Glasgow Royal Infirmary Museum

The Scotsman

Friends of Glasgow Royal Infirmary Museum  The museum, celebrating the contribution that GRI has made to medicine, surgery and nursing throughout the world, was officially opened on May 31st 2022.  This first exhibition highlights the ground breaking work of Joseph Lister, Rebecca Strong, William MacEwen and John MacIntyre as well as a fascinating insight into the history of the buildings of GRI from 1794 to the present day. You can also find a display dedicated to our GRI bees and our garden project.   The museum was opened by Mr David Geyer the great grandson of our first matron Rebecca Strong.  Getting Here Entry to the museum is via cathedral precinct. Disabled access is via the main hospital entrance, off Castle Street.  Opening Times Wednesday 1-3pm  Tuesday Thursday and Friday 11am-3pm  Saturday 12-2pm  Admission is free  Museum Address Friends of Glasgow Royal Infirmary Museum  Cathedral Precinct,   Off Castle Street Glasgow   G4 0QZ

Transcript

00:00Hi, my name is Hilary Wilson. I'm a consultant physician at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and I'm

00:19also a trustee of the Friends of Glasgow Royal Infirmary. This is the Friends of Glasgow

00:24Royal Infirmary Museum. It's a small museum located on Cathedral Precinct and it's just

00:31to the left of Glasgow Cathedral up the stairs under the Queen Victoria statue. I think a

00:36lot of people who come into the museum are quite amazed at the number of discoveries

00:42that they make when they come and look at the exhibits in the museum. Glasgow Royal

00:45Infirmary has had a very rich history for medical, surgical and nursing achievements

00:50within Glasgow, most notably Joseph Lister who founded antisepsis in this hospital in

00:571865 when he worked here. And we had the first x-ray department opened up by John McIntyre,

01:04an electrician at the hospital. And we also celebrate William McEwen who was a surgeon

01:10who did the world's first successful brain operation in the hospital. In terms of nursing

01:15we have Rebecca Strong, she was our first matron and she revolutionised the profession

01:19of nursing. So these are probably the four major exhibits when people come in. We have

01:25some very nice pictures of the architecture of the Royal Infirmary. The first building

01:32which was designed by the Addams Brothers, that was in 1794. And then some other architectural

01:39drawings from the Miller Building which is the existing building which was finished in

01:441931. So if you're interested in the architecture of the Royal Infirmary there's lots to see

01:48relating to that. Relating to Joseph Lister we have a portrait of him which you can see

01:53behind me that was painted by Norman Rockwell, he was a very famous American artist. And

02:00this was painted as a commission by a pharmaceutical company as a gift to the Royal Infirmary.

02:07Joseph Lister when he worked in Glasgow he stayed at a house in Woodside Place and one

02:14of the items that a visitor brought in was the original postbox on that house. So we

02:20were really pleased to get that because we were just amazed at the amount of correspondence

02:25that would have passed through that postbox. So we managed to trace a letter that was written

02:30by Joseph Lister from that address with 17 Woodside Place as the headed notepaper and

02:37we've obviously put up the letterbox as well. We certainly get a lot of people wanting to

02:42bring us some items. We had a very nice donation of an ebony and ivory tendon hammer from

02:51somebody's collection and the other thing that came from that collection was a Jenner

02:57vaccinator. So Edward Jenner who discovered vaccination used this device to inoculate

03:05people against cowpox and this gave them protection against smallpox. So John McIntyre worked

03:11as an electrician at the Royal Infirmary and he also created the world's first x-ray department.

03:18He didn't discover x-rays per se but he created the first department and on display we have

03:25one of the x-ray tubes that was used in that first department. At the moment we're celebrating

03:30William McEwen because it's 100 years since he died but our plan is to put on a series

03:36of other exhibitions. We're hoping to do one next year about Rottenroe Hospital. That

03:41was Glasgow's most famous maternity hospital which was knocked down and we wanted to celebrate

03:49the history of that building. So we had some students from Glasgow University Museum Studies

03:54course and also Strathclyde University student who worked on that project so we'll be launching

04:00that next year. This space was really just a derelict part of the hospital. It was full

04:04of old rubbish bags that was boarded up with plywood and the health board very kindly gave

04:10us the permission to renovate it and turn it into the museum that it is today. Initially

04:15we were only open four hours a week because we rely on volunteers to run the museum but

04:21over the last two years it's really gained momentum and I think with the increased opening

04:26hours, the increased footfall from Cathedral Precinct and just people getting to know where

04:32we are. We're now open five days a week. Usually we're open Tuesday 1-3, Wednesday,

04:37Thursday, Friday 11-3 and Saturday 12-2. The museum is free and everybody is welcome and

04:44there are quite steep stairs coming up to the front entrance but there is disabled access

04:49at the back of the hospital where there's a ramp where you can come in that entrance

04:53as well.

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