To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the BDA Museum, the BDJ has commissioned a photographic cover series highlighting landmarks in dental history. The 'History of Dentistry in 12 objects' aims to demonstrate progress in dentistry by placing an old object in a modern environment, causing the reader to look twice at the picture. Each landmark was selected by the BDA museum volunteer team after much debate!

Establishing a museum at the BDA was seen as important and beneficial from the 1920s but it wasn't until the BDA transferred to Hill Street in 1935 that suitable display space was acquired. The Representative Board approved that a museum should be formed in memory of James Smith Turner, the first Honorary Secretary of the Association. In June 1935 George Northcroft was appointed as the first honorary curator. The Association already possessed a number of items collected by Lilian Lindsay including a set of jaws in a tree trunk from Fiji and during the next few years generous donations from members and dental manufacturers expanded the collection greatly. Notable additions included the dental surgery furniture used by Sir John Tomes and a glass kidney display case donated by S. S. White.

The museum continues to collect items which represent current developments in dentistry and now has a collection of over 25,000 objects spanning 500 years of history. The first cover in the series shows London in 1848. The drill works similarly to an egg whisk principle and includes an interchangeable, right angled head. Requiring two hands to operate it, cavity preparation remained slow and difficult. The treadle drill, invented by James B. Morrison in 1871 proved to be the next major step forward.