UCL BLOOMSBURY PROJECT

History

It was founded in memory of Edmund Alexander Parkes, Physician to University College Hospital, Professor of Clinical Medicine at University College, and hygienist, who had died in 1876; the Museum opened in 1879 (The Times, 28 July 1880)

It was intended as a place of general instruction about all aspects of public health, with exhibits and a library (The Times, 28 July 1880)

It was open three days a week, free to enter, and had had more than 2000 visitors in the first seven months of 1880 (The Times, 28 July 1880)

Its Hon. Secretary in 1880 was Dr G[eorge] V[ivian] Poore (The Times, 28 July 1880), Assistant Physician to University College Hospital, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence at University College, and hygienist

In 1887 Poore was Vice-Chairman of the Council of the Institute, with E. White Wallis as Secretary (British Medical Journal, 26 November 1887)

In 1888 it amalgamated with the Sanitary Institute, having shared premises with this institution (also founded in 1876) since 1883 (B. P. Bergman and S. A. StJ. Miller, ‘Historical Perspectives on Health: The Parkes Museum of Hygiene and the Sanitary Institute’, Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, vol. 123, 2003)

However, the Museum continued to be known as the Parkes Museum in memory of Parkes, even after the merger (B. P. Bergman and S. A. StJ. Miller, ‘Historical Perspectives on Health: The Parkes Museum of Hygiene and the Sanitary Institute’, Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, vol. 123, 2003)

It hosted the early meetings of the Childhood Society, founded in 1896 by Francis Warner (Adrian Wooldridge, Measuring the Mind: Education and Psychology in England, c. 1860–1990, 1994), with the support of Douglas Strutt Galton, Chairman of Council of the Parkes Museum from 1882 to 1888 and of the combined institution thereafter (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

Its emphasis on practical demonstrations for teaching purposes was particularly notable; in 1888 Jabez Hogg, of 1 Bedford Square, wrote to The Times about his donation of a patent brick to the Museum which enabled visitors to see for themselves how ineffective masonry was as a protection against gases, by blowing a candle out through the length of the brick (The Times, 26 October 1882)

In 1887 its Committee wrote to the British Medical Journal to emphasise its importance to the medical profession, claiming that “[t]he lectures and demonstrations in the Parkes Museum have constituted a post-graduate course of a very high order of usefulness” (at a time when hygiene was not a part of the medical curriculum) (British Medical Journal, 26 November 1887)

Bergman and Miller wrote in 2003 that “Today, few people are aware of the important contribution to public health which was made by...[this] institution” (B. P. Bergman and S. A. StJ. Miller, ‘Historical Perspectives on Health: The Parkes Museum of Hygiene and the Sanitary Institute’, Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, vol. 123, 2003)

The Sanitary Institute was granted a Royal Charter in 1904 (B. P. Bergman and S. A. StJ. Miller, ‘Historical Perspectives on Health: The Parkes Museum of Hygiene and the Sanitary Institute’, Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, vol. 123, 2003)

In 1955 the Royal Sanitary Institute became the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, and in 1956 the Parkes Museum became the Health Exhibition Centre, further refurbished and officially reopened in 1961 (B. P. Bergman and S. A. StJ. Miller, ‘Historical Perspectives on Health: The Parkes Museum of Hygiene and the Sanitary Institute’, Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, vol. 123, 2003)

The Museum was then still the only one of its kind in the world (P. Arthur Wells, ‘Eighty-Eight Years Old and Still Going Strong! —Royal Society of Health’s Proud Record’, International Journal of Nursing Studies, vol. 2 (April 1965)

The Health Exhibition Centre closed in 1971 when the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health moved to Grosvenor Place (B. P. Bergman and S. A. StJ. Miller, ‘Historical Perspectives on Health: The Parkes Museum of Hygiene and the Sanitary Institute’, Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, vol. 123, 2003)

The Royal Society for the Promotion of Health later became the Royal Society for Public Health, and merged under that name with the Royal Institute of Public Health in 2008

The Royal Society for Public Health is a registered charity (no. 1125949) which continues to provide qualifications, accreditation, and certification for public health, as well as producing the journals Public Health and Perspectives in Public Health; however, it no longer has a museum or exhibition for the edification of the general public