Major exhibition shows how we are all indebted to Scottish collector

THERE are some figures in the sweep of history who contribute more than others in terms of legacy. Dr William Hunter is one. Born 300 years ago, the seventh child of ten born to John and Agnes Hunter of Long Calderwood, East Kilbride (and one of three to survive adulthood), Hunter entered the University of Glasgow at the age of 14, with the intention of becoming a minister.

He quickly decided it was not for him and, when he left in 1736, he became a medical apprentice. When he ended his days in London in 1783, he was a leading figure among Enlightenment Scots in the capital. Hunter had many strings to his bow: anatomist, medical teacher, collector and founding member of the Royal Academy. He became Physician Extraordinary to Queen Charlotte from 1764-83, having overseen the birth of the future George IV in 1762. He went on to supervise the delivery of her 14 other children.

Modern medicine owes a huge debt to this enigmatic bachelor, who rarely returned to Scotland once he had established himself in London. The advances he made in medical knowledge, particularly in the lymphatic system and the uterus, put him at the forefront of contemporary medicine. A born educator, leading figures of the day, including the economist Adam Smith as well as author and surgeon Tobias Smollett, flocked to his public lectures.

Hunter was an obsessive collector and, in 1807, his huge collection of fossils; anatomical specimens and preparations; paintings, drawings and prints; rare books and manuscripts; ethnographical objects; rocks and mineral specimens; coins and medals; shells, corals, beetles, butterflies and examples of taxidermy were bequeathed to his alma mater. The Hunterian collection was then – and is now – the core of Scotland’s oldest public museum.

To mark the tercentenary of Hunter’s birth, a major exhibition reveals his contribution to the development of museums as we know them today, exploring the synergy between arts and science in the pursuit of knowledge over the course of the 18th century.

Featuring more than 400 items, the exhibition moves on to the Yale Center for British Art at Yale University in Connecticut, USA in February. Just before it opened, Hunterian director Steph Scholten took time out to give me a guided tour, selecting five objects which tell the story of a vast collection and a life well lived.

This polychrome and plaster cast of the gravid uterus (uterus in pregnancy) represents Hunter’s publication The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus of 1774. He worked on mapping the