William Clift - Museum Keeper

Museum Keeper

For six years he was engaged by Hunter's executors to watch over the collections, living with an old housekeeper in the house in Castle Street, his pay being limited to ‘seven shillings a week,’ although bread had risen to war prices. For the safety of these specimens he was solely responsible, and he kept zealous guard over his charge, copying and preserving many, probably a half, of Hunter's manuscripts which would otherwise have perished. Clift was unwearied in cleaning, and on the purchase of the collection by parliament it was in a better state than at its owner's death. When the Corporation of Surgeons agreed to undertake the charge of the collection, and was incorporated by a charter dated 22 March 1800 as the Royal College of Surgeons, one of its first acts was to retain Clift in his place, dignifying him with the title of conservator of the museum, and rewarding his services with a salary of about £100. a year. From that date his time and talents ‘were exclusively devoted to the advancement of comparative anatomy and physiology.’ His pride was in his daily work, and he lived to see the museum ‘enriched, enlarged, and worthily displayed and illustrated.’ Under his supervision Hunter's collections were twice removed without the slightest damage, first in 1806 to a temporary place of deposit, and on the second occasion in 1813 to the museum of the college, and the whole of the specimens were more than once numbered by him.