RT Journal Article
T1 Curating Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries
A1 Sarah Bond
A1 Katie Dabin
A1 Stewart Emmens
A1 Selina Hurley
A1 Natasha McEnroe
YR 2021
VO Special issue: Curating medicine
IS Autumn 2020
K1 curation
K1 History of Medicine
K1 medical humanities
K1 museum practice
K1 participation
K1 patients
K1 permanent galleries
K1 practitioners
K1 users
K1 visitor experience
AB The curators of Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries reflect on their experiences of creating these significant new displays at the Science Museum in London. After summarising the historical medical displays at this museum, they outline the curatorial concepts behind their respective new galleries to explore the display strategies and processes behind the development of the new exhibits and highlight the significance of some of the objects that visitors can encounter today.
NO https://londonist.com/london/science-museum-s-new-medicine-galleries
NO Announcement in the Bristol Medico-Chirurgical Journal 22.83 (1904), p 82 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5041827/?page=2
NO Mercer, A, 2014, ‘Object of the Month: 183 Euston Road (Present)’, Wellcome Collection Blog (blog), 27 March https://wellcomecollection.wordpress.com/2014/03/27/object-of-the-month-183-euston-road-present/
NO Research and development into the effectiveness of ‘gateway’ objects in large permanent galleries has been conducted by the British Museum. See https://blog.britishmuseum.org/a-question-of-interpretation/
NO Layouts and object lists were developed in consultation with colleagues in interpretation, conservation and audience research, with input from our designers (Wilkinson Eyre Architects), and access and advisory panels, overseen by individual lead curators and the Keeper of Medicine.
NO ‘Consultation’ involves inviting people to discuss a particular idea, topic or issue, or seeking expert advice. ‘Contribution’ is ‘asking for and receiving content from audiences’. The final two categories denote shared decision making. When referring to ‘collaboration’, the Museum establishes the concept and strategy and invites participants to help deliver these. ‘Co-creation’ refers to a ‘shared ownership of the concept between participants and the Museum’. The Museum provides participants with the ‘skills and tools to deliver an outcome, and staff work closely alongside them to support their activities’. (See Bunning, K et al, 2015, for a detailed discussion.)
NO Female frogs, when injected with urine, spontaneously ovulate in response to the presence of the so-called pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). See https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/05/how-a-frog-became-the-first-mainstream-pregnancy-test/525285/ for a fuller history.
NO These served two purposes: to represent diverse ‘bodies’ and draw out complex human experiences of illness and disability (acknowledging an absence of material culture in the collection that could effectively perform this role), and to allow space for reflection, recognising that medical encounters are far from always positive.
NO As in earlier generations of Science Museum medical galleries, this reflected a shift in medical and social history dating back forty years (see Porter, R, 1985).
NO The six individuals were selected by the project team working with charities or third parties to identify potential stories.
NO Object selection is often an issue of practicality. This was one of the few full-body, human scale objects the gallery could accommodate (the only others being operating tables and chairs). Many of the rejected candidates proved too large for the space or would have dominated at the expense of other stories.
NO With the support of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
NO As an example in response to audience feedback from Wounded, the participation projects featured in the Medicine galleries are each signalled by a label written by their respective participants, and include a group portrait.
NO See a reflection on the exhibition by curator Stewart Emmens in Issue 11 of this journal (Emmens, 2019). 
NO For a virtual walk around the now closed gallery, see: https://artsandculture.google.com/streetview/science-museum-level-4/wwHAkiSEwLyjtA?sv_lng=-0.1746026675325539&sv_lat=51.49758361922559&sv_h=153.31&sv_p=0&sv_pid=EKm59UIBWcAiyniVgMgb6Q&sv_z=1
NO AllofUs had previously developed responsive and interactive displays in the Science Museum’s Who Am I? and Atmosphere galleries.
NO See Roger Kneebone’s discussion of the power of surgical re-enactments in Issue 8 of this journal http://journal.sciencemuseum.org.uk/browse/issue-08/a-symposium-on-histories/roger-kneebone-recapturing-a-surgical-past/
NO https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/living-medical-traditions/
NO See the discussion by George Vasey in this issue on the challenges of creating Misbehaving Bodies, a Wellcome Trust exhibition about illness and dying.
NO The artworks in the Medicine galleries are discussed in detail and with the artists themselves in Katy Barrett’s article in this issue.
NO https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/primrose-pearl-and-period-pads-menstrual-products-in-the-collection/
NO Assistant Curator of Medicine, Imogen Clarke, shared her reflections with Museums Journal back in May: https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/opinion/2020/05/27052020-collecting-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/#
PB The Science Museum Group
SN 2054-5770
LA eng
DO 10.15180/201407
UL https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/curating-medicine/
WT Science Museum Group Journal
OL 30