Surgeons' Hall Museum
Surgeons' Hall Museum
Surgeons' Hall Museum is the major medical museum in Scotland, and one of Edinburgh's many tourist attractions. The museum is recognised as a collection of national significance by the Scottish Government.
Dating from 1699, the Surgeons' Hall Museum, and the library and archive of the RCSED. The present Surgeons' Hall was designed by William Henry Playfair and completed in 1832, and is a Category A listed building.
The museum collections are laid out as four permanent displays:
Surgeons' Hall Pathology Museum
Located in the Playfair Hall, this consists of pathology specimens, surgical instruments, casts and paintings.
History of Surgery Museum
This display traces the history of surgery, from the 16th century to the present day, with particular reference to Edinburgh’s contribution. There are display cabinets devoted to Robert Know, Joseph Lister and James Young Simpson.
History of Surgery Museum
This gallery contains a laparoscopic training unit, where visitors can test their surgical skills. There is a section on sports and exercise medicine and the gallery also houses temporary exhibitions.
Dental Collection
The original Menzies Campbell collection has been expanded and includes dental instruments, artefacts, engravings and models as well as prints, paintings with dental themes.
Today the museum, like most similar organisations, no longer collects anatomical or pathological specimens or indeed any specimens of human tissue. The emphasis now is on explaining to the general public surgical disease, how it was treated over the centuries and how it is treated today. Aids to interpretation now include videos, hands-on surgical simulators and touch screen displays.
Upgrading 2014-2015
In June 2014 the Museum temporarily closed for a major upgrade costing £4.2 million, funded by the Heritage Lottery Redevelopment Fund. This will provide lift access to the museum and improved and updated displays. There will be a link to the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh which will be rehoused in the adjacent building. It will reopen in Summer 2015.
The Burke and Hare connection
Robert Knox, the conservator of the Museum who organised and catalogued the Bell and Barclay collections, had established himself as a very successful teacher of anatomy in the extramural school in Surgeon Square. His anatomy classes were so popular that demand for bodies for anatomical dissection exceeded supply.
Two Irishmen living in Edinburgh, William Burke and William Hare, resorted to murdering victims to supply Knox’s anatomy school. Hare turned King’s evidence and Burke was tried, found guilty of murder and hanged. His body was dissected by Dr Alexander Monro, the University professor of anatomy, and the museum has on display two items from that notorious episode – Burke’s death mask and a pocket book made from his skin.
The Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes & Joseph Bell connection
Joseph Bell was an Edinburgh surgeon who was president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh between 1887 and 1889. He was a popular teacher noted for his diagnostic acumen, based on his powers of observation of meticulous detail, which were enhanced by his interest in the analysis of handwriting and of the origin of dialects.
Among the medical students he taught was Arthur Conan Doyle, whom Bell selected as his clerk, or assistant. Doyle, gave up medicine to become a writer, and, having achieved fame and wealth through the Sherlock Holmes stories, wrote to his former chief ”...it is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes.”
Education
The museum appointed its first full-time education officer in 2006 and since that time has provided regular educational tours and workshops for school students.
The events and outreach program will continue in 2015, during the museum's closed period.
You can visit the outreach exhibition at Kirkcaldy Galleries until the 31st March 2015.