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A Christmas Gift to the Future of the Veterinary Professions

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.

Our new (temporary) home!

The entrance to the City of Westminster Archives Centre

Following the sale of Belgravia House, and the decision to vacate the premises by the end of March 2022, the Archives and Library teams at RCVS Knowledge have had a busy few months safely moving all the Library, Archive and artwork collections into secure storage, and to our new temporary office at the City of Westminster Archives Centre. (We shared photos and videos from the moving process on our Instagram feed, under the hashtag #vethistoryrelocation )

Although many RCVS and RCVS Knowledge staff are able to continue working from home, or at office space rented in Chancery Lane, in order to run our Archive and Library service effectively, an additional more specialist space was required.

Shelves of our most frequently used journals

We were very fortunate in finding accommodation for us, and our priority collections, not too far from Belgravia House at the City of Westminster Archives Centre. Stretching over 150 linear metres of shelving, we’ve brought with us our most frequently used books and journals, and key archive documents such as Council Minutes, Rolls of Members, examination records, and correspondence.

Shelves of RCVS Council Minutes, Rolls of Members and other frequently used archive items

Here at COWAC, the archive store is to the highest standard for preserving our fragile and unique documents. We also have use of the searchroom, which can accommodate more readers than previously possible in Belgravia House, from Tuesdays to Thursdays 10am to 4pm.

The public searchroom at the City of Westminster Archives Centre

As some of our collections are held offsite in storage, we require advance notice ahead of any researchers planning to visit. To find out more about how to get to COWAC, and the treasures in their own collections, visit their website here: https://www.westminster.gov.uk/leisure-libraries-and-community/westminster-archives

In the near future, the Vet History team plan to search the COWAC collections for records that shed light on the veterinary practitioners working in and around Westminster over the centuries. We’ll share any highlights with you here!

As always, you can search our collections via the Archive and Library catalogues, or view digitised content on the Digital Collections website. If you would like to view any of our material in the searchroom, or have research questions, please contact us via email archives@rcvsknowledge.org

-Lorna-

A snapshot of British veterinary practice in 1882

One of my favourite parts of our Archives is the extensive collection of applications for Existing Practitioner status, sent to the RCVS in 1882. After the arduous work carried out seven years ago to sort and list the 859 separate applications, I am very excited to now begin making these fascinating documents more accessible to the public via our Digital Collections website.

Part of the application submitted by William Bevys Bennett of Abergavenny

“Existing Practitioners” not “Veterinary Surgeons”

Clare’s previous blog post describes the background to the Existing Practitioner status in more detail. In brief, each of the applications was sent by a man practising veterinary surgery in Britain, but not a member of the RCVS, and who likely hadn’t ever attended a veterinary school. The Veterinary Surgeons Act 1881 legally distinguished the difference between MRCVS and unqualified practitioners, who could no longer claim the title ‘veterinary surgeon’. The creation of a fixed list of ‘Existing Practitioners’ served to prevent skilled men from losing their livelihood.

The complete list of Existing Practitioners, as it appeared in the RCVS Register 1883, can be viewed on our website at the link above.

Community connections

We receive many enquiries from descendants of veterinary surgeons and are able to provide information as recorded on the Register over time. However, I am always glad when I discover that the enquirer’s ancestor is actually an Existing Practitioner rather than an MRCVS, as in many cases there are supporting references alongside their application forms. These letters from local farmers, landowners, doctors and clergymen often provide an extra level of insight into the working life of the applicant, and his connections within the community in which he lived and contributed.

For example, the application of William Henry Arthy includes a detailed letter of reference from the ‘Assistant Horse Superintendent’ of the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company. Mr Llewellyn recounts that Mr Arthy’s attention helped all their horses recover from a bout of Influenza and Strangles the previous spring.

“I believe him to be highly respectable, trustworthy, honest & steady” – Letter of reference for W H Arthy from Mr Llewellyn, 14 Apr 1882

Another intriguing application is that of Frederick George Baker, who missed the ‘early bird’ offer of only three Guineas application fee as it was submitted before April 1882, and so had to pay double the amount in December. In a letter to the RCVS, he says, “it is rather awkward to get old of money just before Christmas” and wants to know how much time he can take to gather the funds. He contacted R C Trigger MRCVS to ask him to help him with the fee, and although we do not know how they are connected, and Trigger himself writes to Baker that he “quite fails to see that you have any claim upon me”, he offers to contribute one sovereign to his fee.

“I have not been able at present to make the amount up. Will you kindly let me know the longest time I shall be allowed to obtain it.” Letter to RCVS Secretary from Frederick George Baker, 14 Dec 1882

Digitising the applications

The above are just two examples of the hundreds of stories that can be found in this collection. As part of our ongoing digitisation project, I will take a sample of the collection, digitise the individual documents for each application and upload them to our Digital Collections website. So far ten are already viewable on the website, but more will be added over time. I aim to get at least 10% of the applications uploaded initially, including those which contain the most correspondence and supporting papers.

Take a look at the applications uploaded so far and explore this rich source of British social and veterinary history.

-Lorna-

Aleen Cust – the first woman to join the veterinary profession, 100 years ago today!

Photograph of Aleen Cust, c. 1927

One hundred years ago today, on the 20th December 1922, Aleen Cust became the first female MRCVS. To mark this significant event in the history of the British veterinary profession, we have digitised documents from our archives that tell Cust’s story. It begins with her unsatisfactory first encounter with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons back in 1897, when she first applied to sit an RCVS examination.

Read the full story on our website, and view the documents in our Digital Collections.

– Lorna –

Piled storage boxes

2023 in the Archives

It’s been a productive year in the archives, with a particular focus on adding more collections to our online catalogue. This involves sorting and listing archival documents, before creating online catalogue descriptions to aid discoverability. The documents are then rehoused in acid-free folders which assists their long-term preservation. This year’s biggest project was the archive of Connie Ford, an accomplished expert in cattle disease and fertility. Weighing in at some 350 items, Ford’s archive (pictured above) includes correspondence, notebooks and many published research papers created by herself and others. […]

Drawings of horse bones

Archival Arrivals

At the RCVS Archives we are always on the lookout for interesting documents to add to our collections. Recently we acquired two small but appealing archives, given to us by RCVS members.

Drawings of horse bones

Olwen’s casenotes occasionally included her drawings

In February an MRCVS from Cardiff contacted us offering to donate an item he first discovered when he purchased his practice in 1983. It’s a casebook compiled by Olwen James (1914-1974) between 1936 and 1939 during her time as a student at the Glasgow Veterinary College. Olwen graduated in July 1939, and appears on our list as the 113th woman to qualify as a veterinary surgeon since Aleen Cust became the first recognised female veterinary surgeon in December 1922. Olwen was also the eighth woman to qualify from Glasgow.

Handwritten names and addresses in a ledger

Olwen James’s name on the RCVS Roll of Members, 1939

Olwen used her casebook to record each of the animals she treated during her course, which totalled 114 cases. For each animal she noted details of the patient (breed, gender, approximate age), her examination of its ailments, plus her diagnosis and subsequent treatment. Occasionally Olwen draws an illustration of the problem or plots a graph monitoring the patient’s condition. Ailments range from lymphangitis in a bay gelding to streptococcus mastitis in a Guernsey cow, plus she successfully performs an ovariotomy on a young cat, operates on a spaniel with a melanoma and castrates a Hereford bull. Her casebook is therefore an interesting window into the work students undertook and the recommended treatments at this time.

After graduation Olwen spent most of her working life in Cardiff. She established her practice in the Gabalfa area of the city, where she worked for over thirty years. Olwen was not the first female veterinary surgeon in the Cardiff area. Mary Farman graduated from London in December 1936 (number 77 on the list of female graduates) and joined a practice set up by Leonard Watson in the nearby town of Rumney.

An open ledger

An example page of accounts from one of Christopher’s ledgers

Our next acquisition concerns Christopher Jolley (1919-1976) who graduated from Trinity College Dublin in July 1945. He initially practiced from his parents’ home in Glenealy, Co. Wicklow, before moving to the Bollarney South area of Wicklow town where he practiced between 1947 and 1958. He later worked for the Northern Ireland Ministry of Agriculture and finished his career in Inverness. His archive was kindly donated to us by his son, himself an MRCVS.

Christopher’s archive dates from his time in Wicklow town. It includes a small handwritten notebook containing recipes for a range of treatments such as foot rot in cattle, hysteria in dogs and what to give a young calf with a cough. There’s also a recipe for a treatment for ringworm using linseed oil which apparently worked best when applied with a warm paint brush or a rag on a stick.

Handwritten notes in a notebook

Christopher’s unusual use for a warm paint brush

The rest of Christopher’s archive consists of three large ledgers, detailing the accounts of individual clients around Co. Wicklow. A large portion of these were farmers, and Christopher was often required to make around twenty calls each day. According to his son, Christopher needed to replace his car around every six months, such was the high milage involved driving to and from clients along country roads. It’s believed these account books were maintained by Christopher’s wife, Dr Jean Hayes Jolley, herself a graduate of Trinity College Dublin. Each ledger entry gives us the client’s name and address plus details of treatments carried out over the years, including their cost.

Both Christopher’s archive and Olwen’s casebook add to our understanding of domestic and agricultural veterinary treatment in the mid C.20th. We’d like to acquire more records of veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses from previous generations, to preserve the evidence of past practices. Documents such as client ledgers, work diaries and recipe books will help us build a picture of the evolution of veterinary practice.

If you have any documents you’re willing to donate to the RCVS archive please contact us at archives@rcvsknowledge.org.