Founded in 1807 , The Hunterian is Scotland's oldest public museum and home to one of the largest collections outside the National Museums. The Hunterian is one of the leading university museums in the world and its collections have been Recognised as a Collection of National Significance.
The Hunterian is the legacy of Dr William Hunter (1718-1783), pioneering obstetrician and teacher with a passion for collecting, who studied at the University of Glasgow from 1731 to 1736. In 1783 Hunter bequeathed his substantial collections of anatomical and pathological preparations, coins, books, manuscripts, botanical, geological and other materials to the University of Glasgow. He also gifted £8,000 towards the cost of building a museum in which to house his vast collection, which the University named the "Hunterian" in his honour.
The Hunterian Museum opened its doors in 1807 at it's first site, a classical style building designed by William Stark, in the east end near Glasgow Cathedral. In 1870, when the University moved to Gilmorehill, in the west end, the Hunterian collections were relocated to a custom-built museum in the Gilbert Scott Building. The collections have grown considerably since the Museum's foundation, and now include some of the most important work by artists such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh and James McNeill Whistler, as well as superb books, manuscripts, geological, zoological, anatomical, archaeological, ethnographic and scientific instrument collections. A new Collection Study Centre opened at the Kelvin Hall in 2016.