History of the anaesthesia museum

The Anaesthesia Museum was established when
A Charles King donated his collection of historic anaesthetic apparatus to the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland in 1953.

Initially the collection was kept at King's premises in 27 Devonshire Street and was looked after by his friend and successor, James Juby.  

The collection was transferred to the Association's office at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1966 and put on display.

In 1986, the Association moved the collection to its own building at 9 Bedford Square and developed its first museum.

When the Association moved to 21 Portland Place, a new museum area was designed to tell the story of the history of anaesthesia.

Since King's initial donation, many more donations have been received and it now contains approximately 3,000 objects.   The collection encompasses the history of anaesthesia, from Morton's demonstration of ether inhalation in 1846 to modern anaesthetic machines and appliances.

Due to the limited display area, only a small proportion of the collection can be shown in the museum at any one time.   However, much of the collection is kept on site and can be viewed by advance request.   We do not have room to display any of our larger anaesthetic machines, which are kept elsewhere.   However, details of events where these can be seen will be published.   Travelling and temporary exhibitions provide further information about specific areas of the history of anaesthesia.

For more information see The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland 1932-1992 by T B Boulton, or The Development of Anaesthetic Apparatus by K Bryn Thomas.