Essays on the career of William Hunter, physician, obstetrician, medical educator and man of culture.

"The final work by the late historian Helen Brock, this definitive new edition makes the correspondence of Dr William Hunter (1718-83) available for the first time. Born in Scotland, William Hunter pursued an extensive medical education in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Paris. He settled in London where he made his name as an anatomist and obstetrician before being elected to the Royal Society in 1767. He was a knowledgeable collector. He bequeathed his anatomical and pathological preparations, natural history specimens, antiquities, paintings, and extensive library to the University of Glasgow where they now form the Hunterian Museum. Hunter's admiration for Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings in the Royal Collection sparked the eighteenth century fashion for collecting his works on paper. Hunter's prominent position in London's scientific and artistic circles, his extensive medical and connoisseurial contacts in Scotland and Europe, and his network of students, make his correspondence a unique record of the Enlightenment. This edition presents all of his known correspondence, drawing upon archives around the world. The letters are presented chronologically and interspersed with new editorial material to create a fascinating narrative about this important era of medical and scientific discovery."--Publisher's description.

Despite William Hunter's stature as one of the most important collectors and men of science of the eighteenth century, and the fact that his collection is the foundation of Scotland's oldest public museum, The Hunterian, until now there has been no comprehensive examination in a single volume of all his collections in their diversity. This volume comprises essays by international specialists and are as diverse as Hunter's collections themselves, dealing as they do with material that ranges from medical and scientific specimens, to painting, prints, books and manuscripts, and includes a special feature of links to the Hunterian's web pages and on-line databases. Locating Hunter's collecting within the broader context of his age and environment, this book provides an original approach to a man and collection whose importance has yet to be comprehensively assessed.

Despite William Hunter's stature as one of the most important collectors and men of science of the eighteenth century, and the fact that his collection is the foundation of Scotland's oldest public museum, The Hunterian, until now there has been no comprehensive examination in a single volume of all his collections in their diversity. This volume restores Hunter to a rightful position of prominence among the medical men whose research and amassing of specimens transformed our understanding of the natural world and man's position within it. This volume comprises essays by international specialists and are as diverse as Hunter's collections themselves, dealing as they do with material that ranges from medical and scientific specimens, to painting, prints, books and manuscripts. The first sections focus upon Hunter's own collection and his response to it, while the final section contextualises Hunter within the wider sphere. A special feature of the volume is the inclusion of references to the Hunterian's web pages and on-line databases. These enable searches for items from Hunter's collections, both from his museum and library. Locating Hunter's collecting within the broader context of his age and environment, this book provides an original approach to a man and collection whose importance has yet to be comprehensively assessed.

The eminent physician and anatomist Dr William Hunter (1718-1783) made an important and significant contribution to the history of collecting and the promotion of the fine arts in Britain in the eighteenth century. Born at the family home in East Calderwood, he matriculated at the University of Glasgow in 1731 and was greatly influenced by some of the most important philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment, including Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746). He quickly abandoned his studies in theology for Medicine and, in 1740, left Scotland for London where he steadily acquired a reputation as an energetic and astute practitioner; he combined his working life as an anatomist successfully with a wide range of interests in natural history, including mineralogy, conchology, botany and ornithology; and in antiquities, books, medals and artefacts; in the fine arts, he worked with artists and dealers and came to own a number of beautiful oil paintings and volumes of extremely fine prints. He built an impressive school of anatomy and a museum which housed these substantial and important collections. William Hunter’s life and work is the subject of this book, a cultural-anthropological account of his influence and legacy as an anatomist, physician, collector, teacher and demonstrator. Combining Hunter’s lectures to students of anatomy with his teaching at the St Martin’s Lane Academy, his patronage of artists, such as Robert Edge Pine, George Stubbs and Johan Zoffany, and his associations with artists at the Royal Academy of Arts, the book positions Hunter at the very centre of artistic, scientific and cultural life in London during the period, presenting a sustained and critical account of the relationship between anatomy and artists over the course of the long eighteenth century.

Born in Scotland, Dr William Hunter (1718-83) pursued an extensive medical education in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Paris. He settled in London where he made his name as an anatomist and obstetrician before being elected to the Royal Society in 1767. This book presents all of his known correspondence, drawing upon archives around the world.