MUZEUM HISTORII MEDYCYNY WUM
We are pleased to announce that our first part of permanent exhibition will be opened to visitors on May 18. The exhibition will be available to you on Mondays – Fridays from 9.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.
We look forward to see you!
Today we are delighted to share with you the exciting news about a very important event in the history of our Museum. The completion of the first showroom of our anatomical theater has just finished, and thus we are starting the arrangement of our new exhibition. The display is being prepared, and more artefacts are taking their rightful place in museum display cases. Another task is to perform 3D mapping – after its completion and after lifting the restrictions, we will be able to welcome you at the first permanent exhibition of our museum. The ceremonial opening of the new space will take place before Easter – the report from this event will be available through all communication channels of our museum.
As part of our project ” Uncover the secrets of the human body in an anatomical theatre of the 21st century” we have prepared an educational pack for you, thanks to which you will be able to train your brain and consolidate the knowledge about anatomy acquired through our lectures, workshops and website. Already printed educational brochures are safely stowed in our museum, waiting patiently for the university gates to be opened to the public. For now, we provide you with a digitalized version. We wish you a lot of fun!
The folder in pdf format is available for download HERE:
Prepared by: Diana Święcka
Graphics and typesetting: Piotr Berezowski
The project “Uncover the secrets of the human body in an anatomical theater of the 21st century” is co-financed by the “Social Responsibility of Science” programme of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education
We are very pleased to announce the implementation of the next stage of our project “Learn the secrets of the human body in the anatomical theater of the 21st century”. As part of the ministerial subsidy, a set of educational models was purchased, which will be widely used in promoting knowledge about the structure of the human body. Our new acquisitions will be available to both students preparing for academic classes and all visitors to the newly established anatomical museum theater. Phantoms will be used during workshops and educational lectures aimed at children, adolescents and adults as well. We are therefore looking forward to the opening – as soon as the epidemiological situation allows – our new educational space, and we encourage all interested students to apply to the Museum of the History of Medicine of the Medical University of Warsaw to be able to take advantage of our new acquisitions (muzeum@wum.edu.pl) ).
We cordially invite you to see our gallery showing all the phantoms!
The anatomical models were purchased as part of the project ” Uncover the secrets of the human body in an anatomical theater of the 21st century “, co-financed by the program “Social Responsibility of Science” run by the Minister of Science and Higher Education.
Photos: WUM Photomedical Department
We have just received new deposits – these are pre-war anatomical models that were lent to us thanks to the courtesy of the head of the Department of Human and Clinical Anatomy, prof. Bogdan Ciszek. Made of plaster (often with the addition of “mache” paper) and hand-painted, such models became popular teaching materials for the study of anatomy in the early 20th century and a practical replacement for hard-to-reach human corpses.
All three models will be a great addition to our permanent exhibition, which opens in winter 2021. One of them is the male figure shown in photos 1 and 2 with exposed muscles. The left arm is raised with the arm bent at the elbow. The right arm is slightly bent, pointing down with the palm of the hand up. The leg position causes the hips to twist. This position allows one to define and visualize detailed muscle groups of the arms and legs, upper chest and hips both when stretched and tense (on the left side of the figure), and flexed and slightly relaxed (on the right side of the model). From the 18th century onwards, this kind of representation of an anatomically refined “muscle man” has been reffered to by the French term écorché (skinned) in both art history and medicine.
The earliest confirmed artistic representations of écorchés come from the Renaissance period. Many écorché drawings by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) have survived, for example the study of the arm with its arm stretched downwards in four positions (1509–1510. Other famous examples are Jean Antoine Houdon’s Ecorche from 1767, St. Bartholomew “Marco d ‘Agrate from 1562 or” Smugglerius “by William Pink from 1864.
All these famous Ecorches along with photos have been posted in the Art — Works of Art section of this website.
Photos: Wellcome Collection
One of the most famous eighteenth-century anatomical atlases, which was created with the participation of the graphic artist and anatomist Jacques Fabien Gautier d’Agoty (1716-1785). The main task of this work was to facilitate the study of anatomy for students of medicine, surgery, painting and sculpture. In the creation of this work and other anatomical atlases, Gautier d’Agoty collaborated with Jacques Francois Duverney, a Parisian surgeon and anatomy demonstrator at the Jardin du Roy. As far as the medical value of the content of the atlas is concerned, it was small in the eyes of specialists and has added nothing significant to science since the time of Vesalius. On the other hand, the illustrations that complemented it were extremely valuable. They were made using the mezzotint method, which Gautier d’Agoty learned from his master Jacob Christoph Le Blon, enriching them later with the addition of black. The anatomical pictures from Myologie complette aroused much controversy in the 18th century. They were attributed to sublime drama, artistic arrogance, and sometimes even an insult to Christian morality. The realistic close-ups of female and male genitals depicted next to each other were particularly controversial. In some cases, they were read as disguised personal erotic fantasies of the artist. It seems, however, that in this way he rather wanted to draw the attention of influential personalities to his works, which could have positively influenced the expansion of his printing activities. Today, due to the characteristic style and extremely original compositions, Gautier d’Agoty is considered to be the progenitor of surrealism.
On behalf of the Museum of the History of Medicine of the Medical University of Warsaw and the honorable speaker – dr hab. n. med. Tomasz Dzieciatkowski, we are honored to cordially invite you to an open lecture entitled “Viruses and epidemics – a trending topic”. It will be the first in a series of ten lectures carried out as part of the project “Learn the secrets of the human body in the anatomical theater of the 21st century”. Continue reading “Open lecture: “Viruses and epidemics – a trending topic””
Once again, employees of the Museum of the History of Medicine of the Medical University of Warsaw, together with representatives of the Students Union of our University, visited the graves of professors and doctors associated with the Medical University of Warsaw. During the visit, candles were lit and flowers laid over 30 graves located in two of the most famous Warsaw cemeteries: Old Powązki and Powązki Military.
The yearly event was carried out a week before All Saints’ Day. During its duration, we lit symbolic lamps on the graves, laid flowers – and, if necessary, also cleaned the graves.
Among the graves visited, we could not miss the graves of four outstanding representatives of the world of Warsaw anatomy and pathology: Edward Loth, Witold Sylwanowicz, Ludwik Paszkiewicz and Wiktor Garówka-Dąbrowski, whose graves are presented in the photos below.
The graves of professors and medics distinguished for the Medical University of Warsaw were found thanks to the support of Dr. Adam Tyszkiewicz, director of the Museum of the History of Medicine, who briefly introduced the participants to the profiles of each of the visited figures resting on both necropolises.
The project ‘Uncover the secrets of the human body in an anatomical theatre of the 21st century’ which is being carried out in the years 2020–2022.
Co-financed by the programme ‘Social Responsibility of Science’ run by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
The Medical University of Warsaw has received funding of PLN 266,175.51 in response to its application submitted to the programme ‘Social Responsibility of Science’ run by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
The Project is being carried out by the Museum of the History of Medicine, with the assistance of other entities within the university, and is headed by Dr Adam Tyszkiewicz, director of the Museum of the History of Medicine at the Warsaw Medical University.
As part of the project, a teaching room will be set up modelled on early modern anatomical theatres, in which classes and practical workshops will be held, as well as scientific meetings to popularize the history of medicine, pharmacy and their relationship with the humanities. In addition, a series of open lectures will be delivered by specialists in the aforementioned fields.
The aim of the Project is to promulgate the current state of knowledge on the human anatomy among young people and adults so as to increase social awareness on the functioning of the human body, provoke an interest in the medical sciences among the participants, and awaken their curiosity through the presentation of knowledge both from the perspective of the medical sciences as well as the humanities. Furthermore, the project has the objective of familiarizing the audience with the profiles of renowned Polish anatomists whose biographies encompass both their scientific activities and their services to their homeland. We are hoping to make available a modern space which will continue to function when the ministerial programme ends.
During a series of classes held in the anatomical theatre, young people from secondary schools and groups of adults from selected organizations – such as associations, retirement homes, universities of the third age – will get to learn about medicine and the humanities. The remaining group of participants, i.e. all other interested parties, will have the opportunity to become acquainted with attractive themed presentations by specialists in various disciplines which are broadly related to human anatomy.
Therefore, we warmly encourage you all to follow our project website where you can find updates about the progress of our activities and planned events, and knowledge for all in the field of anatomy.