John Conolly was appointed medical superintendent of the Middlesex County Asylum at Hanwell in 1839. He improved practices for managing patients with troublesome behaviours, dispensing with mechanical restraint, and introducing a kinder regime. He demonstrated how treatment could be humane even in a large asylum.

This marble bust shows Conolly with mutton chop whiskers and long hair, dressed informally with open neck shirt and a fur coat. Jaromir Mundy presented the bust to the Medico-Psychological Association (MPA), a predecessor body of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych). Because Conolly was a distinguished member of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), the MPA gave it to them. In 1994, the RCPsych commissioned a copy, which it gave to the RCP in exchange for the original.