Posts

“A Good Deal of Spade Work” – The RCVS Archives Project

/1 Comment/in , /by

In June this year, RCVS Knowledge were thrilled to announce that the Alborada Trust had provided funding for a five year project to catalogue, preserve and digitise the Historic Collection and Archive of the Royal College. Now, five months later, it is time to update you with the progress that has been made so far!

One of the first steps of the project was to employ a qualified Archivist, to oversee the execution of the project, including the cataloguing, recruitment of a digitisation assistant, and development of the digital platform which will provide greater access to the collections.

That Archivist is me!

Lorna, Archivist at RCVS Knowledge

Lorna, Archivist at RCVS Knowledge

I’m Lorna Cahill, and I started working here at RCVS Knowledge six weeks ago. Previously I have worked in the Archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the Natural History Museum, and Royal Holloway, University of London. I have lots of experience working with material from the 19th century, particularly relating to science and education. So this post is a perfect fit! I am incredibly excited to delve deep into these fascinating collections, and to draw out some of the stories and characters and share them with the public. I hope to regularly update this blog, and the @RCVSKnowledge Twitter feed, with interesting bits and bobs I find along the way. So keep an eye out for those.

Archivist's Desk at RCVS Knowledge

This is where you will find me for the next five years!

So what have I been up to for the past six weeks – and what’s the next step of the project?

Happily for me, my main task thus far is exploring the collection. I need to get an idea of what the collections contain, the context around the material, who the people are that created the papers, and how best to look after them. It didn’t take me long to realise that I would first need boxes. Lots and lots of Archive boxes.

Archive Boxes

Tower of empty Archive boxes ready to house collections

First I took a sample of papers by Connie Ford MRCVS (1912-1998), who worked for the Veterinary Investigation Service for nearly 30 years. She was a specialist in cattle fertility, and I very soon got used to reading a lot about bull testicles and cow abortions (archives work is not always so glamorous!). The research carried out by Ford seems incredibly thorough and there is a great deal of data for me to sift through. However, sometimes it can be rather touching, such as this list of cow abortions. Poor Betty, Shirley and Joyce.

Ford Cow Abortions

Research data from the papers of Connie Ford

The collection I will be focussing on for the near future is that of Major General Sir Frederick Smith MRCVS (1857-1929). Smith served with the Army Veterinary Service during the Second Boer War, and was eventually appointed Director General in 1907. He wrote several veterinary manuals and histories of the veterinary profession, and carried out extensive research. I have just looked through nearly 20 years of correspondence between Smith and Fred Bullock, Secretary of RCVS, which has revealed to me a great deal about Smith’s character. I even found Smith’s prediction, in 1920, that one day I would come along to curate his papers:

Excerpt from Letter from Smith to Fred Bullock, 8 Jan 1920

“I am leaving all my books, papers, notes &c to the College with one or two exceptions. If I live long enough I will index the papers & notes still in M.S, they may save some man a good deal of spade work.”

It has taken 95 years, but finally someone is giving them all the attention they deserve. However, he couldn’t predict that it would be a woman!

Smith’s handwriting is a little challenging to read, so I certainly do have my work cut out for me. But I look forward to spending the next few months with Fred Smith, and helping everyone else get to know him better too.

Lorna

RCVS Archives Project: Next steps

/0 Comments/in , /by

As you will have gathered from the previous blog by our Archivist Lorna, the Archives Project here at RCVS Knowledge is well under way. Whilst Lorna is currently getting to grips with the collections (and Fred Smith’s handwriting) I have been recruited to work on the digital side of things.

IMG_1607a

My name is Adele and since the beginning of January I’ve been working on the project as Archive and Digitisation Assistant. My role is to carry out the digitisation of priority documents within the archive and historical book collection, this includes preparing the material with preservation and repackaging measures, creating the high resolution digital images, writing descriptions and relevant metadata for the scans and uploading them onto an online digital archive. Around this I will also be assisting Lorna with promotion of the project through social media, displays and outreach activities such as talks. Once awareness of our collections grows and the enquiries come flying in I look forward delving into the collections to answer some of these too.

Previously I’ve worked as Archive Trainee at Rambert Dance Company and as the Archive and Special Collections Assistant at University of the Arts, London. Though I’ve worked with digital images within archive collections before- as well as taking on ad hoc digitisation- this project is on a whole new scale for me. I’m so excited to get our online digital archive up and running, it’s great to work in a project with such defined goals and to join at this early stage allowing me to be part of the decision making process. There are certainly many decisions to be made!

The first aspect of my role I looked into was the scanning itself. The library had already purchased a professional high resolution scanner so I was able to get straight on with comparing different settings. We want these scans to be of high quality and available in years to come so we chose to scan into TIFF format as this is uncompressed; it means it is excellent quality and 100% of the data captured during scanning is retained. For our printed text based images we want to our users to be able to search the text within them, from a TIFF file we are able to create a PDF document that we can perform optical character recognition on in order for this to be possible. We were also concerned with how easy it would be to read our images on a screen. After some in house-testing, it was decided that scanning images in greyscale provided more contrast. As the real value in our historical books and journals is the information within them, we made a decision to scan this type of material in greyscale. For images and archive material we will likely be scanning in colour to better represent the unique material context of these documents.

Veterinarian greyscale 75

The Veterinarian scanned in greyscale. Easy to read and a much more efficient file size to store.

Smith letter colour 75

Letter to Frederick Smith. If this were scanned in greyscale would we see that the annotations were made at separate times?

[Edit: These images have been compressed and resized, and do not reflect the quality of the images to be displayed in the digital archive.]

Of course once I had decided how I was going to scan the material, I needed to know what to scan. A priority list has been made by Clare our Head of Library and Information Services in agreement with our funders The Alborada Trust. This was based on demand, what is already accessible online elsewhere and predicted research value. As Lorna is currently in the process of cataloguing the first archive collection, it made the most sense for me to start with our historical book and journal collection and so I am currently working on scanning volumes of The Veterinarian. The Veterinarian, published from 1828 to 1902, was one of the first veterinary journals to be launched and we hold a complete run of the periodical bound by volume. I’m currently digitising the third volume and I can see why it has been chosen as a priority- there are some really interesting case studies and comments on the profession at that time.

The Veterinarian shelves (2)

Volumes of The Veterinarian 1828-1902

Now we have some digitised pages to work with, Lorna and I are trialling some Digital Asset Management systems for the most important part of the process – making the images accessible to you online. We hope to be able to give you an update on this soon.

If you are interested in our collections then follow the hashtag #vetarchives on our twitter account @RCVSKnowledge for some updates, fun discoveries and more.

If you have any questions for the Archives Project team, please email us archives@rcvsknowledge.org

-Adele-

Introducing Helena!

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Hi, my name is Helena and I am the new Archive and Digitisation assistant. My role, like Adele’s before me, is to assist in the digitisation and online accessibility of documents within the archive and historical book collection.  I hope to one day become a fully qualified archivist so this role is a wonderful opportunity for me and a step towards that dream. I have recently been lucky enough to be accepted onto the Archives Management MA programme at UCL; so it’s been an exciting couple of months for me. Previously I have been a volunteer in the Stanley Kubrick archives at UAL and I have also volunteered my time with conservation staff at the Royal Museums of Greenwich.

Helena, in the RCVS Knowledge office

You are probably now aware that the website on which you can browse through these collections (hundreds and hundreds of years of veterinary history!) is now live. There are so many interesting and weird and wonderful artworks, letters, and articles to delve into. I’ve read about subjects ranging from singing to hogs to the medical properties of Marshmallow.

The medical properties of marshmallow and liquorice, from ‘The Veterinarian’ Volume 4, Issue 1, January 1831

It’s fascinating to be a part of helping to make this history more accessible and to work with varied material.  For example, Frederick Smith’s Boer War letters, even though tricky to read, have been insightful personal accounts into wartime conditions. The website seems to give them a new lease of life, and with the Universal Viewer, you can view the handwriting in amazing detail. A selection of the letters are currently being transcribed. I think the hardest thing for me is to not stop to read too much and get distracted! So far I am finding it a captivating and enjoyable task.

Letter from Smith to his wife Mary Ann, from North of the Tugela River, South Africa, 22 January 1900 [FS/2/2/4/2/8]

Personally my favourite material is the Edward Mayhew watercolour collection – though the artworks detail many unfortunate circumstances, and sometimes his artwork depicting disease and veterinary practice is not for the squeamish!

‘Shyers’ by Edward Mayhew [EM/1/2/1]

There is a great deal more to come and more decisions to be made on what to scan. You can also follow the highlights of the collection on Twitter and Facebook where we regularly post updates, explain the functionality and features, and sometimes ask questions for readers to try and help us answer. Most recently we have been stumped with what the disease ‘Chewgore’ could be, as mentioned in the journal ‘The Veterinarian’, the writers are perplexed themselves.

The Chewgore in Sheep, from ‘The Veterinarian’ Volume 3, Issue 6, June 1830

Please let us know what you think! We value your feedback on your experience with the site. Feel free to join in with tasks like suggesting tags to enhance the searching the collection for other readers. We may one day be able to search within the actual text of printed works with OCR (optical character recognition) technology; though we will keep you posted on this.

I am hoping to get more involved with promoting the works that I interact with; I will post about my unusual and interesting finds as I scan my way through the collections. The site is filling up fast so I know we won’t be short of things to talk about.

If you are interested, then don’t hesitate to visit the site here. To make sure you don’t miss any of the highlights of the collection, follow our Facebook Page, Twitter account @RCVSKnowledge and also follow the hashtag #vetarchives.

Happy 160th Birthday Fred Smith!

/5 Comments/in , /by

Portrait of Fred Smith (with some minor alterations) [FS/2/1/6]

Today, 19th April, marks 160 years since the birth of Frederick Smith in 1857. I’m going to take this opportunity to tell you a bit more about the man, and what I like about him, after spending over a year working with his papers.

Potted History of Smith

Smith was born in Hull, in 1857, and after his father died in India when Smith was aged 10, his education was paid for by the Royal Patriotic Fund. He chose to study to veterinary science, not because of a particular interest in animals, but as a route to joining the armed services.

After graduating from the Royal Veterinary College in 1876, Smith served as an army veterinarian in India from 1878-1885. He was Professor at the Army Veterinary School in Aldershot from 1886-1893, and then returned to regimental duty at Woolwich, in Sudan and in South Africa during the Second Anglo-Boer War. In 1903 he was appointed Principal Veterinary Officer in South Africa, and on return to Britain in 1905, PVO Eastern Command. Appointed Director General of the Army Veterinary Service in 1907, he then retired as a Major General in 1910. He twice briefly returned to the War Office during the Great War, and was knighted in 1918.

Between his military service, Smith was a prolific writer producing some 49 veterinary articles and books including A Manual of Veterinary Physiology, which ran to five editions, and a number of histories of the profession including his four volume work The Early History of Veterinary Literature.

Annotations from the past

Smith was not only a thorough and enthusiastic historian of his profession – but also of himself. I have mentioned in previous blog posts, that he annotated a great deal of his papers before they were deposited at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. This has meant that I often feel like Smith is directly speaking to me as I catalogue his papers – ninety years on from when we wrote his messages.

An example of these explanatory annotations is found on Smith’s ‘Scheme of Work’:

Tablet of work to be done and subjects to be studied, drawn up in 1886 [FS/2/1/1/2]

This framed ceramic tablet was found in an envelope labelled ‘Original scheme of work drawn up in 1886 and followed for years’. Some of the subjects listed for Smith to investigate include ‘Digestion Experiments’, ‘Describe the Histology of Elephant Skin’, ‘Work out Glanders’ and ‘Make a Urine Bag’. It seems that Smith’s curiosity and desire for knowledge knew no bounds. Smith was undeniably a workaholic and often mentions in letters the long hours he works. He did go on to study and publish papers on most of these subjects, and only in the last few months before his death did he really slow down.

Insights into character

The reason behind this work ethic may have been a fear of falling behind, or running out of time. He wrote in a letter to Henry Gray, a fellow veterinary surgeon,  on the subject of writing his book ‘Veterinary History of the War in South Africa’:

“I have been at ‘the War’ for months; it is only recently that I have been able to get ahead of the printer, but I continue to give it about ten hours a day, for I look up everything. I am compelled, owing to my limitations, to concentrate. I think of nothing else and do nothing else than the matter in hand.”

The ‘limitations’ to which Smith refers, are his perceived academic failings, which he often mentions in his letters. However, Smith is rarely guilty of false modesty, and has kept many examples of praise from his peers amongst his papers. But I suspect this is not just a case of feeling pleased with himself. He always seems grateful to those who have helped him along the way, and is clearly moved by words of support.

I was touched by this annotated photograph in his collection:

Photograph of Smith (second from left) being met by Sir Evelyn Wood (third from left) [FS/2/1/3/1]

The accompanying envelope was labelled:

“A postcard containing a photograph of Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood meeting me outside St James’s Palace after my Presentation on appointment as Director General of the Army Veterinary Service, 1907. The photograph is fading rapidly (I think it must have been taken by an amateur) but the kind thought which prompted him to come specially to the Palace to meet me is for ever permanent. F.S. July 1927”

Views to the future

Over the past year or so, I have grown to greatly admire Fred Smith, and enjoy the insights into his character the project has provided. Although we share very little in common, when it comes to political views or temperament, I share Smith’s fascination with history, and awareness of our place in it. Smith often thought about how the world was changing, and in many ways advancing, as can be seen in this letter to Fred Bullock, Secretary of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, in July 1923:

“Am glad to hear that the whooping cough is running its course correctly. How we shall be laughed at 100 years hence for tolerating this pest!”

Smith foresaw whooping cough being easily treated within the next 100 years, and in fact a vaccine was developed in the 1940s, not long after his death. What Smith did not foresee, was another increase in deaths by whooping cough 40 years after that, due to a mythical connection between the vaccine and encephalopathy which resulted in people refusing immunisation. Our generation is certainly in no position to laugh at those who came before us – and could still stand to learn more from them.

I do not know whether Smith could have ever predicted how people would see his work today, nearly 90 years after his death. So far we have uploaded nearly 200 works from Smith’s collection to our Digital Collections website, which can be accessed instantly, and for free, anywhere in the world. As Smith had to write a letter to the RCVS Secretary, in order to arrange a time to speak on the telephone, I feel sure he would be amazed and excited by these developments.

So birthday cheers to Fred! May your legacy continue for centuries more!

Living Pictures – Vet History Podcast

/0 Comments/in /by

This year, RCVS Knowledge were very pleased to participate in an internship scheme organised by the Kings College London History department. MA student Abbie Latham spent a few months with us, reading and transcribing Fred Smith’s Boer War letters. She also recorded the following podcast, in which she explores aspects of the letters relating to technological developments in war reporting in the nineteenth century.

Abbie’s transcriptions have been added to the Digital Collections website, underneath the digital images of the individual Boer War letters. Now it is even easier to access this fascinating resource, and read a first hand account of this devastating conflict. Click here to view the letters.

 

Cataloguing the Correspondence of Henry Gray

/1 Comment/in , , /by

As the RCVS Knowledge Archives and Digitisation assistant, my main duties are to scan the historical material, upload it to our Digital Collections website and take part in the promotion of the collection. In recent months, I have worked on a side project: cataloguing the personal correspondence and research papers of veterinary surgeon Henry Gray (1865-1939).

One of the most enjoyable parts of cataloguing Henry Gray’s material is not just the insights into past veterinary practice, but also the veterinary surgeons behind that practice. I spend one day a week delving into his professional and personal life; building up a picture of his character, and his ideals, through the correspondence he received from his peers.

Portrait of Henry Gray

Henry Gray qualified from the London Veterinary College in 1885 and set up a practice in Kensington on Earls Court Road (pictured below), though sadly this original facade no longer exists.

Henry Gray pictured in front of his surgery in Kensington

Henry Gray’s daughter bequeathed his materials to the RCVS in 1955 and now I get the satisfying task of reading, cataloguing and ordering his letters, postcards, research, and notes. It’s a fascinating insight to the work of a veterinary surgeon in the early 20th century and through these letters, I get detailed opinions from Gray’s peers regarding the state of the veterinary profession. I also find out about the diseases they were researching at the time. There is also correspondence from doctors studying human medicine,  because there was often cross-over between human and animal disease, Henry Gray would consult the work of doctors and vice versa.

There aren’t many letters in Gray’s own hand and there is little biographical information about him, but I still build up a strong picture of his character from the letters he received. Gray was described as ‘pugnacious’ and, in letters written to him, his friends would often challenge him on his critical nature. What I admire most about this man was his very clear passion for his profession and his concern for the treatment of animals. He was not only relied upon for his expert opinion on animal treatments, but he was also an avid writer. Gray’s main correspondent was E. Wallis Hoare, the editor of ‘Veterinary News’, who relied upon Gray’s research and writing as content for the journal. Gray also wrote his own papers and was an extremely busy and dedicated man, eventually becoming the editor of the ‘Veterinary News’ himself. Gray was widely read, multilingual, and translated important veterinary works from French and German to English for his peers. Gray was known to be fond of saying:

Gray held this belief in high esteem and from what I have found, he had a real thirst for knowledge and shared it with his peers as often as he was able.

The breadth of topics he researched, and the topics that interested him, seems exhaustive to me –  though he did specialise. Gray became an expert on birds and established one of the first practices that specialised in small animals. He donated some very beautiful books to the library here at RCVS, my favourite is pictured below.

The Speaking Parrots by Dr. Karl Russ (1884)

One of the most surprising things, at least to me, is that vets did not feel respected. Gray’s main correspondents were incredibly dissatisfied with the state of the profession. Gray and Hoare were forward-thinking men who were interested in the progress of veterinary science and education, though Hoare was so dismayed by the men already within the profession, he often discouraged people to enter it. Hoare believed that their work made a better hobby than a living. I have found some quotes in the letters that convey some of the feeling of the time.

“Had I been a Solicitor or Doctor an Engineer or a Tradesman etc – I should have been married ages ago but a horse doctor, a dog doctor … is no catch”

– A. Cholet

The above quote appears in the letter pictured below (which includes a match making request!):

Other notable comments include:

“I am proud of having been an apothecary and medical man, and nearly always ashamed of being a veterinary surgeon”

– H. Leeney

The RCVS was often a favourite topic in the letters and got its fair share of criticism; mainly concerning the education of veterinary surgeons. One remark in a letter questioned why exams for doctors were days long whilst the RVC exam was over in a few hours.  Another comment concerned the females of the profession – specifically Aleen Cust. E. Hoare, who was incredibly progressive, was very outspoken about the attitudes of the council. He writes in one letter:

“ The Lady V.S in Roscommon; I hope to get her to write some articles and show the antiquated members of the council what a woman can do…”

– E. Hoare

I really admire the degree to which these men cared about their work and the reputation of the profession as a whole.

Another significant aspect of cataloguing this collection concerned the time period that most of the letters were written, which was during the First World War. I’ve read firsthand accounts of how the army treated the veterinary surgeons trying to care for their horses. The image below is a section of a letter written by H. Leeney; he rebukes Gray for his critical ways,  but also goes in to detail about working for the army.

There are also passing comments within the letters on major events of the time, such as the sinking of the Lusitania, and these are juxtaposed with the cases they are tackling in their own practices (away from the fighting). My favourite part of working with Gray’s personal archive is that are many facets to the collection. The material is not all clinical and scientific. I also learn about the obstacles the vets faced due to the fact that certain technology was not available. The image below is a snippet of a letter from E. Hoare where he describes his troubles chloroforming a horse.

“I tried chloroforming standing on a big horse last Monday and shall not attempt it again”

– E . Hoare

Throughout this project I  am finding out a great deal about the veterinary profession. Getting to know Gray (and his peers) has helped me understand the challenges and similar circumstances they faced, and how this compares to the present day. It definitely continues to strike me how the members of this profession never wish to stop learning, their intellectual natures and how innovative they continue to be, and often have to be. I am very much looking forward to putting this collection online! Please follow on Instagram where we add our favourite finds from the archives and historical collections.

Helena

A Few Of My Favourite Things

/1 Comment/in , , /by

I thought before I leave my role here, and go off to study for my MA in Archives and Records Management, it would be a nice idea to share snippets of my favourite finds and favourite materials that I’ve had the pleasure of working with during my time with RCVS Knowledge’s historical collections.

For those of you who also follow us on social media you might be aware of some of the fun we’ve had using hashtags whilst photographing our daily finds and tasks.

I have enjoyed never having to beat the Monday blues whilst I’ve been working here. In fact Mondays have been every colour imaginable and I’ve been celebrating that with #marbledmondays on our Instagram account

Highlights of our #marbledmondays photographs on Instagram

It didn’t stop with Mondays – #tinytuesdays, #waybackwednesdays, #throwbackthursdays and #finebindingfridays, have all allowed me to engage with our library and archive collections in new ways, and of course, to show them off!

More photographs showing off our collections!

I have also adventured to far-flung lands alongside fascinating people, such as Captain Richard Crawshay, who authored the book The Birds of Tierra del Fuego (published in 1907). His letters are now transcribed and can be viewed via our Digital Collections website here.

Page from letter to Frederick Smith from Richard Crawshay, Useless Bay [Inutil Bay], Tierra del Fuego, [Chile], 29 Jan 1905 [FS/3/3/3/1]

This is one of my favourite quotes from Crawshay’s letters (pictured above):

“The most sensational birds I have – to me at least are a tiny Reed Warbler no larger than a Bumble Bee, a tiny black wren from the depths of the forest at the entrance of Admiralty Sound, a tiny tiny owl from the forest weighing exactly 3 oz, probably the largest bird of prey in the island – an Eagle measuring 5ft 91/2 inches from wing tip to wing tip…”

One of my favourite people to get to know was Henry Gray, an early 20th century veterinary surgeon. I am cataloguing his papers and have learnt so much through the words of his correspondents. Henry Gray’s papers have given me a great insight into the plight of the veterinary professional in the 1900’s. Through Gray and his peers I have learnt about the veterinary surgeon’s tremendous work ethic and their incredible anatomical, clinical, pathological and physiological knowledge. One of the most interesting letters I found in Gray’s papers was one where he had a response from a librarian from the Royal Society of Medicine after requesting Ivan Pavlov’s research into canine hysteria and neurasthenia. It put Gray’s life into a greater context for me – imagine being able to reach out to Pavlov himself for your own research?

Letter to Henry Gray from H E Powell, Librarian, Royal Society of Medicine, 9 Oct 1929

The most recent exciting discovery was a batch of finely detailed 19th century artworks which the archivist found tucked away in a cupboard. The pieces have now been carefully restored and we have an online shop where you can pick up a select few as prints! (You can visit the shop here: shop.rcvsvethistory.org) I enjoyed getting to digitise these amazing paintings and drawings, even though the art is as equally beautiful as it is grisly! Ovet the next few months, we are going to be asking our Instagram and Twitter audience to help us identify the parts of the anatomy we can’t, so stay tuned for that! There are many other amazing artists in our collection and it was interesting for me to find out that some of them had actually practiced as veterinary surgeons too, such as Edward Mayhew and John Roalfe Cox.

Anatomical artwork by Joseph Perry, January 1835. From the Field Collection.

A page from John Roalfe Cox’s sketchbook

Thank you to everyone who has been following along with us. I have had so many great experiences in my time working for RCVS Knowledge. I’ve been here over a year and there is still so much more to discover. I’m so glad to have had a hand in sharing the important historical value of such an amazing profession.

-Helena-

RCVS Vet History Transcription Project

/2 Comments/in , /by

[Please note: Due to the high number of responses to this call for volunteers, we are currently unable to accept any more people onto the project. We hope to expand the project in the future, so please keep an eye on this blog for further opportunities.]

The Vet History team have been quiet on this blog for a while, but have been very busy behind the scenes with cataloguing and digitisation. Now that we are all working from home, and temporarily physically separated from our beloved historical collections, expect to hear from us more often!

First of all – a call for volunteers!

If you are interested in improving your reading of nineteenth century handwriting (or making a start!) then we want to hear from you!

Last year we digitised a large volume of letters written in 1840 in support of a petition (or memorial) calling for reformation of the teaching and examination of students at the Royal Veterinary College in London. This huge wave of support from over 200 veterinary surgeons across the country paved the way for the formation of the RCVS, and their being granted a Royal Charter in 1844.

A screenshot of the digitised letters written in support of Memorial to Governors of the Royal Veterinary College [RCVS/1/2]

Although everyone can now freely access these digitised letters on the Vet History website – they would be even more accessible if they were individually transcribed. We would love our audience to get involved, and also satisfy anyone who is hungry for some historical documents or to gain new research skills whilst self-isolating!

Digitised letter from J Stewart of Glasgow, beside a transcription of the letter.

Volunteers will be assigned individual letters to transcribe, and be provided with guidance documents for how to set out transcriptions, and support with interpreting tricky handwriting.

Completed transcriptions will be added to the Vet History website, and transcribers will be credited (with permission).

Please contact us via archives@rcvsknowledge.org if you would like to take part.

–Lorna–

Transcription Project Completed – thanks to our incredible volunteers!

/0 Comments/in , /by

After a successful call  for volunteers back in April to help transcribe letters from the earliest days of the profession, we have now published the results of our Volunteer Transcription Project – and they are pretty amazing!

All the letters, which were written in 1840 in support of a petition that paved the way for the formation of the RCVS, and their full transcriptions can now be accessed on our website.

We were very lucky to have contributions from 51 people over six months, fully transcribing 256 handwritten letters, to make them more easily accessible for a 21st-century reader. Here we share some insights and thoughts about the process from our fantastic team of volunteers.

Some of our fantastic volunteers!

So why did people volunteer?

One reason we were able to attract such a large number of contributors was due to many veterinary staff being put on furlough during the initial lockdown period, and therefore having more time to indulge their existing historical interests.

Debbie Summers, an RVN working in Kent, and already an avid collector of Victorian postal history, told us “I was immediately interested in this project and had some skill in deciphering Victorian handwriting which I thought could be of use.” For retired small animal vet Carol Young, the project was a way “to reconnect however slightly with the profession I still missed”. Other volunteers, such as Linda Lowseck, retired former CVO of Jersey, had a more personal connection to veterinary history, as her great-grandfather qualified as vet not long after these letters were written.

However, previous historical interest was not essential. Claire Coulthard, an RVN working in the North West of England, told us she hated history at school, but during the project realised she was “becoming interested in the letter’s contents and the people who had written them.” By the end of the project, Claire had transcribed 16 letters in the collection, more than any other volunteer.

Happily, this project just seemed to scratch an itch for some people. Ginny Kunch, a veterinary practitioner from Oregon, USA, said she was “going a bit stir-crazy when I found this project online… Also, I’m a sucker for quill and ink.”

Letter from Thomas Brown, Manchester, of the 6th Dragoon Guards

Learning how to transcribe

Most of the volunteers were entirely new to reading historical material, and so were eased into the task with shorter letters, (relatively) clearer handwriting, and tips and tricks about deciphering tricky words. Debbie Summers used a combination of perseverance and luck – “Sometimes [the right word] would ‘appear’ after a while of pondering, other times it was a best guess! I have definitely improved my skills in this area from working on this project!”

Soon, however, many of the participants were up and away and asking for longer and more challenging letters. It turned out that many of the vets and vet nurses who joined us had lots of experience interpreting badly written practice notes!

Alison Skipper, a vet and PhD student researching the history of health and disease in pedigree dog breeding, also employed extra-curricular wisdom in her transcribing –  “my biggest leap of insight was in transcribing Thomas Brown’s letter, where I put my knowledge of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer to good use in working out that D. Gds. meant Dragoon Guards!”

Far from being put off by the challenge of difficult handwriting, this was a big part of what Claire Coulthard enjoyed about the task – “transcribing the letters was similar to solving logic puzzles. When I completed a letter it gave me that same sense of satisfaction I get once I completed puzzles”. There was also the joy of new discoveries – finding what Claire called “little 1840 ‘isms’”, such as the more elaborate valedictions, no longer used in correspondence today.

And not all the writing was terrible! Carol Gray, a postdoctoral researcher at Liverpool University, told us that she fell in love with Belfast Vet William Taylor’s handwriting, and the correct and polite use of English across all the letters she transcribed.

Letter from William Taylor, Belfast – probably the most beautiful writing in the collection!

Reflecting on the past

All the volunteers we spoke to found their experience reading these letters gave them insight into the way the profession in 1840 compares to today. For Carol Young, the “assumptions of class or gentility” seemed outdated, but she could remember “a time when we wore white coats, male vets were required to wear ties and female vets skirts, and vets were not supposed to be addressed by their Christian names!”

The main concerns of the vets in 1840, and their reasons for signing Mayer’s petition, continue to speak to the profession today. Ginny Kunch transcribed a letter from “a surgeon who indicated a concern that, in essence, the guy down the road was also claiming to provide veterinary services and, by god, what were the governors planning to do to address that particular issue! And I thought, well, that’s not unlike me now, as a practising veterinarian, trying to convince some clients that the local pet shop or human chiropractor is not an equivalent substitute for a properly qualified veterinary surgeon!”

Carol Gray was interested in the drive for mandatory veterinary education and noted that “Although the profession is now well protected in terms of who can practise veterinary medicine, there are some parallels with the current drive to regulate veterinary paraprofessionals.”

Letter from J Martin, Newbury, and accompanying transcription by Linda Lowseck

In a (very untidy) letter from J Martin of Newbury, Linda Lowseck identified mention of ‘Foot and Mouth Disease’, long before the disease was known by this name. For Linda, this was “yet another reminder of the gigantic increase in knowledge since 1840.”

The collection of letters as a whole is a fascinating snapshot of the early days of a now well-established profession, fighting for recognition. As Alison Skipper found, “there is a sense of fraternity and cooperation in these letters – a wide variety of veterinarians, scattered right across the country, coming together to support an important cause – which also reflects the best of our sense of community today.”

We are enormously grateful for the commitment and contribution of our band of volunteers on this project. Now that we have a talented pool of transcribers at our disposal, we are deciding which set of archives to set them upon next. Stay tuned to the blog for information about future projects.

You can browse the letters and their transcriptions on our Vet History Digital Collections site here.

–Lorna–

A Christmas Gift to the Future of the Veterinary Professions

/0 Comments/in , /by

This Christmas, we are launching an appeal to raise funds for vital conservation work to restore one of the most fragile items in our Historical Collection – the Volume of Incoming Letters, 1868–1877.

Correspondence pasted inside the Volume of Incoming Letters

This huge bound volume is a fascinating window into the veterinary profession in the late 19th century, covering nine years in over 1400 letters. In these letters, we can hear the voices of vets as they write to the RCVS with their concerns and ideas, and as the battle for greater recognition of the value of veterinary expertise is fought in Britain. Each letter written to the RCVS is meticulously numbered, pasted into the volume, with an annotated summary of the reply written by the Secretary.

Visible damage to the edges of pages inside the Volume

Specialist repair

In 1900, George Fleming MRCVS donated his personal library of over 600 volumes, with the instruction that they were to be “accessible to every member who desires to refer to them”.

Since then, the Collections have been moved and handled by vets in three different locations. They survived the Blitz. However, this accessibility has meant that the most used items have suffered the brunt of the damage.

There is a lot that we can do to protect fragile items – but occasionally, some material needs specialist care so we can continue to make it available to the public.

The Secretary’s decision to file the letters in this way is fascinating and impressive, but very impractical for regular use. The original leather binding and the spine are now badly damaged by wear and tear. The Volume needs cleaning, and many individual letters are torn or damaged.

We have estimated that repairing the Volume will require around 50 hours of specialised conservation work. This would also include the creation of a bespoke box for safer storage and handling.

The original leather binding is starting to come away from the spine of the Volume

A vital resource

Jane Davidson, a PhD student and RVN, is studying the development of the British veterinary profession, and recently viewed the volume as part of her research.

“The letters have added an amazing layer of personal information not available in meeting minutes – protecting them for future research is essential to veterinary history.”

The letters show, she adds, that there was already a global value to being an MRCVS during the mid-Victorian era.

“[There are] numerous and regular letters from overseas. These include from India, Mauritius, and multiple from across the United States of America.”

International correspondence to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons

What you can do

You can help support this essential restoration work by making a donation to our Christmas appeal today. You can choose to make a one-off gift or give to us regularly each month. Anything you can spare will contribute to ensuring we can help preserve the past for the veterinary surgeons and nurses of tomorrow.