RCSEd Library & Archive

Medical students outside the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, 1912.

Surgery, Identity and Embodied Emotion: John Bell, James Gregory and the Edinburgh ‘Medical War’ Click on the article title to read more.

John Bell was a fascinating surgeon but is often over overlooked by his more famous brother Charles. This is a great piece by @medhistoryman.bsky.social that digs deeper into John and his work onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

A plate from “Engravings, Explaining the Anatomy of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints” by Scottish surgeon-anatomist John Bell FRCSEd, published in 1794. Bell illustrated his own works based on dissections he carried out in his Edinburgh anatomy school.

Thank you! Will take another look at the article, read it few yrs ago but I had thought her conclusions were that some women were recorded as obtaining licenses to practice but didn't become members of the London Company. Keen to find out more about members' spouses too, it's super interesting!

Interesting! Were women actually recorded as members? The Edinburgh Incorporation didn't allow this although the son-in-law of a master barber-surgeon was able to become a member (and widows of members were allowed to practise barbery in some cases but not surgery). Do you have a source?

Black and white photograph of a nurse and lecturer in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (1890)standing aside two sinks and possibly holding carbolic soap under running taps. A blackboard is behind them with the text in chalk "The Student. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Gentleman"!

Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Gentlemen!

Page from 1492 edition of Nuremberg Chronicle showing a woodcut illustration of the "danse macabre"

Clocking on for spooky season.

We haven't been round these parts much recently so dropping in to say hello and please enjoy these images of Baillière’s Synthetic Anatomy. Published in the 1920s & a descendent of the earlier paper anatomical flap books, each section uses glassine transparent overlays. Have a good weekend!

#EdinburghSurgeonsProject - August 1668 - Five dollars (Scots) given to the widow ('relict') of Hector Mclie, surgeon, to pay for his funeral expenses, a traditional function of craft incorporations. #corporatism #palaeography

A metal syringe in a metal case with rounded edges.

As knowledge of asepsis increased, the design of instruments changed to allow easy sterilisation. metal boxes that could be cleaned properly also replaced the wooden, velvet lined boxes of the 19th century. Surgeons still sterilised and re-used needles between procedures.

Thanks Lindsay!

Maybe he was just getting more and more furious at misbehaving barbers?

One of my projects is a transcription of the late 17th c. minute book of the Edinburgh Incorporation of Surgeons for the @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social. Masters were supposed to pay a booking fee to the Inc. for servants and apprentices, but some failed to do so, bringing a hefty £3 fine.

We had a great time welcoming the students to the College Library and @surgeonshall.bsky.social today. A truly inspiring group of women.

📣JOB ALERT 📣 The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has a vacancy for a Project Records Assistant, which will give experience of both Archives & Records Management. Closing date 5 pm on 22 Aug. Come join the Heritage team! cezanneondemand.intervieweb.it/rcsed/jobs/p...

📣JOB ALERT 📣 The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has a vacancy for a Project Records Assistant, which will give experience of both Archives & Records Management. Closing date 5 pm on 22 Aug. Come join the Heritage team! cezanneondemand.intervieweb.it/rcsed/jobs/p...

Black and white photograph of Dr Nallamma seated in robes handling a register.

Front cover of Madras Medical College Clinical Manual.

Front page of Nammalla's Triple Qualification course schedule, a 4-page document outlining the candidate's biographical information, lectures and clinical classes taken, and lecturer and location of class.

Group photograph of doctors and Nurses of the McLeod Hospital.

For South Asian Heritage Month see our guest blog by Dr Theeba Krishnamoorty on the pioneering doctor and activist Dr Nallamma Williams, a prominent voice in Sri Lanka’s early suffrage movement rcsedlibraryandarchive.wordpress.com/2025/07/18/d... #SouthAsianHeritageMonth #RootsToRoutes

Black and white photograph of an operating theatre with a surgeon, assistant and team of nurses looking over a patient on the table. The men are wearing aprons and there is an empty lecture theatre behind them.

An operation in progress, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, late 19th century.

Professor Dorothy Ann Geddes Our Collections Coordinator, Danielle Dray, explores the remarkable life of Professor Dorothy Ann Geddes, who made history as the first woman to hold a professorship in dentistry in the United King…

Our Collections Coordinator, Danielle Dray, explores the remarkable life of Professor Dorothy Ann Geddes, who made history as the first woman to hold a professorship in dentistry in the United Kingdom.

surgeonshallmuseums.wordpress.com/2025/07/18/p...

A Glasgow tenement door and an oil painting of its former resident, Dr Jamini Sen, the first female fellow of our College

Today marks the start of South Asian Heritage Month. To celebrate we have a wonderful new blog post by Dr Theeba Krishnamoorty, discussing the very 1st South Asian women to qualify to practice medicine heritageblog.rcpsg.ac.uk/2025/07/18/a...

#SouthAsianHeritageMonth #RootsToRoutes #womeninmedicine

Thanks Alison, hope you're well.

Thanks!

#OTD 1505 the Surgeons and Barbers of Edinburgh united and were formally incorporated as a craft guild by the Town Council. Happy birthday to us, we’re 520 years old!

Dr Clare McNaught has been elected as the new President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Dr McNaught will become the College's first ever female President in the College's 520-year history, and will succeed Professor Rowan Parks.

Read more: https://bit.ly/44kf55F

The latest episode of Beyond the Knife has dropped!

In this episode, Steven Kerr, the Librarian
@rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social, discusses the extraordinary story behind one of histories most enduring medical texts -Gray's Anatomy.

You can find Beyond the Knife wherever you get your podcasts!

Yes, that's correct. It was meant tongue-in-cheek.

It's #InsectWeek and also the @artukdotorg.bsky.social #OnlineArtExchange theme is wildlife & the environment. Insects feed on paper so library & archive collections are stored under strict environmental controls. Here's some illustrations of wildlife, who may also have dined on their host!

A book resting on a cushion opened at a page showing illustration of an experiment on two ligated arms to show that blood in the veins flows towards the heart rather than away from it.

This is our 1st edition of William Harvey’s groundbreaking ‘Exercitatio Anatomica De Motu Cordis…’, published in 1628, which is often cited as the most important book in the history of medicine. Harvey was the first to recognize the full circulation of the blood in the human body #NationalBloodWeek

Page from a lecture notebook with handwriting and a colour labelled illustration identifying the muscles of the buttocks, thigh and lower leg.

Lecture notebook lying open at pages of handwriting and illustrations of the skull and bones of the shoulder to elbow.

Lecture notebook open at pages with handwriting and illustrations of the muscles of the leg and full body from behind. There is a snake weight holding the pages in place.

Lecture notebook open at a page with handwriting and illustrations of the forearm bones, and some skeletons fencing.

This art & anatomy lecture notebook belonged to Edinburgh surgeon Patrick Heron Watson, c.1856. The only @rcsed.bsky.social Fellow to have been President twice, some argue he inspired his pupil Arthur Conan Doyle's character 'Dr Watson'. Digitised here: archiveandlibrary.rcsed.ac.uk/special-coll...?

A pencil sketch of James Young Simpson lecturing.

Anaesthesia pioneer James Young Simpson was born #OTD 1811. We love this student's sketch of Simpson lecturing as Professor of Midwifery at Edinburgh University in the 1850s.