 1950s. Some of the museum’s most notable items and exhibits include:

• Oliver Cromwell’s death mask Artefacts from Oxford’s Jewish quarter
• Oxford’s city crest, gifted by Elizabeth I
• A chunk of the infamous Cutteslowe Wall
• Cold War artefacts for measuring nuclear fallout
• Tickets from The Rolling Stones concert in Oxford
• A copy of Pink Newspaper, Oxford’s first LGBT newspaper
• Personal possessions of Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
• Personal possessions of Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
• A tin of Frank Coopers Marmalade which was taken on Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated journey to the South Pole

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Museum of Oxford”, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Source: Wikipedia

Date: 2025

Licence: CC-BY-SA

The collections of the Museum of Policing in Cheshire (MOPIC) are based on a collection of objects formerly housed at the Force Training centre (FTC) at Crewe and objects from Warrington Police Station.

The collection at Crewe had been partly catalogued on card index and then abandoned in the 1970s. In 1984 the museum was relaunched and cataloguing began again in book form, numerous objects were sent to the County Records office at Chester on loan and are still there. In early 1990 the collection was abandoned again and stored in a store room at Crewe FTC.

When the training centre was due to close in 2004 the collection was to be disposed of but interim storage was found at Warrington from where a new digital cataloguing system was started in a dedicated database aligning both of the old systems and attempting to find all of the artefacts, some of which had gone missing.

All objects and photographs are now recorded on the collections database along with their current location.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2024

Licence: CC BY-NC

The current collections break down into three main areas:

Objects

These range in size from small individual items such as whistles and buttons, through uniforms to larger pieces such as a historic hand ambulance. Object categories of note include the following:

• Medals – commemorative and otherwise
• Costume – a wide range of Police uniforms and clothing
• Silver and glass – mainly trophies for Police sporting and other events
• Furniture – acquired from former police stations and courts
• Clocks and watches – two cased clocks and one watch
• Equipment – Relating to operational policing activities.
• Crime exhibits – Relating to items used in the course of crime such as weapons, drugs and counterfeit notes.

Documentary archives

This comprises official records such as the Chief Constable’s Statistical Returns and personnel records of former officers, semi-official records such as newspaper cuttings, officer’s memoirs, printed and handwritten ephemera relating to police matters and crime files.

Photographic archives

This comprises monochrome and colour photographs, held in the form of plastic and glass negatives, positive paper prints and positive transparencies, both in plastic and older glass forms, as well as small amounts of videotape material. Some film reels were held, which have now been transferred to the North West film archives at Manchester and the North East film archives in Yorkshire.

The museum will strive to maintain integrated collections of these components.

Categories

The MOPIC collections can be subdivided into the following categories:

• Pre 1929 Policing – documents, objects and images
• General  Police material (post 1829) – documents, objects and images relating to the Regular Police, Special Constabulary, Non Home Office Forces, Support (Civilian) Staff, Police Cadets, Volunteers, Temporary Staff and any law enforcement organisation concerned with Old Cheshire.
• Crime – documents, objects and images relating to high profile criminal investigations, volume crime, criminals, courts, prisons and punishment.
• Specialist Police Departments – documents, objects and images relating to specialist departments such as mounted police and dog sections, Firearms officers and underwater search unit as examples.
• Transport – documents, objects and images relating to road, rail and air transport involving the police i.e. crash investigations, road safety campaigns etc.
• War – documents, objects and images relating to police involvement in both World Wars, Cold War, auxiliary wartime police organisations, the police organised civil defence structure.
• Welfare – documents, objects and images relating to the organisations set up for police welfare, such as the Police Federation and various Assurance groups.
• Buildings – documents, objects and images relating to buildings used by police service.
• Non-Police – i.e. documents, objects and images relating to objects not generated by the police but tangentially affecting the police e.g. Royal Visits and Home Office documents and more recently the Constabularies response and dealing with the Covid epidemic.

The MOPIC collections cover the following period of time and geographical areas:

• The Museum collects material relating to the history and development of the police service in the geographical area known as Old Cheshire and the Borough Forces which are now or have been part of Cheshire. The term “police service” encompasses not only the professional police forces created in the aftermath of the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829 but also ancient forms of law enforcement stemming from the mediaeval period. The earliest material held in the collections dates from the mid eighteenth century.
• The Museum also collects uniforms, insignia and secondary published material for other UK mainland police forces and for other police forces worldwide to serve as a comparison to the MOPIC collection.

Addendum:

Objects

We now hold in excess of 250 items that relate to the operational policing of football matches by UK police. These items represent both visiting forces from across the globe to countries UK police have visited, together with background information where available.

Equipment

This now includes a fully liveried police car and motorcycle.

Crime Exhibits

We are in negotiation with Cheshire police to enable access to archived crime materials to support future exhibits. This has been enabled due to the adoption of the latest Modes museum management software and its adoption onto the servers for Cheshire police providing world class encryption and security.

Photographic archives

This now includes digital images that are transferred to us from the force press office and officers attending high profile events, we also hold a large number of 35mm negatives.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2024

Licence: CC BY-NC

The museum’s permanent displays, from medieval times to the present day, relate to the history of Richmond, Kew, Petersham and Ham which, until local government boundary changes in 1965, formed the Municipal Borough of Richmond (Surrey). Its temporary exhibitions, education activities and resources, and a programme of events (including events for families and children) cover the whole of the modern borough. The museum’s highlights include: 16th-century glass from Richmond Palace; a model of Richmond Palace; and a painting, The Terrace and View from Richmond Hill, Surrey by Dutch draughtsman and painter Leonard Knyff (1650–1722), which is part of the Richmond upon Thames Borough Art Collection.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Museum of Richmond”, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Source: Wikipedia

Date: 2025

Licence: CC-BY-SA

Hunterian Collection

In 1799 the government purchased the collection of the surgeon and anatomist John Hunter FRS (1728-1793) and placed it in the care of the Company (later the Royal College) of Surgeons. There were originally over 15,000 specimens of human and animal anatomy and pathology and natural history. Many were lost when the College was bombed in 1941, but over 3,500 specimens remain, covering the most important part of the collection. 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 the collection is the skeleton of Charles Byrne, the ‘Irish Giant’. The collection also includes a small number of surgical instruments, personal items and furniture, as well as paintings by William Hodges, George Stubbs and Benjamin West. There are items purchased by Hunter, such as a collection of 200 microscope slides prepared by William Hewson in the 1780s, and Hunter’s published works, surviving manuscripts and casebooks are held in the College Library. The Hunterian Collection is a Designated Collection.

Subjects

Anatomy; Surgery; People (medical); Medicine

College Museum

The College’s Museum Collection contains about 3,600 specimens and objects 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. A few items pre-date 1799, including a set of four anatomical tables prepared for the diarist John Evelyn in Padua in 1646. There are a number of specimens from the collections of significant surgeons, scientists and antiquarians, including material acquired from Sir Hans Sloane, Astley Cooper, John Heaviside and William Blizard. Amongst the artefacts in the collection are wax anatomical models prepared by Joseph Towne in the 19th century and corrosion casts made by David Tompsett in the 1950s. The Museum continues to acquire examples of anatomical and pathological preparations that are of historic significance.

Subjects

Anatomy; Surgery; People (medical); Medicine

Fine Art Collection

The College’s fine art collection includes 681 visual works, of which 487 are portrait paintings, drawings or busts (see separate collection record for more details). Aside from portraits, the collection includes important 18th and early 19th-century animal paintings by artists such as George Stubbs, Jan van Rymsdyk, John William Lewin and Jacques-Laurent Agasse. Other themes represented in the collection are anatomical and pathological drawings and watercolours, including a series by Anna Zinkeisen; paintings and drawings of surgical operations, including paintings by Henry Tonks, Barbara Hepworth and Roy Calne; topographical and architectural views of the College and other medical institutions; and original watercolours by Thomas Rowlandson.

The College holds about 480 portrait paintings, drawings and busts; and approximately 2,600 portrait prints. The majority show figures associated with surgery, the medical profession or associated with the College as supporters or benefactors. The earliest work in the collection is a version of Hans Holbein the younger’s group portrait of Henry VIII presenting the charter to the Company of Barber Surgeons in 1540: this is an overpainted version of the cartoon made for the finished painting, which is still in the collection of the Barber’s Company. Other early works include a 1620 portrait of the oculist Richard Banister, attributed to Cornelius Jannsen; John Closterman’s portrait of William Cowper (1666-1709) and unsigned portraits of the lithotomists Jacques Baulot (1651-1714) and Thomas Hollier (1609-1690). Among the 18th-century works in the collection are portraits by William Hogarth, Joshua Reynolds, Martin Shee, George Dance, George Romney, Ozias Humphrey, Robert Homes, Philip Reinagle, William Hodges, John Hamilton Mortimer, David Allan, Robert Edge Pine, Godfrey Kneller, Jonathan Richardson and Thomas Bardwell. From the 19th century the collection includes portraits by Thomas Lawrence, John Jackson, Henry Pickersgill and Henry Jamyn Brooks. 20th-century works include an important series of pastel portraits of soldiers with facial injuries, made by Henry Tonks during the First World War. Other recent works include portraits of the Presidents and Council of the College, by artists including Terence Cuneo, June Mendoza, Boyd and Evans, Keith Breeden and Andrew Festing. Sculpture portraits include Henry Weekes’s statue of John Hunter; Alfred Gilbert’s monument to Edward and Eliza Macloghlin, and busts by Louis Francois Roubiliac, John Flaxman, Francis Chantrey, Peter Tunerelli, Thomas Woolner, George Halse, Thomas Brock, William Behnes and Jacob Epstein. The collection also includes a small number of early daguerreotype portraits, including several by Jabez Hogg (1817-1899). Portraits of surgeons and other medical practitioners.; Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons.

Subjects

People (medical); Portraits; Scientific illustrations

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 and other items of medical equipment. About 3,200 items are on loan to the Science Museum. There are instrument sets dating back to the 17th century, as well as a large number of instruments from the 19th and early 20th 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. This is collection is not actively being developed though appropriate material will be acquired when offered; the Museum has an agreement with the Science Museum and does not collect modern surgical instruments.

Subjects

Surgery; People (medical); Medicine; Science and technology

Odontological Collection

Over 10,000 specimens relating to human and comparative dental anatomy and pathology, including about 3,500 preparations of human material, such as jaws, casts and 261 skulls, 200 dentures and 300 dental instruments. It is particularly famous for its unique collection of specimens illustrating various aspects of non-human dental pathology, which is made up of 2,000 animal skulls and is unrivalled anywhere in the world. In addition, it contains 4,000 normal animal skulls. The collection contains important anatomical preparations donated by some of the founding figures of British dentistry in the mid-19th century, as well as examples of pathological conditions, such as phossy jaw, a bone necrosis common among Victorian match-makers. It 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. Amongst many other items of interest are teeth retrieved from the battlefield of Waterloo; a necklace of human teeth brought from the Congo by the explorer Henry Morton Stanley; and a denture worn by Sir Winston Churchill. The most notable human material acquired since the Second World War is an extensive collection of skulls from Breedon-on-the Hill, an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Leicestershire. They have been used to establish criteria for the ageing of human remains on the basis of tooth wear.

Subjects

Dentistry; Anatomy; Surgery; People (medical)

Microscope Slide Collection

The collection comprises about 30,000 slides. As well as the slides prepared by the anatomist William Hewson which are in the Hunterian Collection, there are extensive series of preparations from the early 19th century including approximately 11,000 slides prepared by John Quekett in the 1830s and ’40s. The collection also includes a collection of primate skeletal and wet-tissue specimens collected by William Charles Osman-Hill and numerous slides made from Hunterian and later specimens which are no longer extant This is a closed collection; further material of this kind is not being collected.

Subjects

Anatomy; Surgery; People (medical)

Quekett Collection

Approximately 11,000 microscope slides collected or prepared in the 1840s and ’50s by John Thomas Quekett.

Subjects

Anatomy; Surgery; People (medical)Science and technology

Ancient Egyptian Collection

The museum holds approximately 27 ancient Egyptian objects. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: amulets; canopic jars; faience figures; metal figures; human remains (including mummies); shabtis; textiles/leather. Of special interest is an artificially deformed skull, donated by the Egyptologist Douglas Derry, 1923. It is thought to have been excavated in a Coptic cemetery near El Fashn and to date from about the 5th century AD. The museum also possesses a cast of a circumcision scene from the Tomb of Ankhmahor, Saqqarah; a series of eight watercolour sketches of Egyptian mummies by Willian Home Clift; letters relating to material in, or formerly part of, the collections of the Royal College of Surgeons. Objects are known to have come from the following locations in Egypt (with the name of the excavator/sponsor and year of excavation given where possible): El Amrah; Beni Hasan; Deir el-Bahari (Reisner); El Fashn; Thebes.

Subjects

Antiquities; Ancient civilizations; Antiquity; Archaeological sites; Archaeological objects; Egyptology; Archaeological excavations

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC