S. Wielaard, MSc

Visit to the Anatomical Museum

Workshop Leader: S. Wielaard, MSc

Department: Anatomical Museum, Leiden University Medical Center

History

The anatomical collection of the LUMC has been acquired over the past centuries and even contains some preparations that were attained around 1600 AD. The founder of the museum was Bernhard Siegfried Albinus who lived in the 18th century. He was a german professor who worked at Leiden University and who dedicated his life to the anatomy of the body by making the first atlas of human anatomy and by creating a vast collection, a part of which can be seen in the Albinus cabinet. In that antique, wooden cabinet you’ll find some original preparations of the 18th century.

The wall of fame next to the cabinet is an overview of professors who have been important for the further formation of the wide collection of this Anatomical Museum. Over the past centuries 11000 preparations have been collected and the most diverse and special ones have been selected and placed in this museum.

The exhibition

1. The five display cases on the ground floor have been set up around the theme “Healthy and sick”. Each display unit represents a specific phase of human life: it contains a panel with slides of healthy tissue and racks filled with medical sections of physical abnormalities or defects. The racks or ladders are organised after Underwood’s disease classification (General Systematic Pathology). Each such island has two touch screens containing information on the medical sections and sometimes close-ups of the abnormalities.
2. Based on the theme “The Leiden tradition”, historical medical sections are displayed in the 300-year-old Albinus case. There are also paintings by famous anatomists and panels with information about how the collection came into being.
3. On the first floor of the museum, alongside the display case with changing exhibits, you will find a long wall display showing unique medical sections and models and a skeleton display.