About Us
The Devon & Exeter Medical Heritage Trust was started informally in 2017/18 by a group of volunteer curators to hold, preserve, and care for a medical heritage collection. In August 2020, we registered formally as a charity to better help us preserve these items and their stories, and bring them into public awareness.
We have gratefully received the collection of historical medical items as a donation from the Devon & Exeter Medical Society.
We now look to create an Exeter Healthcare Museum, to protect these items and bring them to the public. To support this work, please consider giving a donation: DONATE.
Vision
A community in contact with heritage and our collection.
An accredited museum – Exeter Healthcare Museum -that can highlight the abundance and diversity of medical history and heritage in Devon and Exeter, the UK and beyond.
Mission
- To establish proper care for the historic objects passed onto us, so that we may continue to learn through them and their stories.
- To raise public interest and discussion on health care issues throughout history and contemporary society.
- To develop a programme of handling sessions and events that bring people into contact with our objects and stories.
The Collection contains approximately 12,000 items of medical equipment and books. The artefacts are an eclectic mix of donated items – everything from Roman scalpels to portable anaesthetic machines, from 1950s nursing uniforms to 18th-century medicine chests, and from modern metal instruments to historic personal effects of various medical professionals.
The Collection started in the early 20th Century, with various doctors and physicians collecting objects they enjoyed or found intriguing. At some point in the 1960s, Dr Tom Fison with the Devon & Exeter Medical Society made great efforts to put together a museum collection. He received donations of objects, books, papers, and ephemera from various members of the Society and beyond, and bought many other items.
Since then, the Collection has held been in many different venues Exeter under many curators and many names – Exeter Medical Library, Exeter Hospitals Trust Museum, Medical Society Museum, Postgraduate Medical Centre Museum… By 2016, the Collection had lost its home in the Postgraduate Medical Centre in the University of Exeter and was moved to various basements, attics, and homes. Most of the pre-1900 manuscripts and books are now held at the Exeter Cathedral Library & Archives and Devon Heritage Centre.
Once we started in 2020, we found a new home in Exeter Community Centre where we now hold and store the Collection, and organise events and exhibitions.
Cataloguing the Collection is ongoing! An original handwritten catalogue had been maintained by Dr Fison, with 300 or so items. In 2004, the Wellcome Institute awarded a grant to digitise this catalogue and photograph items, but some remain unseen and unknown to the public and to us.
DEMH Trust aims to continue this work today, cataloguing objects and curating displays on a regular basis and working towards becoming an Accredited Museum.
People and Partners
Trustees
We have 6 Trustees who look after the Trust and its work.
They contribute much time, effort and expertise towards the Trust.
Volunteers
Coordinator
Our Collections Coordinator looks after our volunteers, the storeroom and the storage and use of the collection.
If you would like to arrange a visit to view some of the collection, please get in touch: coordinator@demht.org
Exeter Heritage Partnership
As a member of the Exeter Heritage Partnership, we collaborate with a number of venues and organisations to create more opportunities for people in Exeter to engage with heritage. The Partnership also runs Exeter Heritage Champions – a flexible volunteering programme. While many organisations, like ourselves, have their own group of volunteers, the Champions project creates an easy entry point for people who are interested in volunteering with historic buildings or collections but don’t know where to start!
If you’re interested in becoming a Heritage Champion, please visit the Better Impact page to sign up or email exeheritagevolunteers@gmail.com to find out more.
The Exeter Heritage Champions project is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The Exeter Heritage Partnership is also supported by Exeter City Council, the University of Exeter and Exeter Culture.
Partnership with EHBT
Exeter Historic Building Trust (EHBT) exists to preserve for the benefit of the people of Exeter and the nation buildings and other structures in and around the city of particular beauty or of historic or architectural merit. EHBT was founded in 1996 to rescue the former refectory wing of the 11th century Benedictine monastery of St Nicholas Priory. They now take care of the entirety of St Nicholas Priory, having received the West Wing in 2017 through a Community Asset Transfer.
Our partnership enables us to work together to share resources and put on joint events. Find out more by clicking through to their websites here: EHBT and St Nicholas Priory.
Find Us...
We are based at Exeter Community Centre in Exeter, where we have our workrooms. Arrange to meet us via our contact form.
The nearest car park is Mary Arches Street, which is a five-minute walk.
Exeter Central train station is a ten-minute walk.
The bus station is a 15-minute walk with many buses stopping on the High Street which is ten minutes away.