Owen Gower has heard all that before. ‘And whilst being at the heart of what he did, that denigrates his work to some extent. Because he was a lot more than a chancer who happened to stumble across an interesting idea.’
When Owen arrived in Berkeley seven years ago, he was well-qualified to head up this delightful, fascinating museum with its 5,000 artefacts – from sharp lancets believed to have been owned by Jenner himself, to family books and some of the doctor’s self-published studies. But though well-versed in collection management, Owen’s previous experience had focused on Egyptology and Japanese Samurai. He was determined to immerse himself in Jenner’s story.