‘The Institute of Sexology’ was a candid exploration of the most publicly discussed of private acts.
The Institute of Sexology exhibition, Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
More than 200 objects spanned art, rare archival material, erotica, film and photography in the first UK exhibition to bring together the pioneers of the study of sex. From Alfred Kinsey’s complex questionnaires to the contemporary National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal), the exhibition investigated how sex research has shaped our attitudes towards sexual behaviour and identity. Moving between pathologies of perversion and contested ideas of normality, it showed how sex has been observed and analysed from the late 19th century to the present day.