Hunterian Letters: Grey-Turner Bequest

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0114 MS0191
Held at	: Royal College of Surgeons of England   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/archives/ ›
Full title	: Hunterian Letters: Grey-Turner Bequest
Date(s)	: 1775-1793
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 volume
Name of creator(s)	: Hunter | John | 1728-1793 | surgeon and anatomist Hunter | William | 1718-1783 | anatomist and surgeon Hunter | Anne Home | 1742-1821 | poet

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

John Hunter was born in East Kilbride, in 1728. He travelled to London to join his elder brother William Hunter (1718-1783) in 1748. John assisted William by carrying out dissections and preparing specimens. John began attending lectures by leading surgeons in 1749, and by 1754 John was a surgeon-pupil at St George's Hospital, London. Soon afterwards he began to take some of William Hunter's lectures. John Hunter carried out research into a variety of areas, many of which were published later in his life. John Hunter was commissioned as army surgeon to the British Army in 1761. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1767. He became a member of the Company of Surgeons in 1768. John Hunter married Anne Home in 1771, with whom he had two children, John Banks Hunter and Agnes Hunter (two further children died in infancy). John Hunter built up his private practice and continued to give lectures in surgery. He remained an active teacher and researcher until his death in 1793. For a further biographical information see MS0189.

William Hunter was also born in East Kilbride in 1718. He studied medicine at Edinburgh. By 1746 had embarked on a successful private career in London as a midwife and physician and a private lecturer in surgery and anatomy. He died in 1783.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Hunterian letters, 1775-1793, comprising a photograph of the donor, Professor George Grey Turner (1877-1951); letter from John Hunter of London to Edward Jenner, 24 May [1775], regarding a scheme to teach Natural History including both Human and Comparative anatomy, and requesting Jenner to assist him by coming to London; letter from John Hunter of Leciester Square to Robert Adam, 31 May 1789, concerning a testimonial for his nephew, Dr Baillie, for the position of Physician at St George's Hospital; letter from John Hunter to an unidentified correspondent, 15 Jan 1793, concerning natural history specimens; letter from William Hunter of Windmill Street to an unidentified correspondent, 6 Nov 1779, concerning some coins, and the dissection of a body where death was caused by sudden contraction of the heart; and a letter from Anne Home Hunter of Lower Grosvenor Street, to an unidentified correspondent, regarding collection of a manuscript.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

As outlined in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

By written appointment only.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No photocopying permitted.

Finding aids:

Library card catalogue.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Bequeathed by Professor George Grey Turner (FRCS) at his death in 1951.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Sep 2008