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The Junior Curator's Room

Introduction & Welcome from The Junior Curator

Hello, everyone. My name is Harriet Goddard and I'm the Junior Curator here.

My father, Jonathan Goddard, is a Consultant Urological Surgeon and Curator of the BAUS Virtual Museum of Urology.

Click on our names to visit the Museum Reception Desk, see what we both look like and read a little more about us.

In this room, I'll tell you about some of the interesting things we have on display. They are all listed below - click the dropdown boxes to get more information.

Any new items or rooms will be showcased here, so keep checking back ...

I prepared my room as part of an exhibit for Kids in Museums Takeover Day

The Junior Curator's Office

With floor space in short supply in many museums, the advantage of a Virtual Museum is that you can put your office anywhere and there is no limit on space.

My office is a small room under the stairs which leads up to the floor above the Museum.  

As you know, poor Harry Potter was forced to live under the stairs at his home in Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, but he was put there as a punishment.  

Fortunately, I have a well-equipped, comfortable, understairs office with my name by the door, as you can see from the photograph (right). Actually, that's not really what my office looks like but, hey, we can all dream, can't we ... ?

 

The Autograph Cupboard

I've just had a walk-in cupboard knocked through from my little room. I thought I would use it to display some of the autographs we have collected in the museum.

In this section of the museum, you'll find lots of autographs of famous people from the history of medicine in general, and from urology in particular. Just click on the image of each signature to find out more, and to learn about the person behind the pen.

I've got a new autograph book too (pictured right), so I'll be looking for more autographs to add to the historic ones we already have in our collection.  Keep checking back for new additions.

Click here to have a look inside the cupboard ...

 

The Medal Cabinet

Inside my room, under the stairs, I have installed a glass cabinet which I have called "The Medal Cabinet". As you might have guessed, this cabinet holds many shiny medals from a number of urologists.

Medals are, basically, discs (usually cast in metal) that have pictures or writing on them. They are made as a reminder of an event, or are given as a prize. The Museum has several medals that belonged to famous urologists.

I shall also put some wartime medals in the collection because some famous urologists, including Presidents of BAUS, served as doctors in the Second World War.

Click here to have a look inside the cabinet ...

 

The Stone Crusher: Man and Machine

This stone crusher was invented by a man named Sir Henry Thompson (pictured right).  He was an amazing man and people called him a "polymath" (that's someone who knows lots about a wide variety of things).

The instrument below is called a lithotrite (that's Greek for "stone crushing").

As you can see from the video podcast, the stone crusher is a funny shape. It is silver in colour and the end that goes into the patient is curvy.

It is used for breaking up stones in people's bladders: when it was first designed, stones in the bladder were much commoner than they are today.

To use it, you must twist the wheel on the end that works the crushing jaws, but you need to be careful because you can't see the stone or the crushing end - they're inside the patient and there's no telescope.

Take a look at the video podcasts in the section below; one of them shows the Thompson lithotrite in action ... not on a stone, of course, but on a boiled sweet!  

To see one method of stone crushing in use today, click here.

 

Video Podcasts

Roman Toilets

This is from the "History of the Flush Toilet"
exhibit in the Ladies' WC ... Read more

Magical Saxon Urology

;

This is from the "Timeline" exhibit
on the Dark Ages ... Read more

Using the Stone Crusher

 

Curator's note: no stones were harmed during
the making of this video (we used sweets) ... Read more

Sir Henry Thompson

This is from Sir Henry Thompson's
"Famous Urologists" exhibit ... Read more