The Basque Museum of the History of Medicine was founded by José Luis Goti in 1982 to preserve the historic memory of medicine in the Basque Country. The Museum is located on the campus of Leioa of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and is important in the training of students of medicine and the students coming from other faculties.

Apart from safeguarding our scientific heritage, the Museum —as part of the university— has a research and teaching mission. On the research side, it aims to unite the global vision of issues such as the history of disease, geophysics or meteorology, with an interest for local reality in different sanitary and scientific aspects. As far as teaching is concerned, classes and practicals of different subjects from degrees related to health sciences are given at the Seminar Room. In addition to placing its contents at the disposal of historians of medicine and science in general, the Museum aims to spread knowledge among the public in general.

Together with its Permanent Exhibition, the Museum displays Temporary Exhibitions of different topics, and collaborates with other exhibitions or national events.

Holdings:

Its permanent exposition comprises approx. 6,000 medical objects of the 19th and 20th centuries organized thematically in 24 rooms devoted to different medical specialities: folk medicine, unconventional medicine, pharmacy, weights and measures, asepsis and antisepsis, microscopes, laboratory material, X-rays, obstetrics and gynaecology, surgery, anaesthesia, endoscope, odontology, cardiology, ophthalmology, electrotherapy, pathological anatomy and natural sciences.

In addition, the Museum has a vast library that includes a collection of 19th and 20th century books. We highlight the historical library of the Basurto Hospital and several encyclopedic dictionaries from the 20th century, such as the Dictionnaire encyclopédique des sciences médicales by Dechambre (100 volumes) and the Diccionario de Ciencias Médicas published in 1821 (38 volumes).

Subject Strengths:

History of Anatomy; History of Anesthesiology and Anesthesia; History of Dentistry; History of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases; History of Gynecology and Obstetrics; History of Medicine; History of Midwifery; History of Military/Naval Medicine; History of Nursing; History of Ophthalmology and Optometry; History of Pathology; History of Physiology; History of Public Health; History of Radiology; History of Stomatology; History of Surgery; History of the Allied Health Sciences; History of the Practice of Medicine; Materia Medica

Last Updated:

02 Apr 2020