History Day

Items

• 'Queering the narrative' in the archival records at Bethlem Museum of the Mind
  Looking at the possibilities and perils of investigating same-sex attraction in the historic records of psychiatry.
• 'That which never can be suppressed': LGBTQ+ history in the Royal College of Physicians collections
  In this lively virtual talk rare books librarian Katie Birkwood and assistant archivist Felix Lancashire explore some fascinating and potentially challenging collections at the Royal College of Physicians highlighting the long, rich and inspiring history of LGBTQ+ lives.
• 19th century Post Office workers records go live on the Addressing Health website
  This page introduces the Addressing Health Data Mapper project which offers unique insights into the health and working lives of workers in the 19th and 20th centuries
• AIDS Social History
  This research group documented the history of the disease as it happened and aimed to capture the response of policy makers and charity organisations to the virus. The papers consist of reports and analysis of strategies and policies covering actions of European countries as well as the UK
• All work and all play: unconventional sciences at the Warburg Library
  This blog post was written by Kella Lawrinson and Simone Monti, Graduate Library Trainees at the Warburg Institute as part of a series of posts on the theme of ‘Human Discovery: Experiencing Science’ for History Day 2022.
• Autograph Letter Collection
  An extraordinary collection of letters to Women’s Service Library (now The Women’s Library) of prominent correspondents dating from 1851 to 1975.
• Centre for Sexual and Reproductive Health
  Mixed media archive collection relating to European Commission project, Concerted Action: Assessing AIDS Prevention Strategies (1988 -1991), and follow-up projects, the aim of which was to provide an overview of the different HIV/AIDS prevention activities. Collection includes 734 posters and 6 boxes of ephemera.
• Diana Kimber and Louise Darche: leading lights in New York nursing
  A chance find in a newly catalogued book led to the story of two leading lights in nursing teaching in New York in the late 19th century: women who devoted their lives to their work and to each other.
• Exquisite Corpse: How did corpses become beautiful? An iconographic wild ride from the danse macabre to Corpse Bride.
  This post was written by Lena Szalewska and Arianna Dalla Costa, Graduate Library Trainees at The Warburg Institute Library, for History Day 2024.
• Fakoya collection
  This collection contains studies, reports and campaign material relating to the UK African diaspora and HIV awareness and prevention, sexual health issues and community awareness, c. 1996-2014. The material was collected by Ibidun Fakoya when she worked as part of MESH (Migration, Ethnicity & Sexual Health programme) at University College London. The collection is linked to SIGMA, as SIGMA continued to evaluate the programme after 2009.
• First Aid Journal
  First Aid began in 1895 and was an independent monthly magazine for the ambulance and nursing services (comprised of members of St John Ambulance, the British Red Cross Society, and St Andrew’s Association). These volumes were digitised through a generous financial donation from the St John Historical society. Some items reflect the language and values of their period, and may contain offensive or discriminatory language, terminology, and images or illustrations that may be upsetting for other reasons. Where possible, we will indicate the existence of this material so that our users are informed. Please note that the issue for 1907 is missing.
• Florence Nightingale and hospital design
  This exhibition highlights the impact of Florence Nightingale upon the design of hospitals and nurses’ training.
• From Microbes to Matrons: The Hidden History of Hospital Infection Control:
  This exhibition explores the history of hospital infection and ways in which hospital staff attempted to tackle it.
• Gender and Bathing in Antiquity
  This blog was written by Dr Giacomo Savani, an expert in Roman baths and ancient senses, and a recent intern looking at gender histories in the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH).
• Health, Pandemics and the Victorian Post Office
  This blog post explores the impact of the deadly Russian flu on postal works in the late 19th century
• HIVstory Project
  Introducing our new national outreach programme, 'HIVstory'. Discover the unique, personal stories of those impacted by the HIV/AIDS pandemic of the 80s and 90s. Find out why it's vital that we preserve this crucial piece of UK heritage and educate future generations across the country.
• Hospital and dispensary records at Barts Health NHS Trust Archives
  A map of current and former hospitals in the City and East London (and beyond), records of which are held at Barts Health NHS Trust
• Joseph Lister in the Archives – “The Father of antiseptic surgery”
  Joseph Lister introduced the concept of antisepsis in surgery in the 1860s, paving the way for the modern aseptic techniques we recognise today. Read on for a brief history of his work, illustrated with items from the archive.
• Learning from Lister
  In this exhibition we seek to bring Lister’s career and milieu to life through artefacts, personal effects, documents and books.
• Leonhard Fuchs’s History of Plants (1542) | Sachiko Kusukawa
  Leonhard Fuchs’s History of Plants, published in 1542, was a landmark in Renaissance book-printing. It contained more than five hundred large woodcuts of plants, accompanied by their morphological description and medicinal uses. Typical of its time, Fuchs’s study was based on a classical work on the medicinal uses of plants by Dioscorides (first century AD). Unusually for its time, Fuchs’s book contained an illustration of the artists that were involved in the production of the images. Fuchs had good reason to be proud of the artists, as they created for him the beautiful illustrations that functioned in multiple ways to aid the study of plants. I will introduce the ways in which illustrations mattered in Fuchs’s History of Plants before having a look at the copy now at the Linnean Society.
• Lives in the ledgers: gaining new insights through our latest project
  The archives team have been looking at a series of records from the London Hospital (now the Royal London) that demonstrate how the whole life of an institution and the community of people who keep it running can be captured in a single volume.
• Medicalisation as marginalisation: queer heritage and class oppression in the RCP collections
  On 22-23 October 2024, Katie Birkwood (Rare Books and Special Collections Librarian) and Felix Lancashire (Assistant Archivist) from the RCP Archives, Heritage Library and Museum Services team attended the Queer Heritage and Collections Network Symposium. We heard presentations from many organisations about the fantastic work being done around the country to better integrate queer (LGBTQ+) history into the wider work of the heritage sector. We will work to implement the lessons learned into how we collect, interpret, and present the RCP’s history.
• Mind Matters: neuroscience and psychiatry:
  This exhibition explores aspects of the history of neuroscience and psychiatry from 1800 to 1945, with special reference to the important contributions made by staff of King’s.
• NHS 75: Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the National Health Service
  The history of the NHS in our collections
• No common appearance - A pathologist of note
  Pioneering pathologist Dr Joan M. Ross won the John Hunter medal for her outstanding contributions to pathological anatomy in 1946, Learn more about this "staunch friend and wise teacher", a true individual who, despite having written a standard textbook in the subject, has thus far not received the same acclaim as other early women pathologists.