The Circus Train - A guide to science, medical and anatomy museums
Science and medicine figure heavily in The Circus Train. The main character, Lena Papadopoulos, dreams of becoming a scientist or doctor. The research I did on various scientific and medical institutions across Europe was one of the great pleasures of writing this novel.
I’m so pleased to share some of the museums I found that appear throughout The Circus Train, as well as a few others I love. Please note that due to the ongoing pandemic, some of the locations are currently closed — but I’m hopeful they’ll one day re-open to the public:
The Hunterian Museum - London, UK
Hunterian Museum, London, UK. Image Credit: Royal College of Surgeons of England Website
The Hunterian Museum in London is located in the Royal College of Surgeons building in Holborn. It contains the anatomical and pathological collections of John Hunter, an 18th century surgeon, and a few others. It also boasts surgical equipment, paintings and sculptures about medicine and medical individuals.
I visited the museum in 2015 and there were thousands of specimens arranged neatly behind glass displays. At the time of publication of this post (late 2021), the museum is closed and due to re-open in 2023.
More info. There is also a Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, Scotland.
Wellcome Collection - London, UK
The Wellcome Collection is part of the Wellcome Trust, founded by Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome. Sir Henry was an American-born British entrepreneur whose pharmaceutical company merged and grew into current day giant GlaxoSmithKline. I am in two minds about Big Pharma, however, I can’t ignore the massive collection of medical-related books and objects Sir Henry acquired during his life. Nor can I ignore the fact that the Wellcome Collection is free and has some of the best programming, events and collections bridging the gaps between science, health, art and life available today. In light of the pandemic, they have many digital offerings, including a podcast and images available to explore online.
Musée Fragonard - Maisons-Alfort, France
Musée Fragonard gallery - France. Image Credit: Ville de Maisons-Alfort Website
The Musée Fragonard de l'École vétérinaire de Maisons-Alfort (also known as the Fragonard Museum) is one of the oldest museums in France. Opened in 1766, it is named after Honoré Fragonard.
After obtaining a surgeon’s license in 1759, Fragonard was recruited to work in the field of veterinary medicine. In 1766, he was appointed as a professor at the first veterinary school in Lyon by King Louis XV. This is where he would create the works he would become famous for and that would eventually lead to his downfall - ‘flayed figures’ or écorchés. There were carefully dissected animals that were posed and mounted. Although they were meant to be used for educational purposes, they often resembled works of art.
Over the course of his career, Fragonard created over 700 specimens, using a secret technique and process similar to that of modern day plastination. In 1771, he was fired from his post because people were afraid of the creations and thought he had lost his mind.
At the time I’m writing this, the Fragonard Museum has 21 of the original écorchés on display. One of my favourite websites, Atlas Obscura, has more info about Honoré Fragonard. However in their post, they say that the museum is permanently closed, but the official website says it is open. Best to contact them ahead of time if you would like to visit. There is also a famous teratology collection in the museum, which is mentioned in the novel.
Museo Galileo - Florence, Italy
Museo Galileo - Florence, Italy. Image Credit: Museo Galileo Website
The Museo Galileo (formerly known as the Institute and Museum of the History of Science) is located in Florence, not far from the Uffizi Gallery. I was so fortunate to visit this museum when I was younger - my father took me and I still remember it as one of my favourite days ever.
This museum is steeped in the history of science and technology. The collections date back to the 1560’s when Cosimo, a member of the powerful Medici family, kept an assortment of scientific objects in the map room of the Palazzo Vecchio. Over the years, the collection grew and passed through many places (the Uffizi Gallery, the Pitti Palace and the Museum of Physics) and through many owners (the Lorraine family, Grand Duke Leopold).
In 1930, the University of Florence opened a permanent exhibition of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science at the Palazzo Castellani containing many of the objects. In 2010, it was renamed as the Museo Galileo.
There is an incredible permanent collection housed on the floors of the museum, including two of Galileo’s telescopes, celestial globes, a chemistry cabinet and so much more. It’s really worth making a trip here to see it if you can. The museum also has information about past exhibitions online with links to further readings if available. Some of these include Leonardo da Vinci Anatomies: Machines, Human Body, Nature (there is a link to a list of Renaissance engineers) and The Art of Building a Masterpiece: Trajan's Column (if you are fascinated by how things are made, check out this piece on how Trajan’s Column was built - it was such an impressive feat of engineering. Honestly, just seeing how the marble was quarried and transported at that time is mind-boggling).
Josephinum Medical Museum - Vienna, Austria
Josephinum Medical Museum. Image Credit: Josephinum Museum Website
The Jospehinum was founded in 1785 by Giovanni Alessandro Brambilla and Joseph II. It originally served as a surgical academy to train prospective doctors and midwives for civil and military service, but is now a medical museum located in the Medical University of Vienna.
It’s most famous for a world-renowned collection of almost 1,200 anatomical wax models. At the time of the academy’s opening, training surgeons through dissection was still an unregulated and, in some cases, illegal process. So Joseph II had all of the wax models commissioned and made in Florence. It was an ordeal just getting them to Austria from Italy. Pack mules carried the models over the alps and then they were transported on the Danube river before finally arriving in Vienna.
There is also a library (Josephina Library) with over 6,000 titles, the bulk of which are focused on surgical specialties.
Anatomisches Museum - Basel, Switzerland
The Anatomical Museum in Basel is part of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Basel. It was founded in 1824 by professor and noted Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Gustav Jung. It contains many original preparations of human body parts, organs and tissues, which show the structure of the human body.
Of particular interest is the skeleton of a man named Jacob Karrer von Geweiler. Legend has it that in 1543 von Geweiler was beheaded for attempting to murder his wife. Noted anatomist Andreas Vesalius happened to be in Basel at the time of this incident and von Geweiler’s body reached him. He ended up dissecting it. Miracle of all miracles, it is more or less preserved to this day in this actual museum in Basel. It’s currently the oldest known articulated anatomical preparation of a skeleton in the world.
It seems the museum is open at the time of me posting this (Dec 2021) but entry comes with some stipulations so please check the website in advance.
Planetario di Milano - Milan, Italy
Image Credit: L’Officina di Planetario Website
This is one of my favourite locations, as it’s a place that Lena and Alexandre visit in the book (don’t worry this fact doesn’t spoil anything). The Planetario di Milano is the biggest planetarium in Italy. Opened in 1930, it was designed by a famous architect from Milan, Piero Portaluppi and is located in the Porta Venezia district of Milan.
The actual planetarium has 300 seats. From what I read online, most of the programming is delivered in Italian, so it’s worth double-checking before you go. There’s also a lot of history about the planetarium you can read about on their website below. It looks like it is open, but again, COVID protocols are in place. Apart from the official website, the L’Officina Del Planetario has a lot of information about in-person and online events for kids and adults.
Medical Museion - Copenhagen, Denmark
The Medical Museion is part museum, part research unit at the University of Copenhagen. It was founded in 1906 by a group of Copenhagen doctors and opened to the public in 1907.
The Museion has one of the largest collections of of medical artifacts in Europe. In terms of anatomy, they have a wide selection of human remains that date back to the 18th century, including skeletons, bones, organs, and histology samples.
German Pharmacy Museum - Heidelberg, Germany
German Pharmacy Museum - Heidelberg, Germany. Image Credit: Schloss Heidelberg Website.
The German Pharmacy Museum (sometimes called the German Apothecary Museum), is located in the Heidelberg Castle in Heidelberg, Germany. The museum offers insights into the history of apothecaries and pharmaceuticals. One of the most amazing features is the display of actual old apothecaries and pharmacies that the museum staff transported into the space. There are also so many beautiful glass jars and bottles all neatly arranged.
It’s really a special place, when I saw pictures of it for the first time (I’ve never been in person), it reminded me of potions class in Harry Potter. This place is high of my list of things I want to see when I can travel a bit more safely.
Astronomy and Astrophysics Library - Toronto, Canada
I know this isn’t in Europe but a fun fact (at least I think it’s fun) is that in early drafts of The Circus Train, a chunk of the book was set at the University of Toronto. I had to cut out that portion but as it’s my alma mater, I wanted to include a few fun science locations there.
The first is the Astronomy and Astrophysics Library. For part of my undergraduate degree I lived across from the physics building, and they have a small but kind of amazing library devoted to astronomy and astrophysics on the top floor. As a student, I had access to any of the libraries I wanted to go to, so I would sometimes go there and read for hours. I wasn’t studying astrophysics but I’ve always loved space and astronomy. (Another fun fact: one of the careers I considered after I graduated was being an astronaut - seriously! But I didn’t meet all the physical requirements so shelved that dream pretty quickly. In hindsight, this was for the best. I am the kind of person that gets motion sickness riding a subway so being an astronaut would have likely killed me.)
U of T also used to have a planetarium on the St. George campus but it closed in 2019. However, many graduate students give public talks about their research. I attended a bunch of these before the pandemic and it does look like they are continuing with them online. Check out the AstroTours website for more details.
JCB Grant Anatomy Museum - Toronto, Canada
The JCB Grant Museum is a small anatomy museum located in the Medical Sciences building at the University of Toronto. It’s named after Dr. John Charles Boileau Grant, an anatomist, author of anatomy textbooks and former chair of the Department of Anatomy at the university.
According to the University of Toronto’s Surgery Department Website:
Grant believed that the museum should be more than a place for displaying specimens; it should also function as a useful working environment. Accordingly it was designed to have chairs and workbenches placed at desk height with lots of surface area for textbooks and notes. The dissected specimens were mounted in glass containers and placed on rotating tables so that they could be viewed from any angle. They were well-illuminated and accompanied by a labelled illustration.
This is exactly what the museum is like today. One of my courses involved dissecting cadavers and we had to use that museum to supplement our learnings.
Unfortunately it’s not open to the public. It’s always been locked with a secret code only given to students, researchers and staff. There’s no direct site for me to link to but there is an old article about the museum in The Toronto Star (apologies if it’s behind a paywall) for anyone interested in learning more.