Curating Cultural Heritage for the Medical and Health Humanities
The project brings together three Matariki Network members, Queen’s, Uppsala, and Durham, to catalyse research collaboration in the globally relevant field of medical humanities. Together the partners will explore how medical cultural heritage, which raises challenging questions about hegemonic ideas of health, illness, and disability, can be sensitively curated to support medical and health humanities research, education, and public engagement towards the goal of increased health equity.
Activities centre on three on-site workshops, each with a different thematic focus and goal. The workshops will take place at 1) Uppsala, focussing on Indigenous led, artistic engagement with medical cultural heritage towards equity-led critical medical humanities research; 2) Queen’s, with a focus on curating difficult medical cultural heritage towards equity-focused medical humanities education; 3) Oslo, with a focus on curating art and medical cultural heritage towards increased public engagement in medical humanities.
Workshop participants visiting the Uppsala Museum of Medical History.
In addition to the project PI and co-Is (Allison Morehead, Cecilia Rodéhn & Fiona Johnstone), the project brings together stakeholders from the Centre for Medical Humanities, Uppsala (Ylva Söderfeldt & Erika Sigvardsdotter); the Museum of Medical History, Uppsala (Thérèse Toudert); the Museum of Health Care, Kingston (Rowena McGowan); History of Medicine, Queen’s (Jenna Healey); the Department of Psychiatry, Queen’s (Oyedeji Ayonrinde); and members of Durham’s Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities.
Curating Cultural Heritage for the Medical and Health Humanities is supported by a Matariki Seed Fund Award (2023-24).
Workshop 1 - Uppsala University, Sweden, September 2024. Curating Medical Heritage: Reconciliation and Indigeneity.
This workshop is convened by Cecilia Rodéhn (Uppsala University), and co-funded by the Matariki Network of Universities, CIRCUS, the Centre for Medical Humanities, and the Centre for Gender Research.
23 September: The archive of the Institute of Race Biology
This day is dedicated to exploring the archive of the Institute of Racial Biology at Uppsala University library Carolina Rediviva. The Institute of Racial Biology was established following a parliamentary decision in 1921 and started operations in 1922 in Uppsala. It was an independent institute, but connected to Uppsala University. Eventually the Institute of Racial Biology was terminated, but research continued in different forms at the Department of Medical Genetics in 1959. At that time, Uppsala University was also handed the responsibility of the institute’s archive. The archive contains different kinds of material, but is best known for the 105 photo albums containing more than 12,000 pictures of different population types (folkgrupper). These albums have spurred interest, but also outrage, among the public.
In the morning we will discuss the photographic archive of the Institute of Race Biology held at Uppsala University Library (Special Collections Division; Maps and Pictures). We will meet historian and archivist Christel Kraft and Per Widén who will show us the photo albums and the collection and provide a history and background to the collection. Focusing on the curatorial perspective, we engage in a conversation with them about what it entails handling and caring for this collection, making it accessible to the public, meeting visitors, and Uppsala University Library’s relations to the Sámi communities and Sámi parliament.
In the afternoon we will explore indigenous Sámi artistic practices in relation to this archive. We will have the unique opportunity to view Katarina Pirak Sikku’s installation Agálaččat bivttastuvvon sohkagotti ivnniiguin/Ihkát ájttegij bájnoj gárvodum/För evigt klädda i ättens färger/ Ihkuven aajkan maadtoej klaeriejgujmie gåårveldihkie/Perpetually Wound in the Colours of the Ancestors (2021), only shown once previously. Pirak Sikku will talk about her artistic process. In conversation, Allison Morehead and Katrina Pirak Sikku will discuss aspects of art, medical collection, indigeneity and decolonialisation.
24 September: Catarina Larsdotter and the repatriation of human remains
Day two we travel to Stockholm and visit the Hagströmer Library at Karolinska Institutet (a Medical University established in 1810). We meet with researchers and curators Olof Ljungström, Maria Josephsson and Ann Gustavsson. In Sweden, like in many countries, it is common that older anatomical institutions still keep collections of skulls, bones and skeletons. In 2007, the Sámi parliament of Sweden demanded that Sámi human remains should be identified in collections and that they should be repatriated to the areas where they were exhumated. Since 2015, Karolinska Institutet has conducted an inventory of the 800+ human remains in their historical anatomical collection. The process focuses on establishing the age and provenance of the human remains. This work has been increasingly difficult seeing that a fire in 1892 destroyed the ledger where provenance was recorded. The fire also destroyed the remains of 31 Sami individuals, 22 of whom were from Sweden. Or so it was believed. Through the extraordinary case of the Sámi woman Christina Larsdotter we learn more about the work with identifying and repatriating Sámi human remains. Thinking together with the staff members at Hagströmer Library, what kind of research questions could this inspire?
25 September: The Museum of Medical History’s new exhibition
The Museum of Medical History in Uppsala tells the story of health and illness, in body and mind, through history. The building, in which the museum is located, is an attraction in itself. Designed by Axel Kumlien, it was completed in 1900. The building housed the administrative office for the then new part of the psychiatric hospital in the Ulleråker area, which was called the Asylum.
Around the turn of the century in 1900, staff at the psychiatric hospital began collecting art created by patients. Today, a large number of the preserved artworks are included in the collections at the Museum of Medical History in Uppsala. The artworks provide valuable insights into those who created the art, their experiences of illness and their care environment. We meet with curator Thérèse Toudert. She will give us a guided tour in the Museum of Medical History focusing on the new psychiatry history exhibition. The exhibition aims to highlight patients’ experiences in order restore patients’ dignity and de-stigmatize mental illness. In conversation, Allison Morehead and Thérèse Toudert will discuss medical art collections and exhibitions.
Workshop 2 - Queen’s University, Canada, March 2025. Curating Cultural Heritage for Health Equity and Justice.
This workshop was curated by Rowena McGowan, Jenna Healey, Allison Morehead and colleagues at Queen’s University Canada. It was co-funded by the Matariki Research Seed Fund, the Hannah Chair in Medicine, the Queen’s History Department, and the Nugent Fund.
18th March: Museum of Health Care
This day is dedicated to exploring the Museum of Health Care and the broader role of museums in their communities. The Museum of Health Care strives to connect visitors with the experiences of people in past times and provide context and perspective on today’s health issues. The Museum was established in 1991 and is located in the Ann Baillie Building National Historic Site, a former residence for student nurses built in 1904, on the grounds of Kingston General Hospital. The Museum has an active education program serving students from preschool to postsecondary level and holds approximately 35,000 artifacts, 15,000 of which are available to the public online.
In the morning we will be exploring the Museum of Health Care with an introduction by Dr.Simge Erdogan-O’Connor, Museum Director, and a tour by curator Rowena McGowan. The morning will begin with a smudging by Dionne Nolan, Indigenous Patient Navigator at Kingston General Hospital. In the afternoon Bellevue House Site & Visitor Experience Manager Tamara van Dyk will discuss the reinterpretation of Bellevue House in light of Canada’s broader grappling with the complicated legacy of its first prime minister, John A. MacDonald. Then we will move to the Ban Righ Centre, which assists women-identified students of all ages, especially those who are returning to university after a time away to continue formal or informal education, for an informal debrief and exploration of places of care.
Inspirational literature:
Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Calls to Action 2015 (especially the sections on Education, Health, Education for Reconciliation, Museums and Archives)
Low, J. A. (2009). The Museum of Health Care at Kingston: its Role in the Preservation of the Legacy of Health Care in Canada. Medicina nei Secoli: Journal of History of Medicine and Medical Humanities, 21(1), 301-319.
Agnes Reimagined: https://agnes.queensu.ca/agnes-reimagined/
19th March: George Teves Room, University Club, Queen’s University
Today we will be hosting an all-day showcase of pedagogy. The symposium will be drop-in and open to the public so you may attend as little or as much as you like. Researchers from around Ontario and Canada will be giving short talks on topics related to their work in medicine, healthcare and health humanities. A full list of speakers and subjects is available here: https://www.museumofhealthcare.ca/health-humanities-symposium-2025.html
20th March: Kingston Penitentiary, Rockwood and the P4W Collective
The Kingston Penitentiary is Canada’s oldest prison. Opening in 1835, the prison defined life in Kingston for many people. Operating for 178 years, the prison was infamous both for housing some of Canada’s most famous convicts and for the occasional controversies on how its residents were treated. Dave St. Onge will conduct a tour through the space and provide some insight on curating and educating on a space with difficult heritage.
Rockwood is the second psychiatric institution ever built in Ontario and was originally planned as an extension of the Kingston Penitentiary in order to house inmates struggling with their mental health. Very quickly, the institution began to serve the community’s needs as well. Sometimes a beacon of progressive treatment for its time and always under-resourced, Rockwood has a complicated legacy. The iconic Rockwood building is currently closed and defunct, but it can be viewed from a distance and features as a stop on one of Kingston’s haunted tours. We will be visiting Rockwood, weather permitting, and having refreshments and discussions at Kingston’s current psychiatric care facility, Providence Care.
In the afternoon, we will be speaking with Lisa Guenther and possibly her colleagues about the P4W [Prison for Women] Memorial Collective. The P4W Memorial Collective is a group of former prisoners who are creating a memorial garden to honour those who died at P4W and those who continue to live and die in prisons, jails, and detention centers across the country. They also organise healing circles, film screenings, letter writing, and discussions.
Inspirational literature:
Guenther, L. (2022). Memory, imagination, and resistance in Canada’s Prison for Women. Space and Culture, 25(2), 255-265.
Terbenche, D. (2005). ‘Curative’ and ‘custodial’: Benefits of Patient Treatment at the Asylum for the Insane, Kingston, 1878-1906. The Canadian Historical Review, 86(1), 29-52.
Guenther, L. (2024). Collective Memory at Canada’s Prison for Women. Critical Times, 7(2), 260-279.
Workshop 3 - Oslo, Norway
Workshop 3 takes place 15–16 September 2025 (2 days) at Norsk Teknisk Museum & MUNCH, Oslo, with an optional 3rd day on 17 September at Oslo University. It has been organised in co-ordination with the exhibition Lifeblood: Edvard Munch at MUNCH Oslo.
Day One, Monday 15 September, is a closed workshop for Matariki Group members at Norsk Teknisk Museum.
Day Two, Tuesday 16 September, is an invitation-only study day for contributors to the catalogue for Lifeblood, and for Matariki Group members.
Day Three, Wednesday 17 September, is a public conference, Modernism and Medicine, at the University of Oslo.
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Programme for Day One, Curating Cultural Heritage for the Medical & Health Humanities, Matariki Workshop, Norsk Teknisk Museum (NTM) / National Medical Museum (NMM), Oslo
9.00–10.30. Coffee, introductions and museum tour with Phil Loring (Curator of the History of Medicine at NTM / NMM), Torhild Skåtun (museum educator at NTM), and Hilde Skogstad (technical conservator at NTM / NMM)
10.30–11.15. Photography, ethics and emotions: Arne Langleite (photo archivist at NTM) on the Severin Worm-Petersen photography collection.
11.15–12.00. Audio description group exercise, led by Phil Loring and working with images from NTM collections. This exercise has been inspired by a passage in Amanda Cachia’s book The Agency of Access (Temple University Press, 2025):
I begin my classes by asking the students to participate in and practice audio description by sharing one image on the screen. The students take turns describing the image. After hearing twenty descriptions of the same object, they begin to see how the interpretation of a single image is as variegated as the people describing it. This debunks the theory that an audio description should be based on the neutral observer or should come from a voice that is objective and autonomous. My class exercise is also important because it showcases that audio description doesn’t necessarily have to subscribe to a consistent set of rules: all of the students’ descriptions are inherently interesting and informative in different ways…. (41)
12.00–13.00. Lunch
13.00–16.00: Drawing workshop with artist Lucy Lyons.
16.00–16.30: Close and travel to MUNCH for 5pm reception followed by 6pm–8pm visit to Lifeblood outside of public hours
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Programme for Day Two, ‘Lifeblood’ Study Day, Munchmuseet, Oslo.
Participants include catalogue contributors, presenters at the Curating Modernism & Medicine conference, members of the research group Curating Cultural Heritage for the Medical and Health Humanities (from Queen’s, Durham, and Uppsala Universities), curators, conservators, and mediators from art and medicine museums including MUNCH, Teknisk Museum, and the National Museum in Oslo, artists, writers, as well as students in art history and medical humanities. The day will begin in Toppsalen, before splitting into groups and circulating through the exhibition. Presenters will be stationed in the rooms and give lightening talks to initiate group discussions in front of artworks/objects.
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Programme for Day Three, ‘Curating Modernism and Medicine’, Oslo University.
The conference ‘Curating Modernism and Medicine’ is organized by Allison Morehead (Queen’s University, Canada), Tanya Sheehan (Colby College, USA), and Gustav Jørgen Pedersen (MUNCH, Norway) in collaboration with Øystein Sjåstad (University of Oslo) and Richard Dahlberg Andresen (University of Oslo, administration) and the Research Group for International and Nordic Modernism at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo (UiO).
The conference is supported by MUNCH, The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology, the University of Oslo, The Savings Bank Foundation DNB, Colby College, Queen’s University, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The full programme for ‘Curating Modernism and Medicine’ is available here.