Drawing of human ears and associated parts of the skull, from John Hunter's drawing books, before 1793.
Talks on Tape
Hunterian talks and lectures: Audio, Video and Transcripts
The Museums Department records selected lectures and events held at the Hunterian Museum and archives the recordings here for the public. See below for all recorded lectures to date.
Due to the nature of recordings made live at events, there may be issues of audibility and sound quality.
Copyright of individual images prevents us from providing the visual presentations that accompanied these talks.
Most recordings made after 2011 also have downloadable transcriptions provided by StageText.
2018
Talk by Wendy Moore
Tuesday 16 October 2018, 7pm.
Watch the Video (external link to YouTube)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by StageText. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
This event was jointly delivered by the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians for 'Hunter 300'
2017
Talk by Paul Craddock
Tuesday 25 April 2017, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Talk by Fiona Loud, Policy Director, Kidney Care UK
Tuesday 21 March 2017, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download .
Talk by Dr Kristin Hussey
Recorded Tuesday 28 February 2017, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Talk by Sir Terence English FRCS
Tuesday 6 December 2016, 1pm
(Regrettably due to a technical fault there is no recording available of this lecture.)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
2016
Talk by Professor Peter Abrahams
Tuesday 8 November 2016, 1pm
(At the request of the speaker this talk was not recorded.)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Talk by Susan Snell, Archivist & Records Manager, Museum of Freemasonry
Tuesday 18 October 2016, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Talk by Professor Gareth Williams
6 September 2016, 1pm
(Regrettably due to a technical fault there is no recording available of this lecture.)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Talk by Peter Basham and Beth Wilkey,
Tuesday 7 June 2016, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Talk by Professor Gareth Edwards
Tuesday 17 May 2016, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Talk by Alison Duke, Curator, the Foundling Museum
Tuesday 5 April 2016, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Lecture by Jack Ashby
Tuesday 1 March 2016, 1pm
(Regrettably due to technical issues there is no recording of this lecture.)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Talk by Professor Peter Abrahams
Tuesday 16 February 2016, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Saturday 30 January 2016
A programme for the day and the speaker abstracts and biographies are available to download.
Session 1 - Listen to recording
Session 2 - Listen to recording
Session 3 - Listen to recording
2015
Lecture by Dr Sam Alberti
Tuesday 24 November 2015, 1pm
(Regrettably due to technical issues there is no recording of this lecture.)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Talk by Caroline Smith
Tuesday 6 October 2015, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Talk by Elle Larsson
Tuesday 8 September 2015, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Talk by Philip Greaves
Tuesday 11 August 2015, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Lecture by Mr Michael Crumplin FRCS
Tuesday 16 June 2015, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Lecture by Dr Fiona Haslam
Tuesday 5 May 2015, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Lecture by Professor Harold Ellis FRCS
Tuesday 12 April 2015, 1pm
(Regrettably due to technical issues there is no recording of this lecture.)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Lecture by Dr Paul Watkins MRCVS
Tuesday 17 March 2015, 1pm
(Regrettably due to technical issues there is no recording of this lecture.)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Lecture by Dr Emily Mayhew and Squadron Leader Edward Spurrier RAF
Tuesday 10 February 2015, 1pm
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
2014
Conference: 250 years of military medicine and innovation
14-15 November 2014
A timetable for the day and the speaker abstracts and biographies are available to download.
Day 1: Session 1 - Listen to recording
Day 1: Session 2 - Listen to recording
Day 1: Session 3 - Listen to recording
Day 2: Session 1 - Listen to recording
Day 2: Session 2 - Listen to recording
Day 2: Session 3 - Listen to recording
Recorded Tuesday 4 November, 1pm
Lecture by Dr Heidi Doughty and Dr Emma Hutley
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Event in association with the Royal College of Pathologists
Recorded Tuesday 28 October 2018, 1pm
Lecture by Julia Midgley
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Recorded Tuesday 16 September, 1pm
Lecture by Professor Vivian Nutton
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Recorded Tuesday 13 May, 1pm
Lecture by Dean Powell
(Regrettably due to technical issues there is no recording of this lecture.)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Recorded Tuesday 1 April, 1pm
Lecture by Professor Joe Cain, University College London
(Regrettably due to technical issues there is no recording of this lecture.)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Recorded Tuesday 4 March, 1pm
Lecture by Professor Harold Ellis
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Recorded Tuesday 4 February, 1pm
Lecture by Dr Deborah Sage, specialist in histocompatability
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
This event was held in association with the Royal College of Pathologists.
2013
Tuesday 22 October 2013, 1pm
Lecture by Kevin Brown, Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum
(Regrettably due to technical issues there is no recording of this lecture.)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Recorded Tuesday 24 September, 1pm.
Lecture by Ross MacFarlane, Wellcome Library
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Recorded Tuesday 6 August, 1pm
Lecture by Briony Hudson, Medical Historian
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Recorded Tuesday 23 July, 1pm
Lecture by Professor Christopher Dean, University College London
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Lecture by Simon Chaplin, Director of the Wellcome Library
(Regrettably due to technical issues there is no recording of this lecture.)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Recorded Tuesday 23 April, 1pm
Lecture by Stephen Astley, Curator, Sir John Soane's Museum
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download
Tuesday 12 February 2013, 1pm
Lecture by Vishy Mahadevan, Barbers' Company Professor of Anatomy
(Regrettably due to technical issues there is no recording of this lecture.)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
2012
Recorded Wednesday 19 September 2012, 7pm
Panel: Prof. Nicola Maffulli, Prof. Alison McGregor, Prof. Sanjay Sharma.
(Regrettably due to technical issues the early part of this recording is missing.)
Recorded Tuesday 19 June 2012, 1pm
Lecture by Vanessa Heggie
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Recorded Tuesday 24 April 2012, 1pm
Lecture by Professor Sir Roddy MacSween
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
A multidisciplinary, multidimensional conference
Thursday 22-Saturday 24 March 2012
Recorded at the Royal College of Surgeons: Friday 23 March 2012, 9.15am-5.15pm
A complete programme for the two-day conference is available to download.
Parallel session A: Surgical & obstetric antisepsis
(No recording available)
Parallel session B: Modernities
Parallel session B: Surgical & obstetric antisepsis
Parallel session A: Lister, bacteria, artefacts
Recorded Tuesday 6 March 2012, 1pm
Lecture by Sir Barry Jackson FRCS
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Recorded Tuesday 21 February 2012, 1pm
Lecture by Professor Harold Ellis, Guy's Hospital
Regrettably due to technical issues the early part of this recording is missing.
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
2011
Delivered Wednesday 23 November 2011, 1pm
Lecture by Professor Márta Korbonits and Brendan Holland.
(This event was not recorded)
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Event generously supported by the Physiological Society
Tuesday 18 October, 7pm
Discussion Panel:
Ju Gosling, artist; Jocelyn Dodd and Professor Richard Sandell, University of Leicester; Professor Gus McGrouther, plastic and reconstructive surgeon; Dr Ruth Richardson, Medical Historian.
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Recorded Saturday 8 October, 1pm
In conversation with artist Ju Gosling (aka ju90) and Museum Director Dr. Sam Alberti
This lecture was supported by Speech-to-text delivered by STAGETEXT. A full transcript of the talk is available to download.
Recorded Saturday 21 May 2011, 10.30am-5pm
- The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Medical Museum
Dr Samuel Alberti (Royal College of Surgeons)
- London’s Lost Anatomy Shows
Dr Alan Bates (University College London)
- The Phantom Museum: Sir Henry Wellcome and his collection
Dr Frances Larson (Durham University)
- Lost in the Urban Jungle: Menageries and museums in Georgian London
Dr Chris Plumb (University of Manchester)
- “Useful and curious”? Making meaning of the Kew Museums of Economic Botany
Caroline Cornish (Royal Holloway)
- Ruskin at Walkley: Reconstructing the St George's Museum
Dr Marcus Waithe (University of Cambridge)
- Cottingham's Museum of Medieval Art
Dr Tim Knox (Sir John Soane’s Museum)
Video recorded Thursday 12 May 2011, 7pm
Panel: Richard Hollingham (Chair), Katherine Araniello, Aaron Williamson, Brian Hurwitz and Sam Alberti
Following the performance event 'Labyrinth of Living Exhibits' in the museum. Artists Aaron Williamson and Katherine Araniello joined a panel discussion with Sam Alberti, Director of the Hunterian. The panel, chaired by the BBC's science correspondent Richard Hollingham, discussed the historical representation of disability and contemporary approaches taken by the medical community. It also focused on how today's medical training views and engages with disabled people.
Event jointly created and curated by The Arts Catalyst and Shape Arts, and held in partnership with Hunterian Museum, London.
Funded by a Wellcome Trust People Award.
Watch recording (external YouTube link)
Recorded Tuesday 26 April 2011, 1pm
Lecture by Dr Elizabeth T. Hurren, Oxford Brookes University
Recorded Tuesday 8 March 2011, 1pm
Lecture by Dr Samuel Alberti, Royal College of Surgeons
2010
Recorded Tuesday 2 November 2010, 1pm
Lecture by Michael Crumplin FRCS
George Guthrie was a polymath and also a robust and extremely talented military surgeon, successfully treating many thousands of wounded and sick soldiers during the Peninsula war (1808-1814).
Recorded Tuesday 19 October 2010, 1pm
Lecture by Kirsty Chilton
The story of the life of bodysnatcher and diarist Joseph Naples and the circumstances which made it necessary to rob graves for the progression of medical science.
(Regrettably due to technical issues the early part of this recording is missing.)
Video recorded Tuesday 5 October 2010
Event chair: BBC Science Correspondent, Richard Hollingham,
Panel: Matthew Gardiner, Siobhan McKay and Joseph Shalhoub
Find out what the future holds for patients undergoing surgery in the next decade. Three experts in their field present the cutting edge research that they are doing to solve some of the most common health issues that will affect us as we age: stroke, cancer and osteoarthritis.
Watch video (external YouTube link)
Recorded Tuesday 8 June 2010, 1pm
Lecture by: Susanna Edwards
Artist Susanna Edwards discusses her influences and the research behind her current exhibition ‘Curious: the craft of microscopy’ that combines contemporary photography with historical slides and microscopes.
Recorded 12 May 2010, 1pm
Lecture by: Kevin Brown
Today, Alexander Fleming is famous for the discovery of penicillin. But Kevin Brown, curator of the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum, exposes the professional rivalries that threatened the career of one of the greatest medical microbiologists of all time.
Recorded 11 May 2010, 1pm
Lecture by: Professor Sir Peter Morris AC FRS FRCS
In the last 40 years microscopy has been crucial to advances in surgery that have transformed our ability to treat disease. Sir Peter Morris draws on his own experience to explore the role of the microscope in transplant surgery.
Recorded 28 April 2010, 1pm
Lecture by: Professor Harold Ellis CBE FRCS
Harold Ellis charts the story of Joseph Lister FRS, who followed in the footsteps of his father, a wine merchant and distinguished amateur microscopist, to develop the skills that led to a new understanding of wound infection and to the introduction of antiseptic surgery.
Recorded 20 April 2010, 1pm
Lecture by: Tania Kausmally
Join Tania Kausmally, historian and archaeologist as she lays bare the history of 18th-century anatomist and microscopist William Hewson, the father of modern haematology.
2009
Recorded on 16 May 2009
Lectures:
- Introduction: Why Darwin Matters
Professor Steve Jones (University College London)
- What was Darwin doing in London?
Dr John van Wyhe (University of Cambridge)
- Darwin in London - Homes and Haunts
Dr Joe Cain (University College London)
- Darwin’s London Friends and Foes
Dr Jim Endersby (University of Sussex)
- Mapping social evolution: Social Darwinism and London
Professor Greta Jones (University of Ulster)
Recorded on 5 March 2009, 1pm
Lecture by: Jennian F Geddes
Please note that only part of this recording is available
Image: An Operation at the Military Hospital, Endell Street: Dr L Garrett, Dr Flora Murray, Dr W Buckley © IWM ART 4084
2008
2007
Lecture by: Dr Ruth Richardson
Recorded on 3 April 2008