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Images From The Past

A few weeks ago we were given three photographs by the great granddaughter of Richard Hughes, a well known veterinary surgeon who served on RCVS council from 1922-1934.

Richard Hughes, 1856-1951, graduated from Glasgow Veterinary College in 1880.  He went on to run a practice in Oswestry from 1882-1926 and was awarded a fellowship of the RCVS in 1893.

An expert on cattle and a well known figure in and around his local community he was known to have a very strong work ethic, his obituary in the Border Counties Advertizer ascribes this to him being “…truly a Victorian in many ways”.

In 1950 Hughes was elected a lifelong member of the National Veterinary Medical Association, illustrating the importance attached to his work and the effect he had on the “status of the profession to which he belonged”.

His obituaries state that he left a lasting legacy, not only within his local community of Oswestry but also within the profession to which he dedicated his life’s work.

Thanks to the generous donation we now have a number of interesting photos to add to our collection.  The first photo shows an RCVS Council meeting in 1927. Interestingly the college is still in possession of a number of the items on view including the boards listing the Presidents of the College and the portrait of the first President Thomas Turner. Sadly though, the rather magnificent stain glass windows visible in the background are no longer with us in their entirety.

1927 Council Meeting

A second photo shows a ‘Complimentary banquet’ held at the Trocadero restaurant in 1906 for Sir John McFadyean – it looks a rather grand affair!

R. Hughes at the RCVS Banquet 1906

The last image is a group photo. The location and year of this image remain a mystery to us so if you have any ideas as to where it was taken and on what occasion do let us know.

Group photo outside of unknown building

The artistic Mr Mayhew

I have recently had the opportunity to look more closely at the almost 400 watercolours by Edward Mayhew that we acquired in 1990.

Edward Mayhew (1808-1868) was the brother of Henry Mayhew, founding editor of Punch.  It is thought he spent his early years in the theatre before enrolling at the London Veterinary College in 1843 when he was in his 30s.  He qualified as a member of the RCVS on 6 February 1845 and became a member of RCVS Council just over a year later.

Reports of the meetings in the three years Mayhew spent on Council show him to be a man who was not afraid to speak his mind, especially where the Professors at both the London and Edinburgh veterinary schools were concerned.  His rather short obituary in The Veterinarian (November 1868 p810) says very little about him except “He was well known as the author of several veterinary works.”

It is for two of  these veterinary works, Illustrated horse doctor  and Illustrated horse management , that the watercolours were prepared and most of them have counterparts in the published books.

The drawings, which were converted into woodcuts  for publication, reveal a man of no small artistic talent.

The collection includes illustrations:  of diseases

The stages of laminitis

The stages of laminitis

methods of treatment

Inserting a tube into the stomach of a horse

Inserting a tube into the stomach of a horse

show how horses, and their keepers, should be housed

Plan showing how a stable can have a grooms house attached alongside

Plan showing how a stable can have a grooms house attached alongside

They also reveal something of the social conditions at the time

A Peep into the Grooms Home

A Peep into the Grooms Home

My favourites are the ones which show Mayhew’s  sense of humour – for example this drawing titled ‘Never mount a strange horse in a crowded place.’  I particularly like the ‘flying’ dog on the bottom right!

Never mount a strange horse in a crowded place

Never mount a strange horse in a crowded place

 Update (25/8/15)

Whilst researching for my lastest blog post on Mayhew I found an interesting account of the Mayhew family in George Hodder’s  Memories of my time: including personal reminiscences of eminent men  (London: Tinsley Brothers, 1870)

The section on Edward Mayhew (pp58-62)  gives information on his health when producing these illustrations  and mentions that his brother Julius, an architect, helped with the illustrations and designs for the stables.

One of the professions youngest and brightest ornaments

Recently there has been another of those coincidences that those of us who work in libraries love.  Two quite separate enquiries which end up having something – or in this case someone – in common.

The first enquiry was from a researcher who wanted to look at The quarterly journal of veterinary science in India and army animal management and the second from someone who was researching James McCall, founder of Glasgow Veterinary College.

John Henry Steel

John Henry Steel

The connection? John Henry Steel – who was the co-founder of the journal and who had a medal named after him which was awarded to McCall in 1899.

As is usual when this happens curiosity got the better of me and I had to find out more..

John Henry Steel FRCVS (1855-1891) followed his father into the veterinary profession, graduating from the London Veterinary College in 1875.  After a brief spell in the army he took up a post as Demonstrator of Anatomy at the London College where he remained for five years, before resigning when the professorship, which he had been promised, was abolished.

He re-entered the army and, in 1882, went to serve in India, which was to be the scene of his most notable achievements. Upon arrival, he “was immediately impressed by the utter want, outside the Army, of anything approaching Veterinary Science” and set about rectifying the situation.

One of his first moves was to establish, in 1883, The quarterly journal of veterinary science in India and army animal management.  This journal, which he co-founded with Frederick Smith, allowed vets to share information and record  progress in treatments etc.

Secondly, in 1886, he established a veterinary college in Bombay so that the population could be “educated in veterinary matters”.

Sadly the severe mental and physical strain of running the journal and the College took its toll and he was taken ill, returning to England in 1888.  Against the advice of doctors, he went back to India after a few months and involved himself fully in the life of Bombay, taking up the reins at the College again and becoming a Fellow of the University and a JP.

His health did not improve and, seemingly aware of his imminent death, he wrote an editorial for the journal, dated October 1890, titled ‘Cui Bono’ (to whose benefit?).  It starts:

“To every conscientious worker there arrive times of introspection when the questions arise to him what has been the outcome of my efforts?”

Steel then proceeds to assess his life’s work and in particular to question the usefulness of the Journal and whether it was worth the “at times laborious work”.

He feels

“it has succeeded in enlarging the mind of the public and profession on matters veterinary…[and has] enabled men working on the same subjects… to co-ordinate their work and results”

and if at all possible it must continue

“Considering how things were before the Quarterly, considering the work our Journal has been enabled to do…we have decided to continue its production”

Announcement of closure of journal

Announcement of closure of journal

Sadly this was not to be and  Steel wrote an announcement  stating that owing to severe illness he was having to leave India and that the Journal will no longer be continued after December 1890.  The publisher then adds to the end of the announcement, which was distributed with the last issue, “J H Steel, Esq …died at Bombay on Thursday the 8th”.

He was  just short of his 36th birthday.

The three page obituary in the Veterinary Record (31 January 1891), from which the title of this post is taken, and the fact that the RCVS instituted a medal in his honour testifies to the high regard in which he was held by the profession.

The College which he founded, the Journal and his books on diseases of the ox, dog, elephant, sheep, and camel and on equine relapsing fever remain as his lasting legacy.

The 1881 list of ‘Existing Practitioners’

In the summer, with the help of our intern Josh, we were able to sort the bundles of applications for entry on the List of Existing Practitioners which were submitted to the RCVS in 1882.

The List of Existing Practitioners came into being as a result of the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1881.  The introduction to the Act talks of the need to help the public distinguish between qualified and unqualified practitioners.  As part of this the Act required the RCVS to maintain and publish two documents:

  • a register of its (qualified) members; and
  • a list of unqualified ‘existing practitioners’ who had practised veterinary surgery for the previous five years.

The 1882/83 RCVS Annual Report states that around 1,000 applications were made for entry on the Existing Practitioner list. A committee, consisting of the President and 8 Council members (3 professors and 5 practitioners) was formed to consider the applications.  At the end of their task 863 applicants were deemed eligible for the list, those rejected having right of appeal to the Privy Council.

During the summer we found 859 applications.  In most cases we have three documents:

  • a statutory declaration, witnessed by a magistrate or Justice of the Peace, by which the applicant declared that they had continuously practised veterinary surgery since August 27th 1876;
  • a testimony as to moral character, usually given on the form supplied by the RCVS for this purpose,
  • an accompanying letter which explains how the fee for inclusion on the list (£3 3s for applications made before 1st April 1882 and £6 6s after that date) would be paid.

The testimonies of moral character were supplied by a cross section of society:  ‘pillars of the community’ –  doctors, vicars, solicitors, councillors, magistrates etc; those who made use of the services of these unqualified practitioners – farmers, businessmen (particularly those involved in the transportation of goods using horses) etc,  and of course members of the RCVS.

List of names in support of John Oddy's application

List of names in support of John Oddy’s application

In a few cases we have more documents.  For example John Oddy of Cleckheaton sent a 1m long document containing 35 names who would testify he was of ‘good moral character and integrity’.  Whilst Edward Allcock of Dublin supplied a copy of his indenture of apprenticeship, dated August 1835, to Joseph Bretherton MRCVS.

In most cases though the additional documents are because the validity of the application has been called into question – they are ‘letters of protest’.

These ‘protests’ are nearly all from MRCVS, and they reveal something of the tension that existed between some qualified and unqualified practitioners.   For example an MRCVS writes that John Lloyd of Montgomeryshire was “up to within 3 years ago … a Blacksmith and since that date he has been nothing more than a travelling quack.  He is an illiterate person … a common blacksmith”.  In spite of this Lloyd’s application was successful.

Letter of 'protest' against John Lloyd's application

Letter of ‘protest’ against John Lloyd’s application

We only found two applications that are clearly marked as having been rejected at the first stage.

One is from Edward Drew of Oldham.  From the documents we can see that his  application was initially rejected because he hadn’t practised veterinary surgery continuously for the previous 5 years.  Drew persuaded the Committee to reconsider his application explaining that he had been forced to give up his practice and take up other employment due to “being connected with another business … by which I lost a considerable sum of money”.  He also sends a document containing 27 names in support – top of the list was Thomas Greaves FRCVS, former RCVS President and current Council member – which can’t have done any harm as his application was eventually successful.

Wragg's letter of protest

Wragg’s letter of protest

The other rejected application is from William Robertson of Commercial Road, London.  Those appealing against his application included Francis Whitfield Wragg, who was serving on Council and  the Committee considering the applications at the time. (I wonder if he declared a conflict of interest?)  It seems that Robertson had worked in Wragg’s forge in Whitechapel as – in Wragg’s words –  a ‘foreman shoeing smith’.  There are 9 other ‘protests’ all but one of them from people related to Wragg’s practice.

Documents show that Robertson took his appeal to the Privy Council where it was dismissed – alongside an appeal by Stephen Pettifer, whose application we have not found.

The Annual Report concludes it section on the listing of Existing Practitioners thus:

‘the labours of the Committee in accomplishing their task of selection have been extremely onerous and full of anxiety … At no time in the history of the Royal College has a Committee had imposed on it such a heavy and anxious task … with the conclusion of this registration the most embarrassing portion of the responsibility thrown upon the Royal College by the Act has been disposed of.’

The RCVS stained glass

Display of Coat of Arms

Display of Coat of Arms in reception

The addition of the Coat of Arms of the University of Nottingham to the display of stained glass in the reception at Belgravia House, the RCVS HQ, has awakened interest in the history of the glass in this display and elsewhere in the building.  As a result I spent several days pouring over 170 years of Council minutes to see what I could find out.

The story begins in 1884 when the College decided to knock down its existing building in Red Lion Square and erect a new home on the same site.  This new building was to be ‘fitting for the home of the veterinary profession’ and tenders were invited for three stained glass windows in the Council Chamber facing on to Red Lion Square.  Money was tight though and Council decided they couldn’t justify the extra expense.

The idea of having ‘coloured’ windows must have appealed to sections of the profession as the Central Veterinary Medical Society offered to pay for stained glass in the middle window.  Practitioners HL Simpson and JF Simpson (prominent members of the Royal Counties Veterinary Medical Association) jointly offered another.  So, whilst the building opened on 6 April 1886 with plain windows, stained glass was installed in two of them in time for the AGM a month later.

In an editorial about the new building in May 1886 The Veterinary Journal reminded ‘societies and individuals that there is much yet to be done in the way of furnishing, fitting and embellishment of their building, and that now is a good opportunity for their assistance’.  Perhaps this plea was aimed at the remaining plain window in the Council Chamber?

If so it seems to have worked as the following year the Norfolk and Eastern Counties, the Western Counties and the Lincolnshire Veterinary Medical Associations agreed to jointly fund the final stained glass window.  They presented the design to Council on 3 April 1888.  The window would show:

‘a veterinary surgeon examining a horse, which was made to appear as jaded as possible, to carry out the idea of a sick animal. After the stable-master’s explanation about the animal, the veterinary surgeon appears to be cautioning him for the future, telling him never to leave till to-morrow what might be done to-day. There was a Latin inscription under the subject to that effect. In the background a shepherd was seen driving a flock of sheep for the veterinary surgeon to examine. The subject was surrounded by an oval interlaced with the monograms of the counties by which the window was presented’.

Finally the three windows were complete and they disappear from the records until 1941 when they are mentioned in reports of the damage caused by the bombing of Red Lion Square in the final month of the Blitz.   The damage was so serious that they had to be removed and replaced by plain glass.

It was not until 1953, following payment of war damage compensation, that the windows were repaired and returned to their original position. Or were they? Photographic evidence (see below) seems to show that, for some unknown reason, the two outer windows switched sides.

Windows in Red Lion Square

The three windows as they looked when first installed. The window depicting the sick horse is on the right.

Council Chamber 1927

Photograph of Council from 1927 again showing the window with the horse on the right

Last RCVS Council Meeting in Red Lion Square September 1960

Last Council meeting in Red Lion Square September 1960 – the horse is now on the left

 The 1953 Annual Report also records that the idea of adding the ‘armorial bearings of the universities having veterinary schools and of the veterinary colleges which have their own bearings’ in the windows at the opposite end of the building was being considered. It was hoped that these would be paid for by ‘the universities and colleges concerned or by the alumni thereof’.

There is no record of when this happened but the six university coats of arms must have been added before 1960, when the College moved out of Red Lion Square and put the stained glass in storage, as they are mentioned in discussions about which items from Red Lion Square could be incorporated in to the new building in Belgrave Square.

 In March 1962 a representative from Goddard and Gibbs (the stained glass studio where the windows were being stored) reports that it was not practicable to include the main windows in the new building but it would be possible to ‘incorporate one panel of the Royal College coat of arms [from the middle one of the three windows] and the six existing panels of the coats of arms …  in the window at the garden end of the large room on the first floor’.

This was agreed and these panels, with the addition of new stained glass representations of the coats of arms of ‘the veterinary schools under the old one portal system’ (Royal Veterinary College, Royal (Dick) Veterinary School, Glasgow Veterinary College and the Veterinary College of Ireland) plus Trinity College, Dublin and University College, Dublin were installed in the Historical Library in Belgrave Square.

Window containing the Coats of Arms in Belgrave Square

The coats of arms from the universities and veterinary schools as well as the RCVS Coat of Arms from the original middle window installed in Belgrave Square

It is the stained glass from this window that can now be seen in Belgravia House – the university coats of arms in reception and the RCVS Coat of Arms in the Members’ room.

The question of what happened to the rest of the three larger windows remains a mystery. Minutes of 1962/63 record discussions of possible homes, including a new student hostel at RVC’s Hawkshead Campus.  These all fell through.  The final mention of them in the official records is in October 1963 when Registrar WGR Oates reports that he has written again to the associations who presented the windows to see if they have views on their future.

You can see glimpses of the windows in Red Lion Square in a film produced by Paul Greenough MRCVS in 1960   (3.07 mins  and 4.42 mins)

RCVS Coat of arms

RCVS Coat of arms – all that remains of the original three windows

RCVS Archives Project: Next steps

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-

Digital Collections website is live!

After months of development and tweaking, I am now very happy to show the world our fantastic new Digital Collections website!

My most recent blog posts have described the cataloguing process – with the end result of the online archive catalogue. The Digital Collections site serves the other main aim of the RCVS Vet History Project – digitising our historic material and making it available for everyone to see, from anywhere in the world.

We will be adding more and more content to the site as the project continues, but over 150 works, dating from 1613 to 1912, are currently published. These include original watercolours, photographs, letters and periodicals.

The homepage of the new Digital Collections website

You can visit the live site now at http://www.rcvsvethistory.org/

If you want to know a little bit more about how we got here – this is the story so far…

When I started at RCVS Knowledge in October 2015, there already was a Digital Archive website, which displayed some of the oldest veterinary periodicals in our collections. Whilst this site was suited to the format of periodicals, I could see that it would not work for archive material, such as letters or manuscript notes.

Archive material can be challenging to share online, as you usually need more information about the items before you can understand them. For example, when reading a letter between two individuals, they may refer to each other only by first name, talk about places such as ‘the office’, or ‘the hospital’, or just write ‘Saturday’ for the date. The archivist of a collection will know which people and places are being referred to, and at least an approximate date the letter was written. If this information (or metadata) can be displayed alongside the images, then that provides some context for the researcher. Additionally, if the metadata is searchable, this will help researchers find the material more easily in the first place.

Letter to Fred Bullock from Frederick Smith, 1912 – with final paragraph written up the side

Quite a lot of archive material is also handwritten, which presents another difficulty. Not only can the writing be hard to decipher, it can be written at right angles, in different colours, and sentences can carry on over two pages. To make this as easy to read as possible, you need high resolution, colour images that you can easily rotate and zoom, and quickly navigate between.

Last year, Adele and I began a search for existing platforms that met our requirements for image display. We looked at other digital archive websites, but discovered that the choice seemed to be between complicated multi-functional software for huge organisations, or simple online galleries, better suited to photography and online stores. A third option was to build something ourselves, using open-source software, and I loved the look and functionality of the Universal Viewer tool, used by the Wellcome Library, Bodleian Library and British Library. We are on a slightly smaller scale than these institutions, but our needs were the same! So we contacted Digirati, the developers of the UV, and they worked with us to create a modification of the Viewer, and invited us to take part in the pilot of Wellcome’s Digital Library Cloud Services platform.

Screenshot of the Universal Viewer displaying a close up zoom of a manuscript letter.

The Universal Viewer also allows us to link from the images of the material to the library or archive catalogue record. I knew that I wanted users of the Digital Collections website to easily see and understand how one archive item relates to others in the collection. This is helped by linking to the archive catalogue, but we have also included a content ‘tree’ on the website, which users can expand and collapse to see what is on the whole site quickly and easily.

Underneath each Universal Viewer gallery, you can see the location of the currently displayed item within a tree of all content on the website. By expanding and collapsing the branches, you can quickly navigate to other items

As well as providing access, we wanted to encourage engagement between us and users of the site. You can share content by embedding individual Universal Viewer galleries on social media, and contribute additional knowledge and insight by suggesting your own tags.

We hope RCVS Vet History Digital Collections can become an active hub for interaction between veterinarians, historians and the general public eager to learn more about the fascinating past of the profession.

So take a look and let me know what you think! If you would like to be notified of major updates to content, please sign up to the mailing list here.

Cataloguing the Correspondence of Henry Gray

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

RCVS Vet History Transcription Project

[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–

Vet History PhD – Introducing Jane!

This is the first of a series of blog posts by PhD student Jane Davidson, who began her studies with RCVS Knowledge and the University of Kent in Autumn 2019. Click here for more information about this project, or follow Jane’s Twitter feed and hashtag #phdbythesea

Jane Davidson

Jane Davidson

I imagine that this period of change and disruption is making many people re-evaluate their life choices, and I’m one of them. I’m so happy to say that being immersed in veterinary history is the place I would want to be right now on lockdown. So it’s pretty fabulous that I’m doing a PhD on the professionalisation of animal medicine in the UK. The PhD aims to analyse how and why the medical treatment of animals came to be professionalised. This will involve identifying the reasons for, and effects of, the 1881 Act, which formally established the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons’ (RCVS) authority to distinguish between qualified and unqualified practitioners.

Seeing a life-changing tweet from RCVS Knowledge early last year brought together the slightly crazy path my career had been on. I read the initial proposal with interest, as I have been writing for and about the veterinary profession for some time. I checked the requirements for the PhD and I met the criteria, in a roundabout way. I did have a first degree in history, gained at Glasgow University as a young thing. I did have a level 7 qualification in my PgCert in Clinical Education, that I studied for while teaching clinical skills to vet nurses. Finally, I did have an interest in the veterinary profession, being a vet nurse, a veterinary blogger and all-round nosey historian at heart.

Digitised version of Charles Vial St Bel’s plan for a veterinary school in England – available to read on Vet History Digital Collections.

A summer of reading and writing followed, and I am now here in my garden doing much the same and loving every minute of it. I am fascinated by my findings so far, and am loving watching historical characters and situations come to life through my archive work. The connection with the people and places and events recorded by hand over 200 years ago feels very real. Noting the different handwriting, and sighing inwardly when Charles St Bel took the minutes of meetings (because of the hard work of deciphering his handwriting!) feels like I am among friends. St Bel was a lecturer from the first veterinary school in Lyon, who arrived in England with a plan to set up a similar school here. He met Granville Penn and together with the Odiham Agricultural Society created his vision with the London Veterinary College in 1791. Chatting with the great RCVS Knowledge team about ‘Charles’, ‘Fred’ and ‘Coleman’ with a warm familiarity helps with bringing these people to life.

Manuscript minutes of meetings of the Odiham Agricultural Society. whose work to advance knowledge of livestock management and breeding led towards formal veterinary education in Britain.

With the added pressures on the veterinary industry right now, I am missing clinical work and being part of a clinical team. Yet, right now, I oddly feel more connected with the veterinary profession through the people who were working in it 200 years ago. Their passions and desires jump from each page and I am proud to be here to share their stories.

–Jane–