William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum
EVENTS
EXHIBITION TOURS
Our Student Volunteer Guides will deliver tours of the exhibition introducing the life, work and passions of William Hunter as represented in his encyclopaedic collections. Tours last 20 – 30 minutes and are free of charge.
William Hunter the Anatomist
Thursdays and Fridays at 12.30pm
Saturdays at 3.30pm
Sundays at 12.30pm
William Hunter the Art Lover
Tuesdays at 11.00am and 12.30pm
Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 11.30am
Thursdays at 1.30pm
William Hunter the Curious Collector
Tuesdays at 3.30pm
Wednesdays at 2.30pm
Fridays at 3.30pm
Saturdays at 11.00am
LUNCHTIME TALK PROGRAMME
3 October – 19 December 2018
1.00pm
Hunterian Art Gallery
Admission free
Join us in the Hunterian Art Gallery every Wednesday until 19 December for a special programme of 10 minute lunchtime talks inspired by the William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum exhibition. View full programme.
PUBLIC LECTURE
Wednesday 24 October 2018
6.00pm – 8.00pm
Hunterian Art Gallery
Admission free
At this evening event, Professor Manuel Barcia will discuss: Beware, Beware of the Bight of Benin: The Struggle against Disease in the Slave Trade Contact Zones, 1807-1867. This public lecture is a collaboration between the University of Glasgow’s School of Humanities and The Hunterian and is part of the Black History Month programme.
MEET THE ANATOMY EXPERTS
Wednesday 7 and Tuesday 27 November 2018
5.30pm
Anatomy Museum and Hunterian Art Gallery
Admission free - booking required
An outstanding opportunity to meet two leading experts from the University of Glasgow's Anatomy Facility for two exciting events, which will provide new insights into some of the themes included in the William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum exhibition.
The Placenta and the Fetal and Maternal Circulations
Wednesday 7 November 2018
5.30pm
Anatomy Large Lecture Theatre and Anatomy Museum
The Anatomy of Pregnancy and the Gravid Uterus
Tuesday 27 November 2018
5.30pm
Hunterian Art Gallery Lecture Theatre and William Hunter Exhibition
WAYS OF SEEING OURSELVES:
Visions of Human Embodiment from Hunter to Today
Wednesday 28 November 2018
5.15pm - 6.30pm
Hunterian Art Gallery
Admission free – booking required
This discussion event explores some of the connections between two current Hunterian exhibitions William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum, a comprehensive survey of Hunter’s collections, which range from anatomy to zoology, and Strange Foreign Bodies, a group exhibition featuring works by seven leading contemporary artists.
Dr Nicky Reeves (Curator of Scientific and Medical History Collections, The Hunterian) will discuss 17th/18th-century conceptions of vision, as exemplified by Hunter’s dissections of the human eyeball, and will reflect also on optical technologies like microscopes and telescopes which function as prosthetic, even cyborgian, extensions of human vision.
Artist Phillip Warnell (Associate Professor and Director of Studies on MA Experimental Film, Kingston University, London) will discuss his 2009 film Outlandish: Strange Foreign Bodies, a collaboration with renowned philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy which explores human and animal embodiment in the light of contemporary medical technologies, including those by which Nancy himself received a heart transplant. The event will also include a screening of Warnell’s The Girl with X-ray Eyes (2008, 23 minutes), whose protagonist Natasha Demkina is a medical doctor and faith practitioner who claims to be able to see directly inside of bodies using a supplementary, penetrative form of vision.
The event will be chaired by the curator of Strange Foreign Bodies, Dr Dominic Paterson, and is followed by a wine reception.
Bodies of Knowledge
Tuesday 11 December 2018
5.00pm - 6.15 pm
Hunterian Art Gallery
Admission free but places are limited - booking required
This discussion event explores some of the connections between two current Hunterian exhibitions William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum, a comprehensive survey of Hunter’s collections, which range from anatomy to zoology, and Strange Foreign Bodies, a group exhibition featuring works by seven leading contemporary artists.
Joan Smith (Acting Head of Art, Edinburgh College of Art) will explore the intersection of science, art and material culture as exemplified by Hunter’s écorché figure and casts of the 'gravid uterus', drawing on her research and teaching experience. Artist Claire Barclay will present the series of works she was commissioned to produce in response to Hunter's collection of casts and engravings of the 'gravid uterus'. The event will include a discussion in the gallery spaces where the works are on display.
The event will be chaired by the co-curator of the exhibition William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum, Dr Lola Sanchez-Jauregui.
Followed by a wine reception.
BEYOND THE BOOKSTACK:
Behind the Scenes in Hunter's Library
Wednesday 12 December 2018
3.00pm - 6.00pm
Hunterian Art Gallery and University of Glasgow Library Special Collections
Admission free - booking required
William Hunter amassed an incredible library of 10,000 books and manuscripts. Often cited as one of the finest 18th century libraries to remain intact, the exhibition William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum features many of its wonderful treasures. Now in the care of the Library's Special Collections.
Have you ever wondered who uses these books today and what Special Collections does to preserve them for future generations? And how does this 'behind the scenes' work contribute to exhibitions?
At this special event, Michelle Craig and Alicia Hughes will discuss their current doctoral research on provenance in the library and Hunter's collection of anatomical prints and drawings, and book conservator Keira McKee will outline the kind of conservation work that is required to exhibit old and fragile rare books. You will have opportunity to explore more books and manuscripts from Hunter's Library in a special pop up display and talk informally with the speakers about their work.
Mince pies and wine will follow the event, with an opportunity to view the current Special Collections foyer display Spotlight on a Salesroom featuring items that Hunter acquired at the sales of Dr Richard Mead.
Programme Details
3.00pm - Hunterian Art Gallery: Optional tour of the exhibition William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum focusing on a selection of the books displayed from his renowned
4.00pm - Special Collections, University of Glasgow Library (Level 12): Three short talks on aspects of Hunter's Library with a 'pop up' exhibition of more books and manuscripts from his collection and viewing of display Spotlight on a Salesroom
5.00pm - Mince pies and wine reception
A Feminist Decoding of William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum
Thursday 20 December 2018
5.00pm - 7.30pm
Hunterian Art Gallery
Admission free - booking required
Following a recent Glasgow Women’s Library 'Feminist Decoding' group visit to The Hunterian’s William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum exhibition, Project Co-ordinator Rachel Thain-Gray shares the outcomes of their critical feminist questioning. This question and answer session will explore the centering of artefacts and narratives of white, heterosexual, masculinity and privilege, suggesting alternatives to increase identity-based inclusion in the museum at large. Followed by a drinks reception.
SPECIAL TALK:
Rediscovering John Singleton Copley’s Richard Brocklesby: an American portrait of notable associate of William Hunter
Friday 4 January 2019
11.00am
Hunterian Art Gallery
Admission free - no booking required
Join Hunterian Deputy Director Mungo Campbell for this final event in the Hunter series and find out more about an important new acquisition – a painting thought to have been lost for almost 80 years. The portrait of physician Richard Brocklesby (1722-1797) by American artist John Singleton Copely (1738-1815) was thought to have been destroyed in an air-raid in 1940. Known only through an engraving made at the time of Brocklesby’s death in 1797, the picture passed through his family and was left to The Hunterian by Nicholas Phillipson, the Edinburgh-based historian of the Scottish Enlightenment, who died in January 2018.
Copley’s portrait of Brocklesby is a beautiful example of the American artist’s work in London around the time of his election as a Royal Academician in 1783. Brocklesby, a Quaker, was a school friend of Edmund Burke, a protégé of the Royal Physician Richard Mead, and a friend and physician to both John Wilkes and Samuel Johnson. Brocklesby and Hunterian founder Dr William Hunter lived and worked as contemporaries within the same close circles in London and several of Brocklesby’s published works are still a part of Hunter’s library collections.
Image: Hunterian Psalter, c. 1170 © University of Glasgow Library, Archives and Special Collections.
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