Thackray Museum

The multi award winning Thackray Museum is a fantastic day out, transporting you into a living experience of health and medicine, past, present and future.

You can take a walk down a back street of Victorian Leeds, and see hear and smell what life would have been like. Follow the life of a Victorian character in "Living Health" where you can explore the lives, ailments and treatments of eight Victorian characters - you make the choices that determine their survival, amongst the rats, fleas and bedbugs!

Learn how medicine has developed into modern practices - who made these discoveries and what inspired them? See the extensive collection of medical equipment including tools, replacement body parts, aids and the world's largest collection of English Apothecary Jars.

Our temporary exhibition 'Out of the Shadows' can be seen at the Thackray Museum from Monday 26th April until Sunday 30th May 2010. This thought provoking temporary exhibition examines the history of High Royds Hospital, and explores High Royds from the perspectives of staff, visitors and patient’s who worked, lived and spent time there. The exhibition primarily focuses on the positive stories these people have shared about their time at High Royds, and investigates how mental illness is portrayed in today’s popular culture.

The exhibition has been created as a partnership between the Thackray Museum, Leeds Museums and Galleries, West Yorkshire Archives and Huddersfield University.

Our next exhibition is ‘Hair Splitting Images – How William Astbury’s X-Ray Vision Changed the World’ and is running from 26th June 2010 – 2nd January 2011. This is an exciting exhibition that pays tribute to William Astbury, a Leeds based scientist, whose observations led to the discovery of the double-helix, the structure of DNA. Bringing archival materials together for the very first time, the exhibition portrays the life and work of Professor William Astbury.