Surgeons’ museum welcomes increased visitor body count
Edinburgh’s award-winning Surgeons’ Hall Museums have attracted a recordbreaking 111,000-plus visitors over the past year.
Among the UK’s oldest, and boasting Scotland’s largest pathology collection, the museums can be found in the iconic William Playfair building at the Royal College of Surgeons campus on Nicholson Street.
Renowned for their collections of anatomical specimens and artefacts, they have gone from from strength to strength since a major refurbishment in 2015, funded by the National Lottery.
In 2013, the museums welcomed 35,000 visitors, which doubled to 60,000 the year after the refurbishment.
Last year’s figure of 111,293 – despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic – is being celebrated as a remarkable milestone in an exceptional journey of growth and transformation, solidifying its place on the Capital’s list of worldclass museums.
In 2021, new permanent galleries were established under the title, Body Voyager. This work considers what the future holds for surgery, extrapolating from existing robotics and technology already in use.
The striking futuristic gallery is centred around the only Da Vinci robot in the world, allowing the public to try out the authentic console that surgeons use today, testing their skills on a programmed art challenge.
Thomas Elliot, Head of Museum Learning and Interpretation, said: “We’re really proud of the work we’ve been doing to make the museum more engaging and accessible over the last eight years.
“The museum has traditionally been targeted to medical professionals, and that has been somewhat inaccessible or intimidating to the general public.
“Now we have school groups that love our interactive segments, and we curate our exhibitions to link the medical nature with what people care about.”
The success is also attributed to a diverse and engaging temporary exhibition programme, with notable highlights including the immensely popular ‘In Safe Hands: A Battle for Midwifery.’
This exhibition explores the evolution of the perception of childbirth, transforming it from a simple life event to something requiring medical oversight.