RCSI Heritage Collections

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...

The SPANISH FLU or 'GREAT FLU' of 1918 was one of the greatest pandemics of all time. It killed between 50 and 100 million people - approximately 35% of the population. Despite its name, the outbreak affected virtually every country in the world.  To mark this centenary RCSI Library worked with Research Summer School students Kate Moran and Vikneswaran Raj Nagarajan to investigate the historical impact of the out outbreak under the following questions: What features of this strain of influenza led to it being such a severe outbreak? What was the impact of the pandemic, socially, medically politically? What was the response to the breakout in Ireland? What did the Irish public health sector do in response? How can we use the pandemic as a model for future pandemics? Over the 8 weeks, Kate and Vik, investigated and analysed primary and secondary sources available to them in RCSI Heritage Collections including medical journals, pamphlets, archives and newspapers. They...

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’s College Arms share a couple of popular St. Patrick symbols. Can you spot them? RCSI College Armorial Bearings The Shamrock ‘The Supporters are Irish elks, with chaplets of shamrock around their necks' The shamrock has been used as a symbol over the ages, and is attributed to Saint Patrick in his attempt to describe the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish. It later became one of the symbols to represent Ireland itself. The Snake ‘The Crest (has) an eagle, preying on a serpent, which was an emblem of disease’. The snake has long held associations with disease, death and evil. However, in the legend of Patrick, when he banishes snakes from Ireland he is presumably banishing evil in the form of paganism rather than disease. RCSI College Arms Our current College Arms date to 1907, but RCSI’s heraldry has evolved over time. JDH Widdess, medical historian and past RCSI Librarian and Professor of Biology, traced the symbolic influences such as the surgeon’s lancet stemming from t...

RCSI’s Charter Day Meeting marks the Annual Commemoration of the granting of our Royal Charter by King George III in 1784. An important event in the College calendar, Charter Day Meeting sees a range of events, lectures and talks culminating in the annual Charter Day Dinner held in College Hall. A facsimile of the document is on permanent display in the main entrance way of 123 St. Stephen’s Green, and gives people a chance to see the wonderful details of this extremely unique and important document. The RCSI Royal Charter of 1784 Studying the document as a physical object allows us to expand on the history surrounding the Charter. First of all, you will see that it is made of two full parchment skins. While this is a typical format for charters in Europe since medieval times, such documents vary structurally in small ways and the RCSI Charter has some notable features. At a glance, you will notice how the Charter is physically put together. The first (rearmost) skin is turned o...