\ & ~%, THE WELLCOME INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE & CONTEMPORARY MEDICAL ARCHIVES CENTRE @. ANNUAL REVIEW | OCTOBER 1994 - 30 SEPTEMBER 1995 i C W b Design and Production: The Wellcome Trust Publishing Deparcmens Published by the Wellcome Trust. The Wellcome Trusti sa registered charity, no. 210183 Cover: Photograph from The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy archive (SA/CSP/Q.1/56), Tonal. Physical Classes given by Miss Morfudd Jeffreys Jones at Brompton Hospital, London. Reproduced courtesy of S and G Press Agency Ltd. | in mn 22502961186 THE WELLCOME INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE CONTEMPORARY MEDICAL ARCHIVES CENTRE ANNUAL REVIEW | OCTOBER 1994 - 30 SEPTEMBER 1995 STAFF Archivist Julia G A Sheppard, BA, DipArchAdmin Senior Assistant Archivist Lesley A Hall, BA, PhD, DipArchAdmin Assistant Archivists Shirley Dixon, BA, DipArchAdmin Isobel Hunter, BSc (Econ), DipArchAdmin Temporary Assistant Archivist Jennifer Smith, BA, MA, DipArchAdmin Secretary Tracy Tillotson CONTENTS YR ORsC OCRUE GENCE 29 22a cS ao oS ae sa inew ved ac escort come toes ea Me I—4 BRECOS SIONS iss irae Ns och a hanced atte apes ee Isa cae NS aI BRI VOACINCS oa asec gece Sheet ident [2-14 FEWEMCUASNS S ANC Sr io aden es, sr ene [5-18 Conservation and Reprography.......... ee cesescseescneeeescnesececnesecneneeeeeeee 20-21 EEC Cg MN na nc CNOA. a, OR OOO E73 = pO te Sesseend2—34 Readership and Collection Use... ec eseseseseneeceeeeaescseneaceeeeeeees 35-37 WESIEGNS CO CRI ariedie senass eee ese e e eee 38-40 Wisits: Dy CRUG isC aG i isha cae cote sce tos vonqee ene ae eee 41-43 SRVSY ae alte tr ea ct tiny Mca vgs tel ee tee Neca dense4 446 PIECEIMG S ANG COMMMIECEE S oor. ccn ns ciccnesconestnensnensseansorsonsnosntsoroennpeenensdses 47-49 Research, talks and publications 20000... ee eeeeseeesecneneeecncetseeneneeeees 50-52 Sa a ceo cpsc ascadbothe ssa rhc reas ac ne ieee 53 Early Queen b s Nurses un iforms c. 1890 (SA/QNI/H 2/1) INTRODUCTION It is gratifying to be able to report that at the end of the period covered by this review, the new edition of the Centre’s guide to its holdings was in press and has now been published. A Guide to the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre (4th edition) replaces the 1991 edition and covers all the accessions in the CMAC acquired up to the end of 1994, with details of 362 archive collections, and 10 illustrations from the collections. A total of 1000 copies have been printed and the Guide costs £5. Work on compiling and checking the informa- tion in the Guide and updating many details has been very time-consuming, but we are pleased with the result and look forward to the information con- tained in the Guide being made available via the Library's computer system next year. Among the 49 accessions received during the year there are several of consider- able importance, and, as always, we are grateful to the many individuals and organizations who have given or deposited their archives or co-operated with the Centre in other ways. The acquisitions range considerably in size and scope from a single unpublished manuscript, such as that on alcohol dependence by Arroyave, to the extensive archive of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, which includes the records of predecessor bodies such as the Society of Trained Masseuses, established in 1895. The Institute’s Library holdings were augmented by the Society’s large book collection which was given at the same time. A more recently established body, whose archives will nevertheless be of interest to histo- rians, is the Patients’ Association which was established in 1963 to enable patients to obtain advice and support; the records include extensive correspon- dence. One of the more unexpected accessions offered to us was the proceedings of the Sigerist Society, founded in 1947 and named after Henry Sigerist, who admired the Russian approach to medical care. This Society was formed to enable doctors to discuss the theoretical and social aspects of medicine from a Marxist viewpoint. We very much hope that additional material relating to the Society can be found by contacting surviving members. The papers of the psychiatrist, William Sargant, were delivered to the Centre, and cataloguing of these start in October 1995. Other significant collections of personal individuals’ papers were received from the families of Air Marshal Sir Harold Whittingham, covering aspects of aviation medicine, Professor Andrew Wilkinson the eminent paediatrician, and, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the papers of Professor George Macdonald, Director of the Ross Institute. A number of general practitioners kindly sent records from their practices. During the year a working party has been looking into various aspects of the library, and one of the issues raised concerned reader usage and the reactions of users to the library services. A number of questionnaires were issued to new and old users, one of which was specifically designed for the CMAC reader. Questions covered remote access to the CMAC Guide; ease of use of the various finding aids and general comments on the service. It was pleasing to note the high level of satisfaction with the catalogues and favourable comments on the Centre, especially since pressure on the staff to maintain standards increased with the further rise in the numbers of readers and the amount of material that they are consulting. We have had 244 readers (an increase from 221 last year), and 2125 boxes were produced by stack staff. For the first time we have also noted the numbers of reader visits (as opposed to the numbers of readers), and this averaged c4 reader visits a day, with July recording the highest number of reader visits in the month at 115. This may not sound a great deal, but since we usually discuss the research projects with many of the readers, and production of archives is necessarily a slower process than production of books (partly for secu- rity reasons), the total represents considerable staff time. Neither does it take into account the time spent dealing with telephone, postal and the increasing number of e-mail enquiries. During the year we produced several more sources leaflets — handy introductory notes for readers around certain themes and high- lighting specific collections — which have been very helpful. Photographic orders experienced some deiays this year, and as a result we have had discussions with the Medical Photographic Library in the Wellcome Centre. Amendments have been made to our systems for managing them and we will continue to monitor orders. It may be of interest to point out that with the forthcoming 75th anniversary of the opening of the first birth control clinic in the British Empire, the Marie Stopes papers have had the highest number of readers, followed by the archives of the Medical Women’s Federation. The collections most heavily consulted were the records of the Eugenics Society and the papers of Melanie Klein. In spite of increasing numbers of readers it is good to report that sorting and cataloguing of the archives has made good progress with several large collections, which are already in demand by scholars, either listed or in hand. Of note was Isobel Hunter’s revised list of the papers of Thomas Lewis, and her nearly com- pleted list of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy archives. The important and large collection of papers of the celebrated child psychologist, John Bowlby, were listed by Jennifer Smith. Jennifer has also catalogued several other collections including that of Charles Dent, the specialist in metabolic disorders, and her appointment as temporary archivist to concentrate on cataloguing these larger collections has been highly successful. We are delighted that she will remain with the Centre to catalogue the Sargant papers mentioned above, and then move on to sort and catalogue the Wellcome Archive relating to Sir Henry Wellcome and his collections that include records of the Museum and Library. We are investigating possible software for this cataloguing, with the advice of the Trust’s Information Systems Department. Jennifer will start this in February 1996, with a renewed appointment for 2" years. The Centre continues to survey archives and private collections: some, but by no means all, of these may eventually be deposited with us. Advice has been given to organizations including the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Association of Anaesthetists and the Royal College of Anaesthetists, the Homeopathic Research Trust and the British Association of Plastic Surgeons, and it is hoped that some of these bodies will employ archivists or work with the CMAC on identifying archives requiring preservation. We have continued to meet regularly with the Western Manuscripts Department and the Head of the Academic Unit, Professor W F Bynum, to undertake surveys of repositories in London to collect information on medical archives and manuscripts 1600-1945 ( See Surveys section). This has been very useful, not only for us in learning about unexpected holdings located in a wide range of libraries and institutions, but also assisting these organizations themselves by alerting them to the exis- tence of this material. We look forward to finalizing the London repository entries early in 1996. The Hospital Records Project, run jointly with the Public Record Office, has not moved forward as much as hoped, but it is now at a critical stage. It has been agreed that the data, currently held on SMART, will be moved to ACCESS by the Trust’s Information Systems (IS) Department, which is a major software improvement. Unfortunately, pressure of work, combined with the introduction of a priority system for work by the JS Department, has meant that no progress has been made. The PRO have assigned Richard Blake to oversee their end of the project and he has been working half-time since July, frequently in the Wellcome Institute, updating and undertaking valuable research for new entries. But until the new software and amendments are in place, further progress is sub- ject to serious delay. The importance of this database is recognized in the recent draft statement A National Archives Policy for the UK which has recommended that it should continue to be developed and maintained and that its existence should be more widely publicized. Much as we would like to publicize it, this step should only take place after updating the data and when access arrangements have been improved, as we would find it hard to cater for a large increase in the number of enquiries under present arrangements. It is pleasing to be able to report that several publications have appeared from the archivists. The 3rd edition of British Archives, now regarded as the standard reference work to archive resources in the UK, and jointly edited by Julia Sheppard, appeared in September and a launch party was held at the British Library in October 1995. The Facts of Life: the creation of sexual knowledge in Britain, 1650-1950, written by Lesley Hall with Professor Roy Porter appeared this year, and Lesley also gave a number of papers and published articles on women in medicine and on the history of sexology. Articles by the archivists on collections in the Centre have been published this year. Tracy Tillotson has continued to give the Centre invaluable secretarial support.