UK

Benjamin Franklin House, London

In the heart of London, is Benjamin Franklin House, the world's only remaining Franklin home. For nearly sixteen years between 1757 and 1775, Dr Benjamin Franklin - scientist, diplomat, philosopher, inventor, Founding Father of the United States and more - lived behind its doors. While lodging at 36 Craven Street, Franklin pursued his love of science (exploring bifocal spectacles, the energy-saving Franklin stove) and explored health (innoculation, air baths, cures for the common cold).

Edward Jenner Museum, Berkeley, Gloucestershire

The Chantry, the house that Edward Jenner owned from 1785 until his death in 1823 was opened as a museum in 1985 and houses a recently refurbished exhibition on the history of immunology.

George Marshall Medical Museum, Worcester

This museum illustrates the way that medicine and health care have developed over the past 250 years. Many of the objects have been donated by local people, the vast majority by Dr. George Marshall, a doctor in the Worcester area from 1931-1950. Since 2002 the museum has been located on the ground floor of an education centre on the Worcester Royal Hospital site and can be visited by the public. [Users should note this website does not function properly in Internet Explorer 8 but is fine in other browsers such as Mozilla Firefox].

Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust Museum and Archives
London Museums of Health and Medicine honorary member

The Great Ormond Street Hospital has a number of objects on display in prominent places around their public spaces. The Trust Archive is open and accessible to the general public, and is located on the ground floor of Barclay House.

Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow

Not exclusively a medical museum, but a Scottish university museum with a significant anatomy and pathology collections amassed by William Hunter in his career as anatomist, obstetrician and doctor in the 18th century.

Hunterian Society, London
London Museums of Health and Medicine, associate member

The Hunterian Society was founded in 1819 for the education of the medical profession in London. The Society's collection of Portraits and prints, miniatures and several artifacts, including surgical instruments, are on display at the London Clinic Annexe, 1 Park Square West, Regents Park, London NW1. Curator-led tours are offered a few times a year, though health professionals may visit by arrangement at other times.

Manchester Medical School Museum

For historic reasons, regretted by many, the collections of the Manchester Medical School do not form part of that university's museum. Instead a separate departmental museum has been maintained by an honorary curator since 1973 comprising a series of display cabinets in the entrance foyer to the Stopford Building and substantial reserve collections in secure storage. A past curator was the late and distinguished pharmaceutical historian W.A. (Bill) Jackson. The displays include medical instruments and a collection of medals. Visitors are very welcome and the reserve collections can be consulted by prior arrangement.

Surgeon's Hall Museums, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

Extensively redeveloped museum with permanent displays on surgery, pathology, dentistry and, unusually, sports medicine. It has been open to the general public since 1832, making it Scotland's oldest museum.

Tayside Medical Museum, Dundee

Part of the University of Dundee Museums service, Tayside Medical Museum is based at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School. The Medical History Collections are among the finest in Scotland, and include material from Dundee Royal Infirmary, Royal Dundee Liff Hospital and Sunnyside Hospital near Montrose.

Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds

The award-winning Thackray Museum is one of the UK's leading medical museums, telling the story of medicine and explaining how advances in medicine are changing our lives. Located next to the St James Hospital in the north east sector of the biggest city of West Yorkshire, this museum is considered by many to be the finest general collection of the history of medicine together in one place in the UK.

Overseas

Medizinhistorisches Museum der Universitat Zurich, Switzerland

Compact but comprehensive museum in the former Physics and Physiology building covering the whole of medicine from ancient votive offerings to modern Swiss pharmaceuticals.

Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze, Italy

The natural history museum in Florence comprises various departments located across this fine renaissance city including a 'zoological' museum in the Via Romana known popularly as 'La Specola', which includes the largest collection of anatomical wax models in the world, begun by the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo in 1771

Paula Stradina Medicinas Vestures Muzejs (Pauls Stradins Museum of the History of Medicine), Riga, Latvia

Founded in 1957 this is one of the largest and finest medical museums in the world. It is notable for its displays using costumed figures in tableaux and for a remarkable collection relating to Soviet space medicine. It also has three branch museums covering pharmacy, anatomy and children's surgery.

Semmelweiss Museum of Medical History, Budapest, Hungary

A small museum, but with extensive coverage of the subject, using replicas if necessary, opened in 1965 and located upstairs in the former home of Ignaz Semmelweiss (1818-65), the physician whose simple regime of hand washing made great advances in the prevention of childbed fever. The Museum also operates a tiny branch museum in the former Golden Eagle Pharmacy on Castle Hill.

Medical Museion, Copenhagen, Denmark

Medical Museion is a combined museum and research unit at the University of Copenhagen and has one of the biggest and richest historical collections of medical artefacts  in Europe. It also produces an internationally recognised blog, Biomedicine on Display.

Steno Museet, Aarhus, Denmark