History of the Medical School Museum
The museum dates back to the closure of the old Medical School in Coupland Street (now Coupland 3) and its transfer to the new Stopford Building in 1973. Over the years, the Professor of Anatomy, George AG Mitchell (1906-1993), had built up a collection of old medical instruments and items of historical interest. As the Coupland Street building was vacated any abandoned items, equipment left in cupboards etc, including Professor Mitchell's collection, were boxed-up, regardless of condition, and stored in the Stopford Building.
Investigating the store
When Dr Bill Beswick, the then Executive Dean, eventually came to inspect the boxes of 'rubbish' he was surprised to find a beautiful copper Lister's spray (c.1870s) and an 1865 Cruise endoscope, which were part of Professor Mitchell’s collection. There were hundreds of other items that needed to be sorted out and some, like a Laennec stethoscope, were clearly of historical interest.
The first exhibition
Charlotte Beswick, the Dean’s wife, agreed to help out, effectively acting as an unofficial curator. She started to identify, catalogue and store the items in a small ground-floor room. Aided by an old surgical instrument catalogue Charlotte soon became expert in the identification and history of the collection, and making use of her skill in calligraphy she labelled the items and set up an exhibition in the showcases in the foyer.
The collection becomes a museum
The exhibition proved popular and triggered further donations. A collection of silver associated with Joseph Jordan (1787-1873), who founded the Manchester School of Anatomy in 1814, the John Hull Grundy (1907-1984) collection of silver instruments and medical medals, items from the Manchester Medical Society, and hundreds of other donations were accumulated.
In 1980, the university invested the honorary title of 'Curator of Exhibits' on Charlotte, and in 1984 the North West Museum Services officially recognised the 'Medical Museum' in its Year Book. A new storage area was fitted out and new display cabinets added on the first floor. Charlotte’s sustained efforts in 'museology' – cataloguing, conservation, providing information, items loaned for exhibitions etc – set up the processes still in place today.
Later additions
After Charlotte retired in 1995, Bill Jackson was appointed as the new Honorary Curator. He is a past president of the British Society for the History of Pharmacy and a member of the International Academy of the History of Pharmacy. His expertise in medical antiques, especially stomach pumps, added a new dimension to the collection.
The excellent display of 'therapeutics', leeching and cupping on the first floor is mainly the work of Bill and his wife Audrey, who was always present as support and backup. During their curator-ship, they greatly increased the number of artefacts including many items from the Christie Hospital and the oldest items in the collection, a set of eighteenth-century apothecary drug jars. When the present curator, Dr Peter Mohr, took over in October 2002, the museum store was bursting at the seams!
