William Hunter was one of the greatest anatomists and physicians of the eighteenth century, a man who did more than almost anyone to make the teaching of anatomy a rigorous science and to establish obstetrics as a respected branch of medicine. Though he made his career in London, he was a son of the Glasgow countryside and a student of its university, and the magnificent collection he spent his life assembling came home to Glasgow, where it founded the Hunterian, Scotland’s oldest public museum.
From Long Calderwood to the University
Hunter was born in 1718 at Long Calderwood, a farm a few miles south of Glasgow, in what is now East Kilbride, the seventh of ten children. At thirteen he was sent to the University of Glasgow to train for the Church, but under the influence of the great physician William Cullen he turned instead to medicine. He served as Cullen’s resident pupil at Hamilton, and studied anatomy at Edinburgh, the beginning of a life in science and learning.
The making of an anatomist
In 1741 Hunter moved to London to train under the Scottish anatomist and obstetrician James Douglas, and rose quickly to the front rank of his profession. A brilliant lecturer and a superb dissector, in 1768 he opened his own celebrated anatomy school and museum in Great Windmill Street, where he and his pupils, among them his younger brother John, transformed the study of the human body.
The man-midwife to a queen
Hunter became the outstanding obstetrician of his day, attending the wealthy and the royal, including Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, at the births of her children, and serving as her physician extraordinary. He did much to take childbirth from the hands of the midwives and to establish obstetrics as a branch of medicine. His masterwork, The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus of 1774, a superbly illustrated atlas, remains a landmark of both science and art.
A collector without equal
From the 1760s Hunter collected on a vast scale, far beyond medicine: anatomical specimens, books and manuscripts, prints and paintings, shells, minerals and fossils, and a coin collection reckoned one of the finest in the world. He opened it to scholars, and it became famous across Europe.
A gift to Glasgow
Hunter died in London in 1783, ten days after collapsing during one of his lectures. He left his entire collection, together with a large sum to house it, to the University of Glasgow. It opened in 1807 as the Hunterian Museum, the first public museum in Scotland, and it still bears his name. You can read about the ancient institution he gave it to in our post on the age of the University of Glasgow.
The Hunter brothers
His younger brother, John Hunter, who had learned his trade at William’s side in London, became the celebrated surgeon often called the father of modern surgery. That two of the most important figures in the history of medicine should have come from one small Lanarkshire farm is remarkable indeed. Nor was the family’s gift confined to medicine: the Hunters’ niece was the celebrated poet and dramatist Joanna Baillie.
Related questions
Who was William Hunter?
A Scottish anatomist, physician and obstetrician of the eighteenth century, the leading teacher of anatomy of his day and the founder of the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow.
What is the Hunterian?
Scotland’s oldest public museum, at the University of Glasgow, founded on the great collection William Hunter left to the university. It opened in 1807.
Was William Hunter from Glasgow?
He was born at Long Calderwood, a farm near Glasgow, and studied at the University of Glasgow. He made his career in London, but left his collection to the city.
Who was William Hunter’s brother?
John Hunter, the celebrated surgeon often called the father of modern surgery, who first learned anatomy under William in London.