About our project…

Step into the fascinating world of our rich history, where centuries of discovery have shaped the medicines we know today. Did you know that while Trinity was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592, it took until the 18th century to establish a medical school formally. In 1749, our first Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy began teaching future physicians how to harness the power of medicinal substances—a tradition that continued until the 1950s. Fast forward to the 1960s, when Dr. G.W. Pennington revolutionized pharmacology education with a more science-based preclinical approach. Thanks to support from the Wellcome Foundation, the Discipline expanded into serious research, culminating in the 1984 establishment of the Chair in Pharmacology and Therapeutics, which brought even more clinical relevance to our field. Through all these transformations, Pharmacology and Therapeutics has curated an incredible collection of medicinal natural products that played key roles in medical breakthroughs. These precious items, once the foundation of pure medicines, paved the way for the birth of medicinal chemistry and the development of countless modern therapeutics.

Explore our catalogue of historical Medicinal Artefacts, indulge in the history of St. James’s Hospital or meet the Heads Pharmacology between the years 1749 and 1992