William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum

Exhibition Website

Feb 14 2019 - May 20 2019

When the Royal Academy of Arts in London was founded in 1768, exactly 250 years ago, Dr. William Hunter (1718–1783) became its first professor of anatomy. Known as a leading physician and obstetrician to royalty, Hunter also amassed a cross-disciplinary collection of objects that ultimately coalesced into a Wunderkammer—a progenitor to the modern concept of the museum—illuminating the artistic, medical, and intellectual pursuits of his time.

Opening first at The Hunterian at the University of Glasgow, this exhibition will be the first opportunity in some 150 years to explicate fully Hunter’s contributions to the development of the modern museum as a public institution. He envisioned his collection to be used as a source of knowledge and instruction, and it encompassed outstanding paintings (including works by Rembrandt, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, and George Stubbs), works on paper, coins and medals, paleontology and mineralogy, anatomical and zoological specimens, first-contact ethnographic material, shells, insects, medieval manuscripts, and incunabula.

This exhibition will bring together the intellectual threads of a world in which notions of expertise, taxonomy, visibility, and preservation were only newly being applied to knowledge formed from the study of objects and the institutions designed to house them and make them accessible. 

Hunter’s collection was entwined with the darker aspects of the eighteenth century and reflects complex issues of empire, colonialism, and patriarchy. Challenging questions about these topics and the way they pervade the history of the modern museum, and continue to trouble much of the world today, will also be confronted here.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.

  • Various Media
  • International
  • History
  • Various artists

Exhibition Venues & Dates