RCSI Heritage Collections

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...

This week has seen the Explore Your Archive Week 2017 campaign in full swing, with some wonderful archives being discovered, explored & showcased in really original and imaginative ways.  The Archives Week campaign is designed for archives of all kinds throughout Ireland and the UK, with its main aim being to increase public awareness of the essential role of archives in our society, to celebrate our network of collections and emphasise the skills and professionalism of the sector. RCSI Heritage Collections see this campaign as a brilliant opportunity to not only showcase our own historical treasures but also to open them up to new & diverse audiences, those that wouldn't necessarily have regular contact with archives or are new to the use of primary historical sources. With this in mind we decided to organise a hands-on, Archive focused workshop with a group of transition year students from CBS Secondary School, Westland Row, Dublin 2. The event was a collaboration wit...

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...

With the theme for this year's Heritage Week being 'It's in your Nature', this is the perfect time to delve into the history of the RCSI Museum, which held an impressive collection of zoological specimens. Much of the information in this post comes from Sir Charles A Cameron’s great work 'History of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, The Irish Medical Schools etc' which in 2016 RCSI Heritage Collections made available to read and search on-line . It is an immensely readable tome and contains fascinating insights into the history of the college. We’ll also utilise other sources including J.D.H. Widdess' history of RCSI as well as the annual reports of the College. The museum began life late in the 18th century on Mercer Street; early contributions were made to it by Mr. John Halahan and Mr. William Dease . The first museum catalogue was prepared in 1795 by the professors of Anatomy. By 1819 the museum was somewhat neglected, Cameron tells us that ‘abou...

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 ...

On his centenary year, we take a look at the life of a man who was a key player in the development and progression of the Royal College Surgeons Ireland-  Harry O’Flanagan, MD, FRCPI, FRSCI (Hon), FFCM, DPH and former Registrar of RCSI (1962-1980). Born in Dublin in 1917, Dr Harry O’Flanagan was the eldest son of Henry O’Flanagan, a well-known and successful business merchant in Roscrea, Co Tipperary and Miriam (Chew), a theater sister at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. Harry grew up and spent his early childhood years in Roscrea, from where he went to school in Castleknock College, Dublin. He entered the Royal College of Surgeons in 1934 and after qualifying in 1939 he did his internship in the Richmond Hospital, Dublin.   RCSI Roll of Licentiates (RCSI/LIC/02) (Click to view) Dr O’Flanagan went on to obtain a Diploma in Health in 1941 and two years later he was appointed Assistant Medical Officer of Health in the Rhondda Valley, Wales. In 1944, ...