Maternal Health in Humanitarian Settings Lecture
The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries
04 Feb 2025 | 06:30 PM
Dr Brigid Hayden FRCOG
Dr Benjamin Black
Half Term Family Activities
Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons of England
15 Feb 2025 | 11:00 AM
This half-term, explore 18th- and 19th-century surgical instruments, practice essential surgical knots, and discover the human body with hands-on anatomy models.
February half term:
Saturday 15
Tuesday 18
Thursday 20
11am - 3pm drop-in sessions
Free
Age: 5+ (under 16 must be accompanied by an adult)
This half term, join the Hunterian Museum for free Family Activities packed with discovery and fun. Step back in time as you explore fascinating 18th- and 19th-century surgical instruments, try your hand at tying essential surgical knots, and uncover the wonders of the human body with hands-on anatomy models. Meet a surgeon and complete an engaging booklet filled with activities such as colouring in and crosswords to learn more about human anatomy. With games and interactive experiences for all ages, it’s the perfect way to combine learning and excitement for the whole family!
Royal College of Surgeons of England, 38-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. WC2A 3PE in the Atrium
On Wednesday 19 January, we’ll be offsite at the Royal College of Physicians in the Dorchester Library as part of the London Museums of Health and Medicine Annual Object Handling event 'Up Close and Medical’.
Up Close and Medical - Annual Object Handling event
Royal College of Physicians Museum
19 Feb 2025 | 11:00 AM
London Museums of Heath and Medicine are back with their annual 'Up Close and Medical' Event.
At this free event discover the more surprising side of London's medical history. Handle objects from centuries past and get involved in activities for all ages.
Free, drop-in, open to all.
Hosted by Royal College of Physicians in the Dorchester Library
Royal College of Physicians
NW1 4LE
Queer Anatomies: The Odd Case of Mr. Joseph Maclise and his Figures
Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons of England
20 Feb 2025 | 06:30 PM
A Hunterian Provocations Event
Join Michael Sappol, historian of the visual culture of medicine and science, for an evening talk on his new book 'Queer Anatomies', at the Royal College of Surgeons of England
Attendees are invited to visit the Hunterian Museum from 5-6:30pm before the talk starts
Sexual body-parts and same-sex desire were unmentionables, debarred from representation in 18th- and 19th-century print culture. Yet one scientific discipline — anatomy — had license to picture intimate details of the human body — rectum and genitalia included. Anatomical illustrations were often soberly technical. But could also be monstrous, flirtatious, theatrical, transgressive. And erotic. Anatomical publications gave off heat, pleasured the men who gazed upon and collected them in homosocial circles of comradely connoisseurship.
In art academies, schools of medicine, and the encyclopedic curriculum of Enlightenment discourse, anatomy was a foundational subject. Aesthetic discernment and medical and artistic competence all depended on a secure knowledge of anatomy and its texts — which offered unique opportunities for perverse erotic representation. In the 18th century that occurred mostly in the idiom of classicism or harsh Netherlandish realism, but in the 1840s and 50s, surgeon-illustrator Joseph Maclise, FRCS, remade the anatomical image into an intimate space of sensual experience and private pleasure. Maclise's lost archive of closeted queer expression — mostly overlooked in the scholarship — gets appreciative consideration in this illustrated talk and (along with works by many other anatomists) in the pages of Mike Sappol's latest book, Queer Anatomies.
Recommended for ages 16+
Michael Sappol
Michael Sappol is a historian of the visual culture of medicine and science, and Visiting Researcher in the History of Science & Ideas at Uppsala University. His latest book is Queer Anatomies: Aesthetics & Desire in the Anatomical Image 1700- 1900 (Bloomsbury, 2024). He is also the author of A Traffic of Dead Bodies: Anatomy & Embodied Social Identity in 19th-Century America (2002) and Body Modern: Fritz Kahn, Scientific Illustration & the Homuncular Subject (2017). Current projects: “Anatomy’s photography: Objectivity, showmanship & the reinvention of the anatomical image”; “Endangered specimens, unaccountable objects: Historical medical collections and the competing ethical claims made upon them.”
Italian Renaissance Ceramics at Apothecaries' Hall
The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries
21 Feb 2025 | 06:00 PM
Justin Raccanello
Leading figures amongst the Stranger Communities at Blackfriars 1550-1660
The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries
24 Feb 2025 | 06:30 PM
Dr Tessa Murdoch FSA
