The Rockefeller Foundation's Gift of the Institute of Anatomy to University College, London

Abstract

THE erection of the new building for the Department of Anatomy, which also provides an extension for the Department of Physiology of University College, London, completes the scheme for the development of the building for the Faculty of Medical Sciences which had long been contemplated. The proposal was first definitely formulated in 1907 on the initiative of Prof. E. H. Starling, who took an active part in collecting the money for the erection in 1908 of the Department of Physiology, which was opened in 1909 by the Right Hon. R. B. (now Viscount) Haldane. The generosity of the late Mr. Andrew Carnegie made it possible in 1912 to add to - the eastern end of the Institute of Physiology a building to house the Department of Pharmacology, which was formally opened on December 4 of that year by Sir Thomas Barlow, president of the Royal College of Physicians. When the War seemed to have destroyed all hope of any immediate completion of the original scheme by the addition at the western end of a building to house the Department of Anatomy, the Rockefeller Foundation became aware of the difficulty and offered to provide the means for completing a scheme which harmonised with its ideals in medical education. It was eager to give some striking expression of American friendship of the British Empire, and was also anxious to enlist the help of the British medical schools I in its great schemes for “the promotion of the well-being of mankind throughout the world.”