Museum of the History of Medicine, Pomeranian Medical University

Museum of the History of Medicine
Pomeranian Medical University, Department of the History of Medicine and Medical Ethics
ul. Rybacka 1
70-204 Szczecin
Tel. (91) 480 08 21
zhmel@pum.edu.pl
Free admission
Mondays – Fridays: 8.30 am – 3.30 pm
During term time opening times depend on the timetable of teaching staff, therefore advance booking is essential.
Director: Aleksandra Kładna MD, PhD
Staff in charge of the Museum: Joanna Nieznanowska MD, PhD

The Museum of the History of Medicine of the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin was established in February 1960, when the university still operated as the Karol Świerczewski Medical Academy in Pomerania, and history of medicine, which was removed from the curriculum of Polish medical universities in the darkest period of Stalinism,
was only just being reinstated. The establishment of the museum was initiated by the rector of the university, Prof. Bolesław Górnicki MD, who was inspired by an appeal from the participants at the Congress of the Polish Society of Medical Historians (held in Szczecin in July 1959) to establish such institutions. Due to the fact that the Department of the History of Medicine, where the museum was to operate, did not have its own premises, the collections that were gradually accumulated were stored at the Clinic of Pulmonology or the donors were asked to look after them. In 1974, some of the exhibits were returned to the department, but there was still no space that could be used as the seat of the museum. In the 1980s, the university’s Department of the History of Medicine received a valuable collection of artefacts related to the history of the treatment of tuberculosis (including stethoscopes, pneumothorax apparatuses, models for learning thoracoscopic procedures), donated by Prof. Zbigniew Garnuszewski MD, head of the Clinic of Pulmonology in the years 1955–1969. In 1992, the Department of the History of Medicine and Medical Ethics was moved to the building of the rector’s office at ul. Rybacka 1, where a permanent exhibition could be organized. Apart from the aforementioned pulmonological collection, the museum’s collection also includes exhibits documenting the history of haematology, ophthalmology, surgery, military medicine, dentistry and laboratory diagnostics. To date, the heads of the Department of the History of Medicine at the Pomeranian University in Szczecin have been:
– Prof. Bolesław Górnicki MD (until 1/4/1960)
– Bronisław Seyda MD (1960–1969)
– Roman Tarczynowski MD (1969–1974)
– Tadeusz Brzeziński MD (1974–1978)
– Prof. Romuald Wiesław Gutt MD (1978–1988)
– Prof. Tadeusz Brzeziński MD (1988–2000)
– Aleksandra Kładna MD, PhD (from 1/10/2000)
Joanna Nieznanowska MD, PhD, Aleksandra Kładna MD, PhD