This one-day conference at the Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen, brings together scholars, curators, museum professionals, and researchers working across the histories of medicine, science communication, museums, visual culture, and material culture in the long nineteenth century. Through a series of interdisciplinary panels, the conference explores how medical knowledge was communicated, visualised, displayed, and contested across different public and institutional settings. Topics include medical museums and collections, anatomical and pathological display, popular health cultures, transnational circulations of medical knowledge, visual and material cultures of medicine, and the ethical legacies of nineteenth-century medical display practices in the present.

The day will conclude with a keynote presentation by Katherine Ott and Lilla Vekerdy of the Smithsonian Institution: “Understanding 19th Century Embodiment Through Medical Material Culture.”

The conference will take place in a hybrid format, with participation possible both in person at the Medical Museion in Copenhagen and online. It is organized in conjunction with the International Nineteenth-Century Studies Association (INCSA) 2026 conference as one of three international satellite conferences.

The conference is organized by Nanna K. L. Kaalund and Cora Salkovskis in collaboration with INCSA. The conference is generously supported by the Medical Museion and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen.