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2025 in the Archives

> > > 2025 in the Archives

Monday 16th June 2025 was a momentous day for the Library and Archive Team, as it saw the Historical Collections move into the College’s new headquarters at 1 Hardwick Street. The City of Westminster Archives were perfect hosts but after three years in this temporary accommodation it was brilliant to be back under a College roof again.

New Home

College’s new HQ is an impressive 6-storey building in the heart of Clerkenwell, London, originally built in 1930 as part of the redevelopment of Hardwick Street. As well as exciting event spaces and adaptable meeting rooms, the building also boasts a secure and fully climate-controlled storeroom for the College’s historic archive and library collections.

The President's Chair in the reception area of the RCVS

The President’s Chair in the its eye-catching position in the reception area

The College’s history has also inspired some of the decoration around our new home, such as a design motif based on the Colleges’ original crest. In addition, the Presidents’ chair and stained glass (both dating from the 1880s) are out on show. These historic items similarly decorated our previous homes at Red Lion Square and Belgravia House. Also taking a central position in the reception area is an exhibition case for displaying items from the Historical Collections.

New Things

Although preparing for the move took a lot of our time and brain-space, there have been plenty of other achievements this year. Back in February we launched the new look Vet History website, which as well as hosting the Historical Collections blog, showcases many of our favourite images and stories from across the collections. New materials are being added to this resource each year.

Crests of veterinary colleges rendered in stained glass

Some of the stained glass panels in the new events area

Our archive continues to expand with new collections. This year has seen the acquisition of records from several veterinary practices, including those of George Thurston, a practitioner in Norfolk whose records date from the 1950s to the 1990s, and Nigel Stansfield Carter (Hereford, 1950s to 1980s). Similarly, records from the practice of Boyde and Willett (of Surrey) have been added to our online catalogue –available here. This collection includes notebooks from the first half of the Twentieth Century, and a complete run of day books and treatment ledgers from 1970 to 1992. By acquiring practice records like these we are steadily building a picture of veterinary procedures from the past, to inform researchers of the future.

Alongside the physical stores, work is also under way gathering key College electronic records (in formats such as Word, PDFs and image files) to create preservation copies in a secure digital management system. This will safeguard the College’s most important electronic documents, keeping them safe from accidental deletion and corruption by viruses.

Supporting Researchers

Documents from the James Waddell Archive

Some of the documents from the James Waddell Archive

Alongside these projects, we continue with our commitment to answering enquiries and supporting researchers. Among this year’s visitors were a PhD student using the collected papers of Major-General Fred Smith to uncover stories from military history. She has the distinction of being our final researcher during our time at the City of Westminster Archive. The honour of being the first researcher at Hardwick Street goes to a Royal Veterinary College teaching fellow who has a collection of histology slides used by their lecturers in the 1930s which he was able to match to some of the student notebooks of the same period in our collection. These two examples demonstrate the variety of angles from which our researchers approach Historical Collections.

With all these developments there is much to look forward to in 2026, as we further advance our projects. We hope you will continue to support and connect with the Historical Collections, and their many stories.

Woolwich Army Veterinary Hospital: Part 2Page from a handwritten ledger listing each horse and its ailment2026 Year of the Horse