Interior of the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow, c 1970s.
During the mid-18th century a former student, the surgeon and anatomist William Hunter, bequeathed his collection of books, manuscripts, coins, medical materials and geological and botanical specimens to the University of Glasgow. In 1804 the collection was housed in a purpose-built museum at the Old College on High Street, built using funds from Hunter's bequest.
The museum was transferred to premises in the central section of the north front in the Gilbert Scott Building when the University moved to Gilmorehill in 1870, and remains there at the beginning of the 21st century. Collecting has continued and the museum has significant collections of Roman, Egyptian, and hominid material; objects collected on Captain James Cook's expeditions in the 1760s and 1770s; a collection of Asante weights, and rare dinosaur fossils. One of the museum's most prized attractions is the extensive coin collection containing some 70,000 coins, tokens and medals from ancient Greece and Rome; the Byzantine Empire; Medieval Europe; Celtic Britain, and post-Renaissance Europe.
Reference: Glasgow University Archive Services, PHU49/15
University of Glasgow
Keywords:
coins, galleries, Gilbert Scott Building, Hunterian Museum, museum collections, museums, University of Glasgow buildings
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