JAC Advance Access originally published online on April 26, 2006
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2006 58(1):233-234; doi:10.1093/jac/dkl148
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Book reviews |
Museum review
Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum
St Mary's Hospital, Praed Street, London W2 1NY, UK [Curator: Kevin Brown] Origins
When Sir Almroth Wright died in 1947, the Inoculation Department, which he had founded in 1905, was renamed the Wright–Fleming Institute, and its new director was Sir Alexander Fleming. At the back of the main lecture theatre were some glass cases with relics of Wright's work. There may have been some bits relating to Fleming but certainly not many. After Fleming's death in 1955, Lady Fleming set up a small exhibition in his memory in the room which was nominally her laboratory though she had done little laboratory work for some time. When Robert Williams became the director in 1960 he moved Lady Fleming upstairs and took over as his own lab what was by then mostly museum. When Lady Fleming returned to Greece, such relics as there were, were put into the back of the lecture theatre with Almroth Wright's material.
The idea of a proper museum started in the 1980s, coming from the recently founded alumni association and particularly from its president, the obstetrician, Alasdair Fraser. A new post of archivist was proposed at the same time and Kevin Brown was appointed. Work was started soon after with the appointment of a committee and a design team. The hospital and medical school authorities gave enthusiastic support, including money. Some companies producing penicillin also gave funds towards setting up the museum. However, running costs remain the responsibility of the St Mary's Trustees, helped by the entrance fees and profits from the shop. The museum was formally opened a few weeks after 3 September 1993, the 65th anniversary of penicillin's discovery.
The site
The museum is housed in the Clarence Wing of St Mary's Hospital in the corner once rented by Wright for the Inoculation Department. The main room had long been used as a bedroom for ‘midder’ students from the neighbouring maternity ward but was, reluctantly, given up. The core of the museum is the reconstruction of Fleming's old laboratory in its original site, a small room on the second floor, in fact the room where penicillin was discovered. The view from the window has not changed much though the shops are in better shape; the pub is still the Fountains Abbey where presumably Fleming once drank. The spore did not come through the window as once thought but probably up the stairs and through the door from a mycology lab on the floor below. With guidance from old paintings and photographs, the room has been reconstituted to make it look as much like the original laboratory as possible.
The apparatus was assembled from relics saved in the bacteriology department of the Wright–Fleming Institute. The biggest problem was finding suitable Petri dishes. The current plastic ones came in about 1955, but even before that dishes with metal lids were being used. Fleming certainly used all glass ones and fortunately a small number of these were found in the old stores of the Central Public Health Laboratory at Colindale. There is a photograph of the original plate. The plate itself is in the British Museum though not on display there. The St Mary's bacteriology laboratory supplies living replicas. Not all the exhibits are strictly bacteriological, e.g. Wright's bath for measuring opsonins. Perhaps more surprising is a packet of Goldflake cigarettes. Fleming smoked, not only heavily but while working at the bench! There is a cabinet with cups and medals but unfortunately the Nobel Prize medal was donated elsewhere by Lady Fleming.
A poster room gives information on all aspects of penicillin, and another room shows a video of penicillin development and production, given by one of the supporting pharmaceutical firms. There is of course a shop with a good collection of memorabilia ranging from pencils and postcards to paperweights and books.
The work
Currently there are eight volunteer guides with varied backgrounds. Several are ex-nurses, including one who was Fleming's ward sister. They have all learned about the exhibits and present a good story to the visitors. There are six to seven thousand visitors a year, from all over the world. Just over a third are from the UK, almost as many from the USA and Canada and most of the rest from Western Europe. Since recent political changes, the number coming from Eastern Europe is rising. Visitors' comments are all appreciative and many stress personal links with penicillin or Fleming, however tenuous. Perhaps the most interesting visitor was a South Korean businessman who offered to buy the whole museum for transfer to South Korea. The offer was declined.
In addition to individual visitors there are many groups, usually school parties from the UK, but also educational groups from America or Europe. As well as this, the archivist spends significant outside time on giving talks to schools.
Conclusion
Readers of this journal know all about penicillin. To get a feel of its origins go and see the museum!
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1 Pembridge Crescent London W11 3DT, UK E-mail: aaglynn{at}doctors.org.uk
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank K. B. for much helpful information and for allowing me free access to the museum, and the guides for letting me join their tours.
Sources
1 Brown K. (2004) Penicillin Man: Alexander Fleming and the antibiotic revolution (Sutton Publishing, London).
2 Heaman EA. (2003) St Mary's: The History of a London Teaching Hospital (McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal and Kingston).
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