RCSI Heritage Collections

Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in RCSI Library's Heritage Collections? Preservation and conservation are key tasks that the team carries out on works housed within our collections, and on new items donated. Here, Sarah Timmins of the Heritage Team shares an insider view of that process to mark Archives Week 2019. The gloves are off. Or are they on? If you’ve ever visited a reading room to consult archives or heritage collections, you will be familiar with some handling guidelines - no pens, no drinks, clean hands, no flash photography... These kinds of common-sense rules for readers extend from the duty of Collection Care which is undertaken by the RCSI Library Heritage Team. The long-term preservation of our collections takes on a varied approach. At the heart of it is prolonging the usable life of records and items. The principle concept is minimal intervention but, as long as interventions are carried out properly, every little effort counts towards this preserv...

RCSI Library has recently published a new booklet Instruments & Innovations, highlighting RCSI's rich history of innovation in medical and surgical practice. The publication is available to view online . Below is an award-winning blog post from the Heritage Team's Dr Ronan Kelly, written during the development of the project with reflections from the process. This blog post was originally published on LibFocus in August 2018, and republished here to mark the launch of this publication. Earlier this year [2018] I joined the Heritage Collections team in the RCSI Library. On a daily basis I help with inquiries from within the College and from the general public. Another ongoing task has been the preparation of a booklet on medical instruments and innovations associated with figures from RCSI. From the College’s point of view, the booklet represents a moment of reputation enhancement: an opportunity to showcase one aspect of RCSI’s 234-year contribution to medicine in Ireland....

Women on Walls at RCSI, in partnership with Accenture, is a campaign that seeks to make women leaders visible through a series of commissioned portraits that will create a lasting cultural legacy for Ireland. In March 2018, artists were invited to submit a proposal to Business to Arts, project managers of the initiative. A selection committee identified six artists that were commissioned. The group of artists have worked with RCSI Heritage Collections team to research their subjects and complete the portraits. These portraits will recognise the pioneering achievements of eight extraordinary women and enhance the visibility of historical female leaders in healthcare. They now hang in the Board Room of RCSI on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin’s city centre. RCSI Board Room with 8 new portraits of female leaders in healthcare on permanent display The launch of the portraits was a very exciting day for RCSI as it was a culmination of almost 18 months project work and we at Heritage Coll...

This evening RCSI welcomes very special guest Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice, Former President of Ireland & Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to receive the Emily Winifred Dickson Award. The Award was established in honour of Emily Winifred Dickson who was the first female Fellow (1893) of the surgical Royal Colleges in Britain and Ireland. This distinguished award recognises women who have made an outstanding contribution to their field. In honour of her visit, we take a look back at two previous occasions in which Mary Robinson has visited the College. The first was in 1991 when Mary Robinson, as President of Ireland, officially opened the new RCSI Mercer Library and Mercer Medical Centre. This site was formerly Mercer's Hospital and had closed its doors in 1983 after almost 250 years of medical service. In 1984, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland purchased the building and decided to rebuild is so tha...