In this video, Jessica the Museum Guide (that’s me!) takes you on a guided museum tour of the newly reopened Hunterian Museum in London.
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VIDEO SUMMARY
After being closed for a massive overhaul and reimagining for more than five years, the Hunterian Museum is back open and welcoming guests into its grisly collection. This is often cited as the most disturbing museum in London, for good reason – it is home to thousands of specimens from humans and animals, most of which started out in the private collection of 18th-century surgeon Dr John Hunter.
This London museum tour covers the highlights of the museum, as well as its history and its most famous controversy, surrounding the skeleton of “Irish Giant” Charles Byrne.
0:00 – Introduction to the Tour
2:53 – Room 1 Display Case
4:36 – Egyptian and Roman Medical Objects
5:16 – The Evelyn Tables
6:12 – 18th-century surgery
8:43 – Room 2 Display Case
9:57 – Dr Hunter’s Life and the History of the Museum
13:12 – The Long Gallery of Wet Specimens
15:04 – Charles Byrne, the Irish Giant and Museum Ethics
19:10 – John Hunter at Earl’s Court
20:43 – Hunter’s School at Leicester Square
23:26 – Alcohol and Syphilis in John Hunter’s London
26:26 – New Frontiers in Medicine and Joseph Towne’s Medical Waxes
27:59 – Phossy Jaw and the Matchstick Girls
29:48 – Harold Gillies and Medical Advancements 1914 – 2023
31:04 – Transforming Lives and Jennifer’s Heart
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28 Comments
Want to watch another spooky video? Check out The Most Macabre Objects in London's Churches – An In-Depth Guided Tour
https://youtu.be/cVkfRqN4Qs0
You gave ample warning, but I still ate lunch watching this. I love that you point out that museums are not neutral spaces and require critical thinking. I think given that Byrne really vehemently wanted to no longer be under the scrutiny of people is the main reason he should be buried at sea. Unfortunately, with a lot of the other remains, we cannot possibly know their wishes and can only speculate. However, he was extremely clear and was betrayed anyway. I don't think there's actually a lot of scientific knowledge to be gained from his skeleton, the museum might just be keeping him until some of the public outrage has died out. I bet he is still gawked at by private donors to the museum, just behind closed doors, still exploited by the wealthy.
Another gem by The Museum Guide! Thank you for sharing this with us.
As always, that was just a fabulous tour, Ms. Jessica! What an incredible collection that is. I was particularly 'struck' by all the pickled penises and testicles and epididymis' filled with mercury! Yes, Hunter was obviously very interested in the reproductive process. Thank you for this wonderful tour, and I am always looking so forward to more from you. Take care and all the best!
This was the BEST upload yet! Thank you so much! 💕
Visited the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia a few years ago. Much like this. I’m not particularly squeamish but it just overwhelmed me and I had to leave half way through 😢
I find the keeping of animal remains far, far more offensive & repugnant than the human ones. In the case of human criminals, I see nothing wrong with displaying their corpses – they forewent their right to dignity after death when they trespassed on the legal rights of others whilst alive.
I was hoping for more viewing of the human bits & pieces in this video, & much, much less of all the poor animals who certainly never gave their consent to either being experimented upon by that barbaric, sub-human, inhumane Hunter, or to being displayed for humans to gawk at after their deaths. What turned my stomach was certainly not any old bits & pieces of humans, but that horrible description of Hunter implanting a human tooth into a poor, innocent, rooster’s comb! OMG! The hideous, loathesome things that these maniacs do & call it “Science”!
Could you try and include basic accessibility information if possible? I love things like this but often they aren't accessible for folk who are disabled. Great video. Thank you. 😊
That was absolutely fantastic for some like me who could not walk around a vast building like that or even get there. I felt I was right there with you. Just amazing work lassy❤❤❤❤
Hi Jessica, I just bumped into your videos today and have watched three so far and here is my thoughts first you have really pretty eyes second, I love the way you not only show the objects but also give the backstory for each one third, in answer to your questions about further videos I give a resounding yes. I don't get out much and have always loved museums and you can get to ones that I can only dream of so I guess that I'm a fan.
A while back, I asked a former mortician friend of mine, what fears him the most about death.
He replied, nothing the dead cannot hurt you. But the living can.
Byrne was really explicit in his desire not to be anatomised after his death or put on public display, so the case for removing his remains from the public section of the museum was pretty much indisputable. However, I do think that some of the people who get offended by public displays of human remains are projecting their own fears and insecurities onto others. There's no way of knowing what the feelings of most of the people whose body parts ended up in museums would have been. There's a certain amount of arrogance inherent in people who assume that because the idea fills them with horror personally, others who lived in entirely different cultures and circumstances must have felt the same.
Charles Byrne's contemporary, the philosopher Jeremy Bentham famously chose to be mummified and put on public display after he died as an example to others because he thought that more regular exposure to the realities of death would help the living come to terms with its inevitability and encourage us to make the most of our lives. I understand that there are probably currently more people that tend towards Byrne's views than Bentham's, but it's still wrong to assume to speak on behalf of people who no longer have a voice of their own. Those who express a desire for a blanket ban on the public display of human remains are in their own way actually being incredibly disrespectful to the dead.
Great tour, as always.
A little like the Gunter Von Hagens sculptures?
My thanks for this wonderful video. I will never be able to visit. This is as close as I get to it.
I think that if they are going to remove items with “human tissues”, wouldn’t it make sense to make copies and label them as such?
I've always found stuff like this fascinating { my Mom being a nurse might have had something to do with that } , so I really liked this video. It's also important to remember, it may be off-putting to some: but if doctors and academics and natural philosophers didn't preserve, collect, and study specimens like this, we wouldn't have a lot of the knowledge of physiology and medicine that we do today.
Good gawd, let bodies rest.
Well hello. Where has this channel been. Since I’ve only seem this episode all you content is totally new. I have lots to catch up on
Personally, I feel, that if they want to keep the 'entire' Hunterian collection together, they should display John Hunter's remains- especially if they refuse to release Charles Byrne's remains. It's only fair, after all.
This reminded Ndebele of the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.
Was John a doctor? I understand that his contribution to surgery was particularly useful in spite of not having formal training. I believe he was the person who promulgated the idea that if this person is going to die anyway, let's try the treatment/operation, it may work and a lot did. His brother was a doctor, but note on his statue he is called plain John Hunter.
How about we stop pretending knowledge trumps ‘ethics’. Whose ethics? My ethics demands knowledge. Not what someone decides a dead person’s ‘feelings’ dictate
Really interesting video, thank you !
Very interesting. Not overly disturbing, am sure there are more graphic pieces you did not show us. The care Dr. Hunter portrayed was fascinating. Am guessing the wax model maker had real cadavers he used
i just randomly found your channel, i needed something in the background at first, then i had to stop and watch, …and this is like the 4th one ive watched now lol. youre doing a great job, keep up the good work.
The Jack the Ripper museum is a good one to cover!
Absolutely loving the content and giving me plenty of ideas for places to visit
It’s like the Mutter museum in Philadelphia!!
Those panel boards were incredible!
Surgery was pretty much butchery then!
You had a 50/50 chance of dying of the ailment or wound you had. You got well,or you didn’t. If it was a bullet wound,and if you had to have a limb amputated or keep it,was the same outcome. You were going to die anyway because there was no antibiotics to heal you.
No one wanted to go to the hospital if they were sick.
The Hospital was dirty,they didn’t know what germs were till the very late 1800s.