The Wellcome Collection announced the closure of its Medicine Man gallery at the end of November with something approaching triumphalism. “Goodbye Henry,” waved the collection’s director, opposite a picture of its founder, Sir Henry Wellcome, on Instagram. “What’s the point of museums?” was the museum’s provocative salvo on Twitter. “Truthfully, we’re asking ourselves the same question.”
Some respondents believed the answer was simple: neither to close the gallery nor to patronise the public by removing exhibits deemed to perpetuate “a version of medical history… based on racist, sexist and ableist theories and language”. But others applauded the decision; and still others saw the complexity.
