RCP museum

Get a taste of the @rcphysicians.bsky.social fascinating 500 year history in a FREE virtual taster tour this Wednesday 6 August at 1.30pm.

Explore our award-winning building with an expert guide.

Register now with Art Tickets 👉 royal-college-of-physicians.arttickets.org.uk

@artfund.bsky.social

YouTube video by Royal College of Physicians Culinary contribution and collaboration in early modern British recipe books

Continue to explore the incredible historic resource recipe books can be, with Dr Amanda Herbert, Associate Professor at @durham-university.bsky.social, in her recent lecture at the RCP considering culinary contribution & collaboration in early modern British recipe books.
youtu.be/b3xJuSWwujo?...

Visitors exploring the Healing words exhibition

A blue and white ceramic apothecary jar with an open handwritten recipe book in front.

Last week we took down exhibition 'Healing words' & tucked our collection of recipe books safely back into the @rcphysicians.bsky.social archives.
But fear not! You can still view every book, discover fascinating cures for baldness, how to make 'tryfel' & much more at: archive.org/details/rcpl...

Advert for "Stories of Medicine and Migration", 12 August, 7-8:30pm

Join us, @rcpmuseum.bsky.social ‬and @physiciansgallery.bsky.social on 12 Aug for a special #SouthAsianHeritageMonth event where we look at our ongoing work to uncover the stories of the first South Asian medics to migrate to the UK. Book for free: stories_of_medicine_and_migration.eventbrite.co.uk

While we are closed, we will be undertaking a range of works. We will deinstall exhibition ‘Healing words’, begin installing exciting exhibition ‘A body knowledge’ exploring 500 years of book collecting, and the usual round of conservation dusting!

@rcphysicians.bsky.social
#Histmed

A side view of the RCP building and garden in the summer sun.

The Museum will be closed from 12pm this Friday 25 July - reopening on 1 September 2025.
While we are closed:
🌟join us for a virtual taster tour on 6 Aug
🌟discover stories of medicine and migration on 12 Aug
🌟explore our collections online through our catalogues, exhibitions & blogs

Image of three mites illustrated in Robert Hooke's 'Micrographia', 1665. Courtesy of the National Library of Wales.

Illustrations of the sperm of rabbit and dog by Leeuwenhoek.

These two roles occasionally clashed - Hooke once forgot about a meeting at the College to pay the builders, as he was engrossed in showing his friends microscopy drawings of ‘Leeuwenhoek’s mites’!

Hooke’s diary is held by the Guildhall Library (MS1758).

A printed drawing of Warwick Lane showing the dome roofed Cutlerian anatomy theatre, designed by Robert Hooke, at the entrance to the RCP headquarters in the 18th century.

Happy Birthday, Robert Hooke born #OTD 1635! 1677 was a busy year for Hooke - he was simultaneously supervising the building of an anatomy theatre he'd designed for the RCP, & competing with Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek to see who could discover the most ‘exceedingly small animals’ through microscopes.

An exhibition graphic with sections of marbled paper and book pages in the background. The text reads: 'A body of knowledge Discover 500 years of book collecting at the Royal College of Physicians 10 September 2025 - 23 July 2026 Exhibition | Free entry

📣New exhibition alert!!!🤩

We are excited to announce our upcoming exhibition 'A body of knowledge', exploring 500 years of book collecting at the @rcphysicians.bsky.social, will open on 10 September 2025.

history.rcp.ac.uk/exhibitions/...

#BodyOfKnowledge #HistMed

Visitors look into the display cases of an exhibition at the RCP.

A partially open display case with a person moving the case cover closed.

A member of staff places a quill into an open exhibition display case.

A view of the exhibition gallery full of visitors.

📣Job alert📣
Part time Exhibitions Officer

Are you enthusiastic about history, objects, & storytelling, with a commitment to creating inclusive, creative & meaningful experiences for museum audiences?

Find out more & apply now 👉 rcp.current-vacancies.com/Jobs/Advert/...

@rcphysicians.bsky.social

Graphic advertising the event. On the right is a sepia image of Annie Wardlaw Jagannadham an Indian woman, first Indian woman qualified to practice medicine in Britain. Text reads: 'South Asian Heritage Month'25 Stories of medicine and migration Tuesday 12 August | 7 - 8.30pm | Free | Online'

On 12 Aug join the @rcphysicians.bsky.social, @rcpsgheritage.bsky.social & @rcpedin.bsky.social heritage teams in a virtual discussion to share early research into records of South Asian doctors migrating to the UK since the 1840s.
Book free👉 stories_of_medicine_and_migration.eventbrite.co.uk

#SAHM

Today Mary Goodson's book is one of many in the RCP collections now viewable online at the Internet Archive: archive.org/details/rcpl... & still on display in exhibition ‘Healing words’ until 25 July 2025.

#RCPHealingRecipes @rcphysicians.bsky.social

The recipe includes flavours we today would not assume would go into chocolate with ingredients native to many parts of the world beyond England including; cinnamon, long pepper, achiote (or annatto) & aniseed.

Dr Herbert is Associate Professor of Early Modern Americas in the History Department at @durhamuniversity.bsky.social. She is an historian of the body: gender and sexuality; health and wellness; food, drink, & appetite.

This #worldchocolateday create your own chocolate discs to a 17th century recipe!

In 1687 Mary Goodson began her handwritten recipe book. One featuring instructions to create medicines, drinks & food. Last month Dr Amanda Herbert helped us recreate the flavours of Mrs Goodson’s chocolate.

The Art of Nursing event details featuring an artwork of two faces formed of contrasting lines.

What does creativity, resistance and renewal look like in nursing?
Celebrate the launch of our new exhibition with this lively Art of Nursing chat: no slides, just big ideas from nurses, artists and activists.

🗓️ 16 July | 🕐 1–2pm | 💻 Online
🔗 Sign up: buff.ly/zQbNse7
#ArtOfNursing

Image of open handwritten recipe books inside a display case. A hand in the background adjusts the pages.

Join us free tomorrow evening 3 July to discover the story behind the Healing words exhibition before it closes on 25 July!
Including materials that couldn’t be displayed & 2 recipe newly books donated.

Book now 👉 royal-college-of-physicians.arttickets.org.uk

@rcphysicians.bsky.social

Two glass tea cups filled with hot tea. A plant in the background.

📣Only a few tickets left on our Teas from the Garden workshop - 16 July, 6pm!

Book now to join the RCP Garden team for a delightful summer evening of tea tasting and blending featuring ingredients grown in the Medicinal Garden. You'll also take home your very own blend!

👉 tinyurl.com/43ydun9a

A black and white photo of the Censors room in Pall Mall East showing the Spanish Oak panelling on the walls, a central wooden desk with one chair, a chandelier above the table, a fireplace on one wall with a portrait of Henry VIII above. Other paintings and chairs can be seen around the edges of the room.

A colour photo of the Censors Room in the RCP by Regents Park today. The Spanish oak panelling liens the walls, a chandelier hangs int eh centre above and portraits, chairs and busts line the wall.

This new building carried pieces of the RCPs history in its construction. The Spanish oak panelling which lined the Censors room was a carryover originally installed in 1674 in the former HQ at Warwick Lane. That panelling can still be seen in the Censors room at the RCPs London home today.

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A 20th century photo of the building at Pall Mall East. You can still see the Georgian style building with sash windows and low roofs and the 6 ionic columns holding up the triangular pediment above the entrance. However larger buildings loom up behind and around and the road is populated with cars and vans and people in early 20th century dress.

It was designed by architect Robert Smirke, with a similar exterior to many of the gentlemen’s clubs in the area. It sat at the corner of what became Trafalgar Square, which ws considered to be the very centre of London at the time. Pall Mall East was to be the site of the RCP for 139 years.

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A copper plate with inscribed text. We have flipped this image, so you can read some the invitation. On the actual plate the text is in reverse to allow printing. Not all text is visible due to the shiny nature of the metal. Key words that can be seen read: 'The President', 'Royal College of Physicians', 'New College' and 'Pall Mall East'.

A copper plate with inscribed text. This is the original image of the plate so the text is in reverse to allow printing.

This is an image of the copper plate engraving used to print the many invitations for the opening ceremony of Pall Mall East. We have flipped this image on the left, so you can read some the invitation, but the original image is also included.

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A 19th C engraved print of the building at Pall Mall East. Showing a Georgian style building with sash windows and low roofs. 6 ionic columns hold up the triangular pediment above the entrance. In the street men and woman in 19th century dress, a horse drawn carriage and soldiers can be seen.

Today we celebrate 200 years since the @rcphysicians.bsky.social former headquarters, Pall Mall East, opened #OTD 25 June 1825.
The opening ceremony was attended by 300 people, including 5 royal dukes, Prince Leopold, as well as politicians & other ‘noble’ or ‘learned’ people.

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Zahira Abdin was, in 1991, the first non-European recipient of the Elisabeth Norgall Award given by the International Women's Club to a woman who ‘on her own initiative and altruistically, works for the interests and problems of women’.

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Her research into the streptococcal strain responsible for rheumatic heart disease helped to cut child mortality rates from the disease from 47% to fewer than 3% in the space of 20 years.

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Dr Abdin set up the Child Health Institute in Cairo in 1975, the Dubai Medical College for Girls in 1986, and many other organisations. She was awarded the honorary title of ‘Mother of Egyptian Doctors’ in 1990.
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Black and white photo of Zahira Abdin. An Egyptian woman dressed in a shirt, coat and pale headscarf.

Zahira Abdin was born this month in 1917. A paediatrician and rheumatic heart specialist she was the first Egyptian woman to become a member, and later a fellow, of @rcphysicians.bsky.social.

#HistMed #WomenInMedicine #ThrowbackThursday

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Black and white photo of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson with suffrage campaigner Emmeline Pankhurst. By Unknown photographer, bromide press print, 18 November 1910 NPG x32106. © National Portrait Gallery, London

She went on to co-found the London School of Medicine for Women & fought for women’s suffrage. Her name survives in the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson wing of University College Hospital & the Garrett Anderson Centre at Ipswich Hospital.
Learn more:
history.rcp.ac.uk/blog/elizabe...

A black and white photo of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. She is pictured in a dress, her hair in a bun, reading a book leaning her head on her hand.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, was born #OTD 1836 - the 1st English woman in Britain to qualify as a doctor. Denied admittance by @rcphysicians.bsky.social in 1864, she qualified through the Society of Apothecaries in 1865.
We still hold the letter she sent to the RCP
history.rcp.ac.uk/blog/some-ob...

A beautiful engraved print of an octopus in black and white with its tentacles wiggling out and upwards and its head at the bottom of the page.

And we all love this wonderful octopus in ‘Aquatilibus [On things that live in the water]’ by Pierre Belon, 1553.

The text notes the octopus can change colours: ‘now white, then red, then livid, then distinguished by various shades.’

#OceansMW #OceanLife #WorldOceansDay

An illustration showing two fish. On the left is a fish with a pink belly, purplish back with light spots (the common trout). On the right is a green fish with a yellow belly and black spots (the Northern Char).

An illustration of a flying fish. It has two large fins spread like wings above it as it jumps out of he waves. Seagulls and a ship's sails can be seen in the background. The fish is coloured wit ha green back and fins tinged with pink and yellow.

This #WorldOceansDay we are sharing some fantastic sea creatures that swim through our heritage library books.

Such as the Common Trout, Northern Char & Flying Fish in ‘The natural history of British fishes’, with illustrations drawn by James Hope Stewart, 1843.

#OceansMW