Surgeons' Hall Museums

Surgeons' Hall Museums are run by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh on Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, Scotland, and are described as the oldest medical museum in the country. The collections began in the 1699 as teaching specimens of the Incorporation of Surgeons, and the museum has been open to visitors in various forms since the 19th century. The building itself is a Greek Revival structure designed by William Henry Playfair and completed in 1832, with a portico of large Ionic columns. Inside, the Pathology Museum holds thousands of preserved anatomical specimens, wax models and diseased organs used to teach generations of surgeons. The History of Surgery Museum traces the profession from barber-surgeons through the Edinburgh medical school's pioneering role to modern operating techniques, with instruments, anaesthesia-era equipment and displays on Joseph Lister's antiseptic methods. The Dental Collection and the Wohl Pathology Museum are other highlights. A section on the Burke and Hare murders of 1828 displays a pocketbook bound in the skin of William Burke, along with the death mask of the convicted murderer, showing the link between grave-robbing and anatomy teaching. The museum uses a thematic approach, with galleries organised by subject rather than strictly by date, and the displays include graphic specimens that may be unsuitable for some visitors. The Royal College maintains the collection in a conserved Georgian building, and recent redevelopment improved the galleries and storage. Audio guides and information panels in English are available, and the museum is a short walk from the National Museum of Scotland and Old College.