RCSI Heritage Collections

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...

Known and loved around the world for his commitment to peace, negotiation and reconciliation, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (b. 18th July 1918) was South Africa’s first democratically elected president (1994-1999). Mandela was an anti-apartheid revolutionary and political leader, as well as a philanthropist. To celebrate the centennial of Mandela's birth, we take a look back at when the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland awarded him an Honorary Fellowship at a ceremony in Cape Town, South Africa. ‘Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world’ - Nelson Mandela Professor Thomas Hennessy, President of the College conferred the Honorary Fellowship of the College on H.E Nelson Mandela, President of the Republic of South Africa on Wednesday, March 27th 1996. Mr. Nelson Mandela receiving an Honorary Fellowship from Prof. Thomas Hennessy, PRCSI.  At a ceremony in Capetown a special bond between the College and South Africa was highlighted. In his citation hono...

RCSI Heritage Collections marked the ‘12 Days of Christmas’ by closely looking at the 12 images depicted in our George Walsh stained glass windows, found in the Albert Theatre at 123 St Stephen's Green.  George Walsh apprenticed under his father, who had studied under Harry Clarke, and so our windows follow in a Dublin stained glass tradition. Each image depicts a significant person, event or invention that changed the world of healthcare. Each day, we posted an image and a fact on our Twitter and Facebook accounts. Below, we elaborate a little on those images. On the first day of Christmas...   Imhotep 2850 BC Did you know that ancient Egyptians were practicing a recognisable form of pharmacy and medicine as early as 1500 BC? The first day's stained glass feature depicts the Egyptian God ‘IMHOTEP’, deified approximately 2850 BC, known as the Ancient Father of Medicine. In Egyptian society during the Old Kingdom, the nation’s physician and Pharaoh’s magician appe...

The Dublin Festival of History is taking place between the 29th September and 14th October and there are plenty of medical related events taking place throughout the city, with full details of all events available in the festival programme here On Tuesday 3rd October, RCSI Archivist Susan Leyden gives a talk, Dissecting the Archives of the Royal College of Surgeons, which looks at the Heritage Collections of the RCSI as well as exploring the rich history of the college itself. The collections touch on medical, social, historical and personal events that have taken place over the last 250 years. A view of RCSI from 1810 Come along to Dublin City Library and Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street, on Wednesday 4th October and hear how the St. John's Ambulance Welfare Department helped the poorest families in Dublin between 1925 and 1949. St.John's Ambulance fed Dublin's poorest Dr Kathleen Lynn In her talk Surgeons, Starlets and Storytellers Maeve Casserly explores the lives of...

We are busily preparing for next week's Heritage Week so we thought you'd like to know what's in store! This years theme of 'It's in our Nature' fits in perfectly with one of our prized Heritage Collections, the RCSI Natural History Specimen Collection ! It comprises approximately 200 specimens across the disciplines of  zoology and biology and range in items such as frogs in glass jars preserved in formaldehyde, a duckbilled platypus 'prepared' by a past museum curator, a tiger skull donated by a prominent doctor and various incy wincy spiders picked up from all around the world. Why, do you ask, does a College of Surgeons hold such type of items?  It all started at the early stages of RCSI's history when in 1775, William Dease, one of the founding members of RCSI, presented a collection of anatomical preparations to RCSI. Using these preparations, the College decided to fit up a museum in RCSI's first building on Mercer Street. It had its ve...

RCSI Heritage Collections receives many visitors from all over the world, all with a varying array of backgrounds. However, one thing these visitors do have in common is a keen interest in medicine and more particularly, a keen interest in the history of medicine. So, with that in mind where else would ones first port of call when visiting Dublin be??? RCSI of course, due to its rich history and breadth of material relating to that very topic. One recent visitor, Dr Peter Mohr, FRCP, a retired neurologist from the Manchester area and honorary secretary of the Historical Medical Equipment Society (HMES), wrote to us enquiring about our Historical Instrument collection. He was particularly interested in seeing Cruise's endoscope and its original casing which are housed in the Pathology Lab in Beaumont Hospital. Peter & his wife came to see this particular instrument and on that day told us the story of a very interesting woman, Dr Edith Willcock McCrea, a Fellow of RCSI, whose ...

Some of our students may be in the thick of studying for exams at the moment and wondering when is it all going to end?! Some are celebrating with their well-earned results in hand, honouring the long held tradition of  rushing the RCSI Library  on results day, in which case - congratulations! Whatever stage they are at, studying for exams is synonymous with college life. No need to fear them though! All that blood, sweat and tears will be worth it in the end. Here in Heritage Collections we hold an array of material relating to exams including past papers from the early 1900's onwards and examination results registers going all the way back to 1793. Ever wonder what type of questions were students being asked at RCSI exams 100 years ago?? Take a look: Sample First & Second Professional Examinations, 1917.  Click on image to enlarge. And after the exams come results! Going by these examples you can see that just like today, students back then were striving f...

We were at RCSI Heritage Collections could not let today pass without mentioning Abraham Colles.  Abraham Colles (1773-1843) Today 173 years ago Colles passed away at the age of 70 in his house, 21 St Stephen's Green. Abraham Colles was born in Milmount, Co. Kilkenny on 23 July 1773. Over the next 70 years he would come to dominate the world of surgery both in Ireland and around the world.  Colles entered TCD in September 1790 and received his B.A in April 1795. At the same time he registered in RCSI and was indentured to Philip Woodroffe. Colles received his ‘letters testimonial’ from RCSI in September 1795. That same year he travelled to Edinburgh where he devoted himself to furthering his medical studies. Colles' indenture to Philip Woodroffe, signed by both men  In June 1797 he graduated as Doctor of Medicine in Edinburgh and made his way London to take up his residence. By the winter of 1797, Colles was back in Dublin and had taken up his residence in Ch...

What has an RCSI President from 1797 and a character from Father Ted have in common??  A weird fondness for cats, it seems.    Here is a quote describing a trait of William Hartigan, President of RCSI in 1797... ' William Hartigan was noted for his fondness of cats. He frequently, on his professional rounds of visits, brought a pair of kittens with him, ensconced in the deep coat-pockets worn early in the last century '. - History of the  Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland by Sir Charles Cameron While below is Father Ted's description of Matty Hislop from the Lent episode of Father Ted called ' Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rollerblading '... Ted: 'God almighty, when I think of the sacrifices Matty Hislop made' Dougal: 'Who?' Ted: 'He was a notorious drunkard who found God and then decided to punish himself for his sins. Oh, he used to do all kinds of things. Like he had a terrible allergic reaction to cats. So instead of avoid...