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Free entry - booking recommended

Tuesday to Saturday: 10am – 5pm

On Tuesday 28 July, the Hunterian Museum will be open from 9 to 11am for a quiet morning designed for families with children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Admission will be limited to ticket holders only.

Museum gallery with cobalt blue walls. In the foreground there is a brown wood effect table, on which there is a brass microscope in a cylindrical glass case. In the background, museum cases contain oil paintings, a marble bust, surgical instruments and a white gown on a manikin.

New Frontiers

The practice of surgery was transformed in the 1800s by three major breakthroughs which are explored in this gallery: the relief of pain, the introduction of germ-free surgical environments and the identification of disease at a cellular level. By 1900, surgeons were operating on every part of the human body.
A painting of a seated man, wearing a white gown and orange rubber surgical gloves, and holding a white cap

Ivor Back FRCS (1879–1951) by William Orpen, 1926

Museum gallery with cobalt blue walls. In the foreground there is a projection of surgical illustrations.