Museum contributes to Dr Samuel Johnson exhibition
One of the caricatures lent to Dr Johnson’s House is “Breathing
a vein”, drawn by Rev John Sneyd, etched by James Gillray and
published in 1804. (The caricature is available as a greetings card
from the museum) |
A number of objects from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's museum are on display in a new exhibition, “The tyranny of treatment: Dr Samuel Johnson, his friends and Georgian medicine”, at Dr Johnson's House in London's Gough Square.
The exhibition — in the garret where the lexicographer compiled
the first English Dictionary between 1747 and 1755 — examines the
health of Dr Johnson and five of his closest friends and explores the
treatment they used for conditions as diverse as blindness, hearing problems,
asthma, depression, venereal disease and breast cancer.
The museum has lent a domestic medicine chest from the early 1800s, something
that would have been familiar to Dr Johnson and his friends. Its contents
are almost complete, including a wide range of medicines from tincture
of rhubarb to laudanum, as well as a scaled down mortar and pestle, pill
tile and a balance and its weights.
The museum has also lent individual items such as a Singleton’s
eye ointment pot with its original contents and parchment cover, and
a number of caricatures.
Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to refer to the museum’s
information sheets on the history of dispensing techniques to provide
context to the items on display.
The Society’s Keeper of the Museum Collections, Briony Hudson,
said: “We are extremely pleased to be involved in such a fascinating
exhibition. It is an excellent opportunity to make some remarkable objects
from our collections accessible to a wider public.”
The exhibition is open to the public until 31 January 2004 and is included
in the house’s usual entry fee (£4 adults, £3 concessions).
Opening hours are Monday to Saturday 11am to 5.30pm (October to April
11am to 5pm). The nearest Underground stations are Blackfriars and Chancery
Lane. The house is well signposted from Fetter Lane, Shoe Lane and Fleet
Street.
Further information about the exhibition is available from the
curator, Natasha McEnroe (tel 020 7353 3745; e-mail curator@drjohnsonshouse.org).
The exhibition is supported by the Wellcome Trust and the Heritage
Lottery Fund.
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