Held on Tuesday, 4 June 2024 at 6pm
Venue: Apothecaries' Hall, Black Friar's Lane, London EC4V 6EJ

For the first half of the twentieth century, polio was the most feared of all childhood diseases, striking terror in the hearts of parents and children alike. The story of polio has many angles, including a frenzied search for a vaccine, the birth of modern fundraising and of the technology used to treat a condition with no cure. But how is polio represented in museum collections? In this lecture, Natasha McEnroe will explore how historic medical material can help us consider healthcare challenges today.

Natasha McEnroe is the General Secretary & Chief Executive of the Society of Antiquaries. She was the Keeper of Medicine at the Science Museum in South Kensington, London. Her previous post also was Director of the Florence Nightingale Museum, and prior to this, she was Museum Manager of the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy and Curator of the Galton Collection at University College London. She is a Trustee of Dr Johnson’s House in London and of the Erasmus Darwin Museum in Lichfield and is a Freeman of The Worshipful Company of Barbers.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Lecture