The Medical History Museum is a future-oriented space that preserves and presents the identity, values, traditions, and culture of the people, revealing the very foundations of humanity.
A Future-Oriented Space
A museum is a place where one can encounter the foundations of human culture by preserving and presenting the identity, values, traditions, and heritage of a nation’s people. In the 21st century—an era of knowledge, information, and cultural tourism—the role of museums has been expanding and becoming increasingly specialized. Today, museums are no longer seen merely as fixed spaces for classifying, organizing, and displaying relics, donations, or bibliographic materials. Instead, they are evolving into dynamic institutions that engage with history and interact with each era. Modern museums now serve as cultural spaces for performances, exhibitions, and events, transforming into experiential museums that foster imagination and creativity. They have become familiar places of communication for citizens—spaces that nurture creativity by drawing on the past while enabling the creation of new cultural traditions for the future.
In fact, “cyber museums,” “integrated cyber museums,” and “e-museums” have been established, allowing visitors to explore major artifacts from 72 national, university, public, and private museums across the country in a single virtual platform. In this way, the field of modern museology continues to broaden its scope, expand access through virtual museums, and encourage public participation, gradually laying the foundation for a forward-looking vision.
Illuminating the History of Catholic Medical Life
In this context, the establishment of the Medical History Museum by the College of Medicine and Catholic hospitals of The Catholic University of Korea carries both necessity and significance. Its purpose is to embody the spirit and identity of Catholic medicine, while illuminating the cultural and medical history, as well as the development of medical instruments, as reflected in the history of Korean Catholic medical life. The Medical History Museum will serve as a symbolic space in the history of Catholic medical education, collecting, preserving, investigating, researching, and interpreting historically meaningful resources related to medical education and healthcare activities. In doing so, it will revisit and reinterpret over 86 years of Catholic medical historyand present a vision for promoting healthier lives for humanity.
At the same time, it seeks to contribute to the community. For alumni and faculty, the museum will instill pride and a sense of identity. For the general public, it will provide living knowledge about medicine, nursing education, and the culture of life. In the future, it also aims to support community education initiatives, such as social education programs, life education for middle and high school students, and research activities in Catholic history and medical heritage. We sincerely invite the attention and contributions of those who hold medical artifacts or related materials, so that the objectives introduced above may be fully realized. Thank you.