The skullduggery and wonder at the Hunterian Museum.
By Fiona Musgrove with contributions from Eye Matter member Rikki.
On Thursday 12th March, Eye Matter led members to the newly refurbished Hunterian Museum, near Holborn, London. Rikki said, “We were greeted by the museum’s director Dawn Kemp, before we introduced ourselves. She described the two large sculptures in the entrance hallway. The first was of John Hunter and the second, was of the McCloughlin’s who donated a large amount of money to the college.” Their statue was designed by the sculptor Sir Alfred Gilbert (1801-1885) who also created The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, officially and popularly known as Eros in Piccadilly Circus.
The fountain surmounted by a winged statue of Anteros, at the south-east side of
An interesting fact emerged of an illicit affair between the artist and the wife and his creation of a secret compartment placed in her immortalized head where he intended to place his ashes. However, this never seemed to happen and only the couples ashes were interned within the sculpture looming over Eye Matter.
In 1799 the government purchased the collection of the Scottish surgeon John Hunter which they presented to the Royal Surgeons College. Originally compromising of over 14,000 specimens it was deemed inadequate by 1834. Three years later it was reopened, after expanding into the East and west wings of the college, with further extensions up until 1892. Sadly, in 1941, over 50% of the exhibits were lost due to the building receiving a direct hit from a German bomb and it took a further twenty years to restore the remaining specimens.
Moving into another room, “Dawn described the contents of a very large glass-covered cabinet to us in detail.” Sadly Rikki was feeling sore standing and sat out of earshot for the rest of this section of the tour.
Rikki said this about the tour, “This was Dawn Kemp’s first audio-described tour and we all agreed that she did excellently. She was willing and able to answer all of our questions throughout the tour.”
Rikki felt uncomfortable about, “Dawn made it clear to us that John Hunter made no attempt to seek the consent of those people whose body parts are on display in the museum.” Describing how Hunter had deceitfully obtained the body of the Irish Giant, Charles Byrne, despite the large man’s express wish to be buried at sea to avoid being part of the museum’s collection. His remains are still within the college Amongst other unknown human skulls, body parts and fetuses. However, his revolutionary research into the Irish Giant revealed a genetic connection to a small village in Northern Ireland whose folk law is entwined in the Giants Causeway.
About the object handling aspect. Rikki explained, “During the tour we were handed tactile images annotated with Braille and, apart from the image of the human nervous system, I found it difficult to gain an impression of the images, even with my excellent guide Sylvana’s help. However, the medallion depicting John Hunter’s facial profile, which we were handed later, was very clear.”
He added, “I would have welcomed more objects to handle, such as facsimiles of the exhibits, although I appreciate that some of the more delicate objects would be difficult to reproduce.”