RCSEd Library & Archive

Incorporation of Surgeons and Barbers of Edinburgh, 1505- - The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh The Edinburgh barbers and surgeons united as an Incorporation in July 1505 when they were granted their Seal of Cause by the Town Council. Spanning over 500 years, the RCSEd Institutional Archive is r...

Our #EarlyModern collection is also available, from back in the day when we were the Incorporation of Surgeons and Barbers of Edinburgh archiveandlibrary.rcsed.ac.uk/special-coll...?

There are five collections to choose from, which are available for the residency, including this fabulous recent #WomenInSurgery acquisition bsky.app/profile/rcse...

📢In partnership with St Andrews University, we're looking for a 'Joseph Bell Writer in Residence at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh' to pursue a writing project drawing on our archives. Stipend of up to £15,000. Closing date 6 March 2026. www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Aaaagh - if I didn’t have a full-time job I’d absolutely apply for this 😭 good luck to everyone who does apply!

This sounds absolutely amazing!

Wonderful opportunity for someone to do great work in two of the best and loveliest archives in the world:

The residency is open to writers or researchers in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, screenplay, literary and/or historical scholarship, life-writing and medical humanities. Interviews to be held online 20th March.

The residency is open to writers or researchers in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, screenplay, literary and/or historical scholarship, life-writing and medical humanities. Interviews to be held online 20th March.

📢In partnership with St Andrews University, we're looking for a 'Joseph Bell Writer in Residence at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh' to pursue a writing project drawing on our archives. Stipend of up to £15,000. Closing date 6 March 2026. www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Flap anatomy illustration of the heart and lungs from a 17th century text by René Descartes, revealing pealed back layers to expose the ventricles of the heart.

Anatomical illustration of the heart with flaps raised to expose the left and right ventricles, in René Descartes ‘De Homine’. Published posthumously in 1662 due to fear of the Roman Inquisition, it is believed to be the first European textbook on physiology

Colour caricature illustration of a man sitting on the floor with his friend sitting on his shoulders to hold him down while a dental practitioner holds the man down with his leg on the patient's shoulder, while he extracts a tooth. Blood everywhere and a saw and other dental instruments placed a table within the patient's eyesight to take his mind off it.

It's #NationalToothacheDay so just going to leave this here.

An open book showing a woodcut illustration of a hedgehog

It's #NationalHedgehogDay 🦔 and we're just prickling with excitement 😁 so to celebrate here's a rather adorable #hedgehog from Historiae Animalium (c.1602) by Conrad Gesner.

Dark blue background with a drawing of a skull to the left of the image. To the right of the image is white text that reads: Blood and Guts: The Twists and Turns of Edinburgh's Medical History Walking Tour

Our Blood and Guts walking tours will return on the 24th of January!

Hear little known accounts of iconic writers, chloroform tea parties, pioneering women, grave robbing and of course Burke and Hare.

Tours run every Saturday and Sunday at 2pm.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/blood-and-...

View of a Christmas tree in front of stairs and a stained glass window, with a bust and portrait in the background.

We will be closed for the festive break and re-open Monday 5 January 2026. We wish you all a very happy and peaceful holiday!

If you have a name we can have a look for any info we might hold on him?

Hello, MRCS is more likely to be Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. However, you can check search our database to find out if he was connected to our College as well archiveandlibrary.rcsed.ac.uk/surgeons-dat...

A group of adult and child patients, nurses and Santa in a hospital ward. The patients are in beds and the nurses and Santa are standing behind a cot which has a child sitting up. Most people are smiling for the camera apart from Santa who looks quite glum.

When your surgeon's absolutely buzzing to be in a Santa suit.

Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, 1913

A very badly wrapped present with brown paper, the dregs of a roll of cotton ribbon and gaffer tape.

If anyone needs help wrapping Christmas presents to make them look beautiful our College Archivist is available. Don't all rush at once.

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?