Exhibition: “The University of Our Lives”
The permanent exhibition that has opened in honour of the Estonian national university’s 100th birthday looks into the University of Tartu’s influence in people’s lives. The spirit of Universitas affects both the world of science and our everyday lives more than we may realise. It can be argued that without the university there would be no Estonians and no Estonia. Life would also be different from how it is today and how we imagine it tomorrow. The exhibition “The University of Our Lives” tells the stories of all 180,000 students of the University of Tartu. This is an exhibition of eternal youth, discoveries, choices and upheavals.
As the curator for the medical collections I was tasked alongside Dr Lea Leppik in finding research areas conducted in the University of Tartu in its 400 years that have had a ‘butterfly effect’. For medicine, the choice fell on the 19th century blood research conducted by Hermann Schmidt. His research showed the anti-coagulation effect of blood, leading later to the development of blood transfusion and organ transplantation.
The second element for the ‘butterfly effect’ was to find items in the museum's collection that could be viewed as interdisciplinary. For the intersection of humanities and medicine, the selection fell on an early 19th-century phrenology skull – representing the historical development of psychology and criminal investigations.
Curators: Ken Ird, Karoliina Kalda, Kaija-Liisa Koovit, Janet Laidla, Virge Lell, Lea Leppik, Külli Lupkin, Terje Lõbu, Paula Põder, Kristiina Tiideberg
Gall phrenology
The University of Tartu Museum has in its collection an early 19th-century (pre-1828) plaster scull.
Phrenology, the nineteenth-century practice of interpreting mental qualities and potential based on the external appearance of the skull, is a science with a complex and rich history and historiography.
Phrenology and blood
Toomas Asser is Rector of the University of Tartu, Professor of Neurosurgery and Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. Estonian National Television cultural program ‘OP’ asked him to give a tour at the newly opened ‘The University of Our Lives’ exhibition. As a neurosurgeon and graduate of the University of Tartu Medical School, his tour also featured the phrenology scull and butterfly effect of blood coagulation.
Copyright: Estonian National Television ‘OP’. Full interview.
Hermann Adolf Alexander Schmidt
(1831 – 1894)