moved to the Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid

2023-07-05 14:55:50

On October 17, 1934, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, one of the greatest Spanish (and world) scientists in history, father of modern neuroscience and Nobel Prize winner, died in Madrid. Before that day, he had written in his will that all his scientific belongings and some of his personal belongings would be kept at the Cajal Institute, created under his guardianship. After the Civil War, his disciples decided to create a museum with those pieces in the premises of the Cajal Institute. However, in 1989, after the transfer of the institute to its current location on Avenida del Doctor Arce, due to lack of space, they moved to a locked room (yes, enabled for conservation, but not suitable for visit). Almost a century has passed since then and what is known as ‘Legado Cajal’ still does not have a fixed space to be exhibited.

Now his belongings add a new adventure: they have just been transferred to the premises of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid (MNCN-CSIC). And, taking advantage of his arrival and commemorating the Ramón y Cajal Research Year, starting this Tuesday, a recreation of Cajal’s laboratory and office is on display with historical furniture that includes, among other items, his chair and his work table , chemicals, his library and some personal items. In addition, visitors will be able to live an immersive experience in which, through virtual reality glasses, the public will not only be transported to spaces where the scientist carried out his experiments or taught, but also interact with Cajal.

«On the occasion of the transfer of the Cajal Institute to its new headquarters in Alcalá de Henares, and while working on the creation of a Cajal Museum, the presidency of the CSIC, to safeguard its assets and continue disseminating the work of the most illustrious of our scientists, decided to deposit the Cajal Legacy in the National Museum of Natural Sciences”, the head of the Museum’s Historical Archive, Mónica Vergés, told ABC, who also indicated that the pieces will remain in the MNCN “while the ambitious but possible idea of ​​creating a museum for Cajal and his School».

He points out that now “the conservation and management of the Legacy is in the hands of the MNCN while it is deposited here”, although “it has the support and scientific advice of personnel from the Cajal Institute”.

For his part, the director of the MNCN, Rafael Zardoya, has indicated in a announcement: «The relationship between Santiago Ramón y Cajal and the MNCN was possible thanks to the entomologist Ignacio Bolívar y Urrutia, director of the Museum between 1901 and 1939. After the announcement of the upcoming transfer of the Cajal Institute to another location, it is an honor for us to host the Cajal Legacy and being able to show it to visitors through these two exhibitions, the 2020 one, which had a great reception and media coverage from its inception, and the one we are inaugurating today. In addition, the latter falls within the acts of the Ramón y Cajal Research Year».

promises in the air

Cajal stated in his will that his scientific legacy should be preserved in “his Institute” and his children so arranged. The legacy brings together scientific and personal funds and objects from some of his closest disciples, such as Domingo Sánchez, Nicolás Achúcarro, Jorge Francisco Tello or Fernando de Castro, among others. The Cajal Legacy is cataloged through an inventory containing 28,222 entries, including a photographic archive with more than 2,700 plates, 11 notebooks, 1,800 scientific drawings, more than 1,900 manuscripts, medals and decorations, ten paintings and thousands of histological preparations. In addition, there are also pieces of basic research that are still used by the scientific community, such as magazines, books, preparations or drawings.

Cajal’s followers have been demanding for decades that his legacy be exhibited in facilities commensurate with his historical contribution. The previous Minister of Science, Pedro Duque, promised shortly after his arrival in the Government to create a Cajal Museum, a witness collected by Diana Morant, the current head of the scientific portfolio.

However, since a working group was created to assess all the possibilities, and although various organizations have shown an interest in housing this Legacy (among them the Official College of Physicians of Madrid, which houses the Aula Cajal in its premises, where the The scientist himself taught Histology and Pathological Anatomy for 30 years), at the moment, no further steps have been publicly announced. Both Vergés and De Carlos confirm that the project is going ahead.

“Intensive work is being done and, if all the steps that are being taken come to fruition, we will have a Cajal Museum and the Spanish Neurohistological School, sooner than we think,” says De Carlos. “The will to create a Cajal Museum continues but the project, although still in an embryonic state, is a debt that our politicians know they must settle with Don Santiago,” Vergés sentences.