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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · 26d

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!

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Aaron Allen @mchapelproject.bsky.social · Sep 2

#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

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Surgeons' Hall Museums @surgeonshall.bsky.social · Sep 8

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.

A metal syringe in a metal case with rounded edges.

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Sep 8

Thanks Lindsay!

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Aug 29

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

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Aaron Allen @mchapelproject.bsky.social · Aug 26

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.

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Aug 18

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

Linda Norgrove Foundation @lindafoundation.bsky.social · Aug 18

"I hope there comes a day in Afghanistan when women can do whatever they want."

It's a year since we helped bring 19 female Afghan medical students to Scotland to continue their studies.

Omulbanin Sultani reflects on her life before and since then: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'In Scotland I can pursue medicine dreams the Taliban took away'

Omulbanin Sultani was among a group of Afghan medical students able to continue their studies in Scotland after the Taliban seized control of the country.

www.bbc.co.uk

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Jul 24

📣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...

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Jul 24

📣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...

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Jul 21

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 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.

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Jul 18

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

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.

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Surgeons' Hall Museums @surgeonshall.bsky.social · Jul 18

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...

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…

surgeonshallmuseums.wordpress.com

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RCPSG Heritage @rcpsgheritage.bsky.social · Jul 18

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

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

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Jul 1

Thanks Alison, hope you're well.

RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Jul 1

Thanks!

RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Jul 1

#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!

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The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh @rcsed.bsky.social · Jun 27

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

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Surgeons' Hall Museums @surgeonshall.bsky.social · Jun 27

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!

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Jun 26

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

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Jun 26

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!

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Jun 12

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

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.

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Jun 11

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...?

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.

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · Jun 7

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.

A pencil sketch of James Young Simpson lecturing.

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RCSEd Library & Archive @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social · May 30

When you can't decide on a font so just use them all.

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RCPSG Heritage @rcpsgheritage.bsky.social · May 28

It's #WorldOtterDay!
To celebrate here's a lovely woodcut illustration of a very hungry little otter found in Conrad Gesner's Historiae Animalium (c.1602)

An open book showing an illustration of an otter eating a fish

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