To celebrate 180 years of teaching and healing, Sir JJ Hospital has opened a museum to showcase its rich medical heritage. The medical college and hospital was started with a generous donation of Rs 1 lakh.
While the administration has started the museum in the hospital’s Boys Common Room, it will be later shifted to the original medical college building, which is ground plus two structure and also houses the JJ Marg police station.The Boys’ Common Room – also a heritage structure inside the hospital premises – is said to be a 159-year-old building that once housed the hospital’s infectious diseases ward. In the 1960s, it served as the site of its bacteriology department.
The museum houses artefacts, busts and pictures that are more than 150-100 years old. “This institution is the only example of a single person donating an entire hospital for a medical college. The Grant Medical College (GMC) and Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Hospital opened to students and patients on 15 May, 1845, making it a historic day. This remarkable history is reflected in the museum,” said Dr Pallavi Saple, Sir JJ Group of Hospitals dean.
She added that the museum will introduce the visitors to the illustrious history about the hospital as well as the founding members, whose contribution made the establishment a reality. “The museum also depicts the renowned alumni of the hospital, who are known for their huge contribution in the medical field,” said Dr Saple.
HISTORIC DATES
15 May, 1845
JJ Hospital opened
28 May, 1845
First patient admitted
1 November 1845
Maiden batch of students admitted to Grant Medical College
1945
Transition to 300-bed facility
3
Numbers of teachers when college began
1883
Women students allowed
Noted personalities
Henry Carter, the illustrator of the Gray’s Anatomy, which is bible for medical students
He served as hospital dean from 1886 to1888
Dr Annie Walke, the first woman to graduate from the GMC
Russian-Jewish epidemiologist Waldemar Haffkine developed anti-plague vaccine in 1893
Helped counter bubonic plague that hit Mumbai at 19th century’s end
Dr Rustam Cooper, in whose name BMC opened Dr RN Cooper Hospital, ex-alumni
