The most excellent cabinet - the Meckel collections at Halle (Saale)

The great significance of the Meckel Collections — as collections dedicated to the teaching and research of anatomy, but also as a scientific institution well worth seeing — extends far beyond the city of Halle (Saale). In the 18th century, the character of institutions of this kind had begun to change. They were no longer baroque cabinets of curiosities, but significant locations in the quest for new knowledge. Armed with new technical processes, anatomists and preparators achieved remarkable results, creating specimens invaluable to the systematic analysis of human and animal bodies and working to produce fascinating, delicate artworks. The Meckel family of doctors combined skilled handiwork, imaginative entrepreneurship, and a visionary commitment to research. By 1830, Johann Friedrich Meckel the Elder (1724—1774), Philipp Friedrich Theodor Meckel (1755—1803), and Johann Friedrich Meckel the Younger (1781—1833) had assembled a prodigious private collection, featuring at least 12,000 items. The dry, wet, injection, and corrosion specimens comprise a compendium on human anatomy and on human and animal malformations that is unique – and not only in its scale. Successors cared for and added to the treasures, and, despite some turbulence, they substantially survive today. A contemporary chronicle calls the Meckel Collections: “the most excellent cabinet in our city”. Today, they remain a fascinating, startling European-class institution full of riches, and far more than just a place for experts.