Professor of Medicine, founder of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, alumnus. Background The origin of the University's first Natural History Collection stems from 1697 when Robert Sibbald (Edinburgh's first Professor of Medicine) presented to the College a collection of natural history specimens.The collection was housed in cases for permanent display in the original University buildings on the site of the present Old College.This display was one of the first museums in Britain having been created sixty years before the British Museum was established with the Sloane collection.The collection's reputation spread throughout Europe. It is a curious and noble museum...containing some rarities that are not to be found either in those of the Royal Society at London or the Ashmolean at Oxford. Daniel Defoe The plaque Sibbald's plaque is located at Teviot Place, on the east wall of the main entrance of the Medical School Building. Plaque text In honour of Sir Robert Sibbal1641-1722Graduate of the University, Professor of Medicine (1685-1722), founder of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh Related links Sibbald's entry in the Gazetteer for Scotland Image credit The image on this page comes from Wellcome Images, a website operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Wellcome Images Creative Commons 4.0 licence This article was published on 2024-11-12
