Saturday 12 March 2011

Is there a doctor in your house?

Two new collections of archive material have been added to the online catalogue of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) at www.rcpi.ie.

The first covers items relating to the activities and functions of the College since it was granted its Royal Charter in 1667 and includes minute books, correspondence and College Registers.

The second is a large collection of visual material relating to the College's history and the story of medicine in Ireland, and contains numerous portraits of Irish doctors.

Researchers with ancestral doctors, and anyone with an interest in the history of medicine, will find these collections of interest and should study the updated catalogue for further details.

The RCPI is now one year into a 21-month cataloguing project of its archive. Among the dozen or so collections still waiting to be catalogued are those of the Cow Pox Institute, Westmoreland Lock Hospital (which specialised in Venereal Diseases), both in Dublin, and Newcastle Sanitorium, Wicklow.

All the materials are available for consultation by prior appointment with the RCPI Archivist, at 6, Kildare Street, Dublin. Tel: +353 (0)1 669 8817.