Saturday 21st August 1819
Saturday 21st Dr Friar to whom Papa had a letter of introduction gave us permission to see Dr Hunters collection museum at the College we met with a very agreeable lady and gentleman. Mr and Mrs ?Macmath? at the college and very greatly delighted with a superb collection of Coins, Pictures Shells Minerals Fossils &c.
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
The Hunterian Museum is the legacy of Dr William Hunter (1718 - 1783), a pioneering obstetrician and teacher with a passion for collecting. Born locally, and a student at the University of Glasgow, Hunter found fame and fortune in London as physician to Queen Charlotte and as a teacher of anatomy. He lavished his wealth on building up the vast private collection which he bequeathed to the University in 1783, along with money to create a suitable museum.
circa 1764-1765: Portrait of William Hunter by Allan Ramsay in the collection of the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery. Source http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH0015&type=P . This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Hunter_(anatomist).jpg
The Hunterian opened its doors in 1807, making it Scotland’s oldest museum and giving it a unique place within Scotland’s cultural heritage. The first Hunterian Museum, built with William Hunter’s bequest and filled with his collections, opened in 1807. It was located in the University of Glasgow’s first site, in the East End near Glasgow Cathedral. The classical style building, designed by William Stark, was open to the public from 12.00pm until 2.00pm every day except Sunday.
2018: Hunterian Museum, main hall, by Stephen C Dickson, the copyright holder of this work, who publishes it under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hunterian_Museum,_main_hall.jpg
Lucy admired the fossils. These Scottish fossils can currently be found at the main hall of the museum:
2013: Scottish fossils at The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow, by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), the copyright holder of this work, and published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Various_fossils_on_display_at_the_Hunterian_Museum,_Glasgow..JPG
The collection include scientific instruments, Roman artefacts, life sciences, rocks & minerals, Dinosaurs & fossils, Hunter’s own extensive anatomical teaching collection, one of the world’s greatest numismatic collections, impressive ethnographic objects from Captain Cook’s Pacific voyages and a major art collection. https://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunterian_Museum_and_Art_Gallery
Below, The hall of the the Antonine Wall; Rome's final frontier. The wall was built around 142 CE in the reign of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius and ran coast-to-coast across Scotland from the Clyde to the Firth of Forth.
2013: The hall of the the Antonine Wall; Rome's final frontier at The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow, by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), the copyright holder of this work, and published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Antonine_Wall,_Rome%27s_final_frontier,_the_Hunterian_Museum..JPG
Below, a sycamore coffin containing a mummified body of an Egyptian woman. The hieroglyphic inscriptions on the coffin state that the deceased woman's name is Shepnehor (or Shep-en-hor) and died around 600 BCE. From the necropolis of the Western Thebes, Southern Egypt
2013: The Lady Shepenhor, at The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow, by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), the copyright holder of this work, and published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Lady_Shepenhor,_the_Hunterian_Museum,_Glasgow_University..JPG
The College: The university was originally located in the city's High Street until it moved in 1870 to Gilmorehill in the West End of the city. A model of the old building is on display at the Hunterian.
2004: A model of the original buildings of the University of Glasgow in their old location on the High Street of Glasgow. This model is on display in the University's Hunterian Museum. Photo taken May 7th 2004 by Finlay McWalter at English Wikipedia . This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wfm_glasgow_uni_model.jpg
1693: Collegio de Glascow in Scozia by J Slezer from Theatrum Scotiae http://www.rareoldprints.com/z/15019
In common with universities of the pre-modern era, Glasgow originally educated students primarily from wealthy backgrounds, however, it became a pioneer in British higher education in the 19th century by also providing for the needs of students from the growing urban and commercial middle class. Glasgow University served all of these students by preparing them for professions: the law, medicine, civil service, teaching, and the church. It also trained smaller but growing numbers for careers in science and engineering. Alumni or former staff of the university include James Wilson (a founding father of the United States), philosopher Francis Hutcheson, engineer James Watt, philosopher and economist Adam Smith, physicist Lord Kelvin, surgeon Joseph Lister, seven Nobel laureates, and three British Prime Ministers.
The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451 by a charter or papal bull from Pope Nicholas V, at the suggestion of King James II, giving Bishop William Turnbull, a graduate of the University of St Andrews, permission to add a university to the city's Cathedral. It is the second-oldest university in Scotland after St Andrews and the fourth-oldest in the English-speaking world. The universities of St Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen were ecclesiastical foundations, while Edinburgh was a civic foundation. The university's initial accommodation including Glasgow University Library was part of the complex of religious buildings in the precincts of Glasgow Cathedral.
1848: College Church Front View, engraved by Allan & Ferguson, from Glasgow in Former Times http://www.rareoldprints.com/p/19792
1848: College Church Back View, engraved by Allan & Ferguson, from Glasgow in Former Times http://www.rareoldprints.com/p/19792
In 1460, the university received a grant of land from James, Lord Hamilton, on the east side of the High Street, immediately north of the Blackfriars Church, on which it had its home for the next four hundred years. In the mid-seventeenth century, the Hamilton Building was replaced with a very grand two-court building with a decorated west front facing the High Street, called the "Nova Erectio", or New Building. This foundation is widely considered to have been one of the finest 17th century buildings in Scotland. Decorated fragments from it, including a complete exterior stairway, were rescued and built into its 19th century replacement. In Sir Walter Scott's best-selling 1817 novel Rob Roy, set at the time of the Jacobite rising of 1715, the lead character fights a duel in the New Building grounds before the contest is broken up by Rob Roy MacGregor. Over the following centuries, the university's size and scope continued to expand. In 1757 it built the Macfarlane Observatory and later Scotland's first public museum, the Hunterian. It was a centre of the Scottish Enlightenment and subsequently of the Industrial Revolution, and its expansion in the High Street was constrained. The area around the university declined as well-off residents moved westwards with expansion of the city and overcrowding of the immediate area by less well-off residents. It was this rapid slumming of the area that was a chief catalyst of the university's migration westward.
Teaching at the university began in the chapterhouse of Glasgow Cathedral, subsequently moving to nearby Rottenrow, in a building known as the "Auld Pedagogy".
1848: Rottenrow, engraved by Allan & Ferguson, from Glasgow in Former Times http://www.rareoldprints.com/p/19792
1848: Rottenrow, engraved by Allan & Ferguson, from Glasgow in Former Times http://www.rareoldprints.com/p/19792
The university was given 13 acres (5.3 ha) of land belonging to the Black Friars (Dominicans) on High Street by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1563. By the late 17th century its building centred on two courtyards surrounded by walled gardens, with a clock tower, which was one of the notable features of Glasgow's skyline – reaching 140 feet (43 m) in height and a chapel adapted from the church of the former Dominican (Blackfriars) friary. Remnants of this Scottish Renaissance building, mainly parts of the main facade, were transferred to the Gilmorehill campus and renamed as the "Pearce Lodge", after Sir William Pearce, the shipbuilding magnate who funded its preservation. The Lion and Unicorn Staircase was also transferred from the old college site and is now attached to the Main Building. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Glasgow
Can you help us?
Transcription problems: As untrained transcribers we sometimes experience problems interpreting some of Lucy’s writing. We have a problem deciphering one section today:
.jpg){kind=link}
lady and gentleman. Mr and Mrs ?Macmath? We have hazarded a guess as the the name of Lucy’s hosts - any help would be appreciated.
Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?