St. Thomas's Hospital, London: anatomical museum

Documents relating to a collection of anatomical preparations, casts, drawings etc., forming an anatomical museum at St. Thomas's Hospital. The bulk of the collection comprises correspondence over the ownership of Sir Astley Paston Cooper's share following his departure from St. Thomas's Hospital.

1803-1829

1 file (27 items)

Purchased from J.L.M. Gulley, London, March 2000 and August 2003.

The origins of this collection lie in the joint anatomy and surgery lectures given at St. Thomas's Hospital by the surgeons Sir Astley Paston Cooper (1768-1841) and Henry Cline (1750-1827). Their separate collections of anatomical preparations, surgical apparatus, drawings and so on, were merged and became their joint property. Cline's share in the property passed in 1811 to his son Henry Cline junior and, on the latter's death in 1820, to Joseph Henry Green (1791-1863), who was later President of the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1825 Cooper moved from St. Thomas's to Guy's Hospital; it was Green's opinion that by doing so Cooper lost his rights to the Museum and entitled Green to buy him out at a cost of £1000. The dispute bulks large in this collection. In 1829 the Corporation of London purchased the Museum in its entirety, paying Green and Cooper £1000 each.

Original database description, subsequently expanded, was transcribed from Richard Aspin and Christopher Hilton's typescript supplement to S.A.J Moorat's Catalogue of Western Manuscripts.