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Abstract

Created in 1934, the Museum of Public Assistance -  Hôpitaux de Paris is the only  museum in Paris that explains the Hospital history since the Middle Age to our days. The history of this hospital is related to the history of Paris, and the museum proposes an original point of view of the relation between the population and the hospital. The Museum of the Hospitals of Paris has a collection of more that five thousand objects that were assembled with the policy of preserving old materials from hospitals. They come from acquisitions, donations and legacies. The diversity of the materials conserved shows the many aspects of life at the hospital: furniture, medical and chirurgical materials, pharmacy objects and others related with the care of patients, paintings, sculptures, manuscripts and archival documents. This makes this museum an important place for research on hospital care.

Introduction

     When still the controversy about the destiny of the Hospital San Juan de Dios of Granada, probably one of the symbols of nursery in the West world,  raises dust, I can't help remembering my visit some years ago to the Musée de l'Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris. The first surprise was its existence itself. Only when the countless objects used along history to help satisfying the health needs, or those other purely artistic objects (paintings, sculptures, relieves, etc) which are the result of the socialization process of the exercise of caring for are contemplated outside their context, the observer can realize that an exercise as pragmatic as  nursery can generate art.
     The other surprise was to observe the French authorities' awareness about the importance of recognizing their health institutions past, not only for the population that has profited from their cares since centuries ago, but also for the actual health professionals and establishments themselves. The contemplation of the past ways of acting can help them to perceive their identity reinforced. We can even go further: a meeting point can be defined. The past, which shows its splendour in the walls that still accommodate many Parisian public hospitals, and a present adapted to the most advanced procedures proposed by the science. One of the most significant examples of this meeting point, although it is not the only one, is the Hôtel-Dieu, maybe one of the most antique hospitals of Europe. It still preserves its clinical function in spite of its monumentality and its privileged location at the corner of Notre-Dame. It is one of the hospitals belonging to the net of Assistance Publique.
     The efficiency of the recovery and rehabilitation processes is very much influenced by the scientific progress. This fact forces to look forward in an almost obsessive way, loosing the perspective of the value of objects and techniques that are left behind because they are considered obsolete or old-fashioned. The Musée of Paris breaks this tendency to teach us that everything we abandon in favour of modernity belongs to our cultural patrimony and therefore it deserves to be conserved for the knowledge of posterior generations.

The building

     Placed in the Latin Quarter, next to the Seine and facing Notre-dame, the Musée de l'Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris witnesses every morning the ritual of the bouquinistes setting up what can probably be defined as the biggest street library in the world. Over the lintel of its door, the slogan of the Revolution, Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, shines engraved in stone. Far from its apparent romanticism this slogan constitutes a renewed revolutionary proposal towards the hegemonic health system represented by its content.
     Being even more popular with the name of Museum of Charity, it was created in 1934 and installed then in the Hôtel de Miramion attributed to François Mansart. Since 1674, this private hospital is linked to the history of Paris' hospitals. It first provided accommodation to the Community of the Filles de Sainte-Geneviève devoted to caring for the poor people. Since 1812 it housed the Central Pharmacy of the public hospitals.
     Within its wide installations, the Museum attempts to show the history of the hospitals of Paris starting from the XII century. Its lounges are distributed following thematic criteria; there are rooms dedicated to the preparation of medicines and cures; there is even a complete period pharmacy; other rooms are dedicated to the care and assistance of the patients, always under a strong Christian-charitable ideology. Above all a vast section dedicated to capture the development of medicine in the XIX century, stands out.

The funds

     The Musée de l'Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris preserves a collection of more than 5.000 objects which are the result of a recovery policy for hospital material coming from antique hospitals of the city. Acquisitions, donations and legates are part as well of its patrimony. The diversity of the retrieved materials contributes to build a quite approximate idea about life in the old hospitals and hospices: hospital furniture, medical and surgical instruments, pharmacy objects, anatomical models and a large amount of archives' documents.
     Maybe the weakest part of the museum is just the one that should be wealthier. It would be expectable to find a bigger presence of objects related to the patients' care and direct assistance. Despite everything, objects related to the patient's hygiene, models of the original or reproduced beds -with their canopies covered with fine cloths stating the importance conferred on intimacy-, or scale models reproducing scenes of the hospital life, can be found.
     The collection of art objects has a particular interest. The paintings coming from different charity establishments are especially remarkable. They contribute very enlightening slides of the evolution of the prevailing values about health and illness in each period: scenes of life in the hospices and maternity hospitals, pictures of the hospital teaching activity, mythological visions about the illness, etc.

A Research Centre

     The wide repertoire of historical and testimonial documentation provides the museum with a big research capacity. Besides the manuscripts and forms, some of which have an important bibliographical value, the museum preserves portraits, engravings and maps of the oldest hospitals and hospices of the city.
     In this way, the research activity is added to the museum activity itself. This synergy has generated a considerable bibliographic production about the health assistance history in Paris, as well as a tight calendar of temporal exhibitions that open new lines of interest.  
     Once again the Parisians give us an exemplary lesson about the way to recover one more area of our culture. In this case the part recovered represents everything concerning an activity as human as the one of taking care of ill people.  The Musée de l'Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris gives us an unusual and at the same time revealing regard of the deep ties that link a whole community to its hospital. But beyond the particular case of the large metropolis, the museum offers concrete answers to questions that the whole society poses when facing problems derived from the illness, the suffering and the social alienation.
     After visiting the Parisian museum, the questions can not be avoided. How many beloved objects have passed through our hands being later destroyed, forgotten or deviated from their original location in an inexplicable way due to the idleness of those who, having the obligation of administering them, underestimated them up to permitting their loss?
     Is it maybe that a health system as historically generous as ours did not generate enough materials (buildings, tools, documentation, etc) to justify the existence of a museum dedicated to the health care?  The answer could perhaps be found in existentialist doubts as picturesque as those held by politicians and administrators about the future of the monumental Hospital de San Juan de Dios of Granada. In order to find that answer, they should change their lenses for others with a longer sight scope to break a nonsensical discussion that does nothing but impoverishing and spoiling the patrimony. 

DATA OF INTEREST

Location: Hôtel de Mitamion -47 Quai de la Tournelle 75005 Paris
Opening time: If temporal exhibitions running, open from Wednesday to Sunday. If no temporal exhibitions running, open from Tuesday to Saturday. Closed on holiday and during August.
Information and booking: Tel. 0140275005 Fax: 0140274648
Access: Metro Stations: Saint-Michel/Cité/Maubert-Mutualité; Buses: 24, 47, 63, 86, 87.
Parking: Lagrange/Sain-Germain