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Visceral Reactions: Visualising Health in History

Thackray Medical Museum. Beckett Street, Leeds, LS9 7LN, UK. Combination permanent and temporary galleries. Visited September 2006. Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible; induction hearing loops & text versions of audio material available. Further information: http://www.thackraymuseum.org
The Thackray Museum can be found in Leeds (Yorkshire, UK) in the grounds of St James Hospital, reputedly Europe's largest teaching hospital. Since its opening in 1997 the museum has won a variety of awards, including the Interpret Britain Award, the UK Museum of the Year, and a Sandford Award for Excellence in Education. It was also nominated as European Museum of the Year. It is housed in the quite magnificent Leeds Union Workhouse, which constitutes an interesting if somewhat troubling historical intersection. The museum's origins lie in the Thackray Medical Supply Company, which was founded in 1902. The company established a collection of artefacts to illustrate its own historical development which Paul Thackray, grandson of the company's founder, ultimately donated as the basis of the Thackray Museum. Following the company's sale in 1990, he also established the trust fund which helps to support the museum. The Thackray is now also assisted by the Heritage Lottery Fund, one of the main sources of funding for such activities in the UK. Nevertheless, the museum gives prominence in its publicity to its status as an independent, privately-funded institution.	3
This sort of background information is often helpful for understanding the way a museum is laid out and the historical issues represented. But while its background explains some aspects of the Thackray, in other respects the museum has moved a good distance away from its origins with a medical instruments supply company. As an example, one particularly prominent theme is public health. Indeed, the first permanent exhibition that visitors encounter involves a 'trip back in time' to the streets of Leeds circa 1842. Peering through the windows of the city's poverty-stricken inhabitants while stepping around offal, and being bombarded by the sounds (and even the smells!) of a city reeling from the effects of the Industrial Revolution, your reviewer noted that the gallery is well designed to appeal to the morbid sensibilities of the young. While the entire museum pays special attention to the demands of the junior and senior secondary school curricula (suggesting an enviable focus on medical history in schools), it nevertheless simultaneously maintains the interest of the youngsters' adult companions. Despite the unmistakable progressivism at the heart of the exhibition's message, its more subliminal insistence on the role of the state and public services in minimising the impact of private pro.t seeking mitigates any feeling that such progress was inevitable.	4
The curators provide a link between this gallery and the next, which deals with disease treatments, by creating personas for various inhabitants of those 1842 streets. In the next gallery we find out what ails them in 'Health Choices.' This exhibition investigates the kinds of treatments that were available, and their comparative cost. Again, the positivist note is striking—quacks are uniformly condemned, even while the exhibits acknowledge the ineffectiveness of 'mainstream' cures at that time. Yet once more, the curators undermine that message, in this case by an examination of the many continuities between 'traditional' herbal remedies and contemporary pharmacopoeia. The next gallery's title 'Defeating Disease' continues the theme of cures and treatments by physicians through a fairly standard narrative of the development of various vaccines and drug remedies. This is followed by the developments leading up to the 'golden age' of surgery in 'Pain, Pus and Blood.' One disquieting component of the surgical galleries (which by their nature are a test of a grown-up's mettle) is the 're-creation' of an operation endured by one of the street's residents of the earlier gallery: a badly fractured limb has to be amputated. The lead-up is effective and tension-building ... (It would probably spoil the ending to reveal more—but the exhibit is safe for most minors!) This by-way (visitors have the option of ducking it) does however provide a useful and informative background to the tools and techniques employed by nineteenth-century surgeons, and the likely outcomes for those unfortunate enough to need their skill. It does so too in a way that reinforces its earlier subliminal message about the results for people's health and wellbeing of unregulated markets.	5
One begins to feel slightly overwhelmed at this point (or at least your reviewer did) by the magnitude of the topics covered and objects presented. In quick succession one finds 'The Hospital', 'Blood,' 'Germs,' 'X-Rays,' 'Broken Bones,' 'Teeth'... Perhaps, like the Louvre, the Thackray repays (and deserves) more than a day's visit to absorb its diversity. From a professional interest, though, I was intrigued to see that just one small panel treated the issues of rehabilitation, implants and prosthetics. Disability, while rating a mention, did so only because the bionic ear provided 'a cure' for deafness. The history of disability is still in its early days, however, and perhaps this component of the Thackray will develop alongside the scholarship now being produced in this area.	6
In the spirit of arriving at an assessment of the Thackray not confined to the views of 'professionals,' our companions included two twelve-year-olds, Aubrey and Danny, neither of whom had previously visited the museum. There were a number of interesting divergences between our respective 'readings' of the displays. The first point was that they were both particularly taken by the exhibit featuring an 'intestinal rope,' an interactive that I missed entirely. Danny also thought that allocating visitors one of the characters from the 1842 exhibit helped to 'personalise' it as he followed the trials and tribulations (and eventual death) of his character. That he seemed unaffected by the death does suggest that it was more an intellectual rather than personal engagement with his character, however. Yet both also commented that this 'personal' connection made the polio exhibit a stand-out. As this exhibit drew heavily on oral histories and the 'voice of experience,' it highlights how good use of oral history can facilitate a feeling of connection with issues otherwise outside the viewer's experience. On the other hand, both boys said they hated the smells: 'Over the top,' one suggested. In a youth culture dominated by 'virtualism' (not to mention a wider culture in many ways 'protected' from many smells of everyday human existence), this olfactory reaction is intriguing. Are there limits to how 'close' people—and not just the young—want to get to the past?	7
In a surprising consensus, though, one of the favourite 'bits' of the museum was the reproduction section which juxtaposed the science of reproductive medicine against 'life histories' of motherhood. In particular, Aubrey and Danny were much amused by the 'empathy bellies': a contraption that permits the wearer to get an idea of the weight borne by an expectant mother. I'm not sure how much 'empathy' they got out of it, but they certainly enjoyed it!	8
Image 1: Providing a multisensory perspective on the past, the 'Leeds 1842' gallery underscores the role of public health regulations in creating healthy societies. (Image courtesy of Thackray Medical Museum.)
Image 2: The careful blending of different kinds of historical evidence and museum techniques produces an unselfconscious examination of pregnancy and childbirth. (Image courtesy Thackray Medical Museum.)
In addition to the exhibition program, however, the museum supports an active educational program in other ways. It houses an extensive library in its medical history resource centre, and hosts lectures and seminars of current research by medical staff as well as historians. Of particular interest to members of the ANZSHM is the cooperation fostered between the Yorkshire Medical and Dental History Society and the Thackray in hosting seminars for University of Leeds medical students to present their 'medical history projects.'	9
Furthering this component, the museum has also just announced a doctoral student program in collaboration with the University of Leeds History and Philosophy of Science Division. In this program PhD students will be engaged in creating an exhibit using the museum's holdings, to publicise the findings of their research, and also to contribute to local, national and international meetings.	10
A museum of great scope and intelligent interpretation, the Thackray is a recommended destination when you are next in Britain. It is also recommended that you do not expect to absorb it all in one afternoon's visit. But if possible, take along a twelve-year-old or two: they can introduce you to a wholly different museum!	11
LOUELLA McCARTHY UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY (with thanks to Danny & Aubrey)

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