Hunterian Museum, London facts for kids
The skeleton of the 7+1⁄2-foot (2.3 m) tall "Irish Giant" is visible in the middle of the photo.
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| Established | 1799 |
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| Location | Royal College of Surgeons of England, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, England |
| Collection size | approximately 3,500 specimens |
| Visitors | 85,000 per year |
| Public transit access |  Holborn |
The Hunterian Museum is a cool museum in London. It's inside the Royal College of Surgeons of England building. This museum shows off many amazing body parts and medical tools. It helps us learn about the human body and how medicine has changed over time.
History of the Hunterian Museum
The museum started in 1799. The government bought a huge collection from a Scottish surgeon named John Hunter. This collection became the main part of the Hunterian Museum. Over the years, more collections were added. These included a special collection of teeth and natural history items.
The first museum building was too small. So, it closed in April 1834 for a big upgrade. New sections were added, and it reopened in February 1837. More rooms were built in 1852 and between 1888 and 1892.
Sadly, in May 1941, the college building was badly damaged during a war. Some parts of the museum were completely destroyed. After a lot of rebuilding, the Hunterian Museum reopened in 1963. It was a bit smaller than before.
What You Can See at the Hunterian Museum
The Hunterian Museum is part of a group called The London Museums of Health & Medicine. It has thousands of interesting items. You can see body parts used for study, old medical tools, and even paintings about doctors.
One famous item is the skeleton of "Irish giant" Charles Byrne. His skeleton was obtained even though he didn't want it to be. The museum also has special tables called the Evelyn tables. These show how the human body is put together.
The museum has a cool collection of teeth. It includes teeth from soldiers who fought at the battle of Waterloo. There's also a necklace made of human teeth. An explorer named Henry Morton Stanley brought it to England. You can even see a set of dentures (false teeth) that belonged to Winston Churchill.
Another unique item is the foot of an ancient Egyptian mummy. A scientist named John Hadley studied it in 1763. This was the first time a mummy was studied in this way in Britain. For some reason, an onion was found attached to the foot!
The museum closed in May 2017 for new renovations. It reopened on May 16, 2023. As part of the changes, Charles Byrne's skeleton is no longer on public display. However, it is still kept by the museum for future research.
Gallery
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The skeleton of Charles Byrne (1761–1783)
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Scyllarides latus, the slipper lobster
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Skeleton of Dinornis novaezealandiae, the extinct North Island giant moa
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A species of large toad dissected to show ripe ovaries and contracted oviducts
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