Background Information, Study notes of Medicine

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Background Information The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes

Prepared by Damian McDonald, curator.

Arthur Conan Doyle loved stories. His fondest memories as a child in Scotland are of his mother, an ardent booklover, telling him about the tales she had read. Doyle went on to become a doctor in England, but good stories were never far from his mind. It was while he was studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh that he met his mentor, Professor Joseph Bell, who introduced Doyle to the concept of observational analysis. Practicing medicine after graduating, Doyle was always writing stories, and his most revered character was created: Sherlock Holmes. Holmes was always in the midst of a great story, and it was always his uncanny observational skills which unravelled the mystery.

Sherlock Holmes is an eminently famous character. According to the movie database IMDb, Holmes is the most filmed human fiction character. Dracula is actually most filmed character; however, his lifestyle, though envied by some, excludes him from being human. Sherlock Holmes has also been part of the zeitgeist for generations. The character popularised skiing in Switzerland, introduced deductive reasoning based on subtle observation as a literary device, used drugs to help him both think clearly and quickly, and to relax and think deeply, was lauded by literati such as TS Elliot, and added phrases to the lexicon (though ‘Elementary’, and ‘my dear Watson’ were never spoken as one sentence in a Sherlock story). Sherlock Holmes has also been reinvented many, many times. From literature, to stage, to cinema, to high-quality television series – Holmes is in our homes. The deer-stalker hat – which Holmes only wears in the county side in Doyle’s literature, but which was popularised by illustrator Sidney Paget, and stage actor William Gillette – characterised the Holmes brand throughout the late nineteenth and all of the twentieth

century. This image has been replaced recently by Benedict Cumberbatch’s unique mannerisms and appealing looks and in the UK (Sherlock), and Johnny Lee Miller’s edgy presence in the US (Elementary); and on the big screen by Robert Downey Junior’s eccentric wittiness. From the tweedy Victorian pipe-smoker to tortured intellectualist, audiences will see all examples of Sherlocks from across the three centuries in The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes.

But first, we are immersed in 19th century London.

Visitors enter the exhibition and are in the London Underground, much as it was in the Victorian era. The innovations in science of the time – which Sherlock Holmes was uniquely familiar with – are presented to guests. Cosmetics, ballistics, photography, optics and lenses, and the Victorian media: all knowledge visiting sleuths will need on their way through the exhibition.

A recreation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s study shows audiences the author’s interests and inspirations. Furnished with all that fascinated Doyle, young visitors are invited to spot objects and record them on the free Sherlock Holmes Jr Detective booklet.

221b Barker Street London – Sherlock Holmes’s abode – is reinvented, and anyone who has read a Sherlock story will recognise the chemical corner, the acid stained deal-topped table, the row of formidable scrap-books and books of reference the diagrams, the violin- case, and the pipe-rack – even the Persian slipper which contained the tobacco.