Tapestry gift

A large tapestry depicting twelve of the most important plants used in medicine throughout the millennium has been gifted to the medical school.

The tapestry is a triptych representing an open sixteenth century pharmacy cabinet containing beautiful embroidered images of poppies, foxgloves, periwinkles, St John's wort, the willow, cinchona and yew trees and two fungus sources used in medicine for penicillin and cyclosporin.

The tapestry was created by the Dundee and East of Scotland Embroiderers Guild and is their millennium gift to the medical school.

The two outer panels are now on display outside the main lecture theatre and will be completed by the central panel in 2002 featuring a tree of life bearing pomegranates which contain microscopic images of life forms and cells. Around the tree will be symbols and images of activities related to medical research in Dundee, linking past, present and future.

The project was awarded lottery funding, matched by donations from the Medical History Fund and the Professor of Medicine.

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