RCPSG Heritage
@rcpsgheritage.bsky.social
News, events and stories from the library, archive and museum at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow https://heritage.rcpsg.ac.uk/ #histmed #libraries #archives #museums
Glasgow Doors Open Day 2026 programme has launched 🥳 We're super excited to be taking part again. We'll be open on the 20th September 10am-4pm. Free entry. For more info on our building and the rest of the amazing programme check out the festival website: www.glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk
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Explore 150+ free buildings, tours, talks and performances across Glasgow, 17-20 Sept 2026. Discover what's behind the city's most fascinating doors.
glasgowdoorsopendays.org.uk
#OnThisDay 1886, 287 years after our foundation, our College admitted its 1st female licentiates, Alice Jane Shannan Ker and Emma Littlewood. You can read more about the struggles faced by women to practice medicine in our blog heritageblog.rcpsg.ac.uk/2021/05/05/p... #WomenInMedicine #WomenInSTEM
A fascinating conversation tonight with Deepta Roy Chakraverti, discussing her new book about her great aunt, Dr Jamini Sen, the first female fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. www.amazon.co.uk/Daktarin-Jam...
We've just released some extra tickets 👇
RCPSG Heritage@rcpsgheritage.bsky.social · 3w agoJoin us for an inspiring session all about Dr Jamini Sen, a true Indian trailblazer and an integral part of our College’s history! 📆23 July 2026 🕐18:30 (BST) 📍Online Book your place: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dr-jamini-... #southasianheritagemonth #womeninmedicine #WomenInSTEM
Talk: On the Origin of Darwin, 11/08/26 6pm-8pm Before Darwin became a great scientist, he was a young man struggling to find his path in life. Spend an evening learning how he got on board the HMS Beagle and embarked on the journey that would change the world. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/on-the-ori...
On the Origin of Darwin
A brand new, in person talk, exploring Darwin's early life and his fascinating connections with John James Audubon
eventbrite.co.uk
It's #worldSnakeDay! To celebrate here's a lovely woodcut illustration of a snake slithering through the pages of De Indiae utriusque re naturali et medica (1658) by Willem Piso. 🐍
Join us for an inspiring session all about Dr Jamini Sen, a true Indian trailblazer and an integral part of our College’s history! 📆23 July 2026 🕐18:30 (BST) 📍Online Book your place: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dr-jamini-... #southasianheritagemonth #womeninmedicine #WomenInSTEM
Dr Jamini Sen: An Indian trailblazer
Join us online for an inspiring session all about Dr Jamini Sen, a true Indian trailblazer and an integral part of our College’s history!
eventbrite.co.uk
This silver Medal from the 'Medical College for Women Edinburgh' awarded for Botany during the session of 1892, was awarded to A. Mary C. Geddes during her medical studies in Edinburgh in the 1890s.
This is one of the first books on medical care for horses. For the cure ‘of the biting with a mad Dogge’, Markham recommends covering the wound with goat dung, elderwort and 40 walnuts crushed together to make a paste
Today marks the 52nd anniversary of the publication of the Glasgow Coma Scale in @thelancet.com. The scale was devised by two of our College Fellows Graham Teasdale & Bryan Jennett. It remains the default method for assessing consciousness in many hospitals worldwide. Happy Birthday GCS🥳
French surgeon Dominique Jean Larrey, a pioneer of battlefield surgery, triage, and field hospitals and ambulances was born #OTD 1766. These illustrations from Larrey's Mémoires de Chirurgie Militaire (c.1812) show his field ambulance designs.
It's #WorldChocolateDay! Not everyone is a fan though... John Parkinson's Theatrum Botanicum (c.1640) describes cacao as being "fitter for hogs"!
For South Asian Heritage Month, join us online for an inspiring session all about Dr Jamini Sen, a true Indian trailblazer and an integral part of our College’s history! 📆23 July 2026 🕐18:30 (BST) 📍Online 💷£5 🎫https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dr-jamini-sen-an-indian-trailblazer-tickets-1992752231568
This case of amputation instruments was used by Robert Liston between 1815 and 1825 and was made by Stodart of London. The knives are of the type used for circular amputation.
Feeling the heat? 🥵 Try these herbal remedies for cooling the blood from our 18th century herbal notebook. heritage.rcpsg.ac.uk/items/show/187
Happy 178th birthday to William Macewen🥳 Born #OTD 1848 in Bute, Macewen pioneered brain, bone & aseptic surgery & more! He performed the world’s 1st successful brain tumour operation in Glasgow in 1879! Learn more about this remarkable man in our exhibition: heritage.rcpsg.ac.uk/exhibits/sho...
Happy 460th birthday to King James VI & I, who was born #OTD 1566👑🥳 In 1599 King James granted a Royal Charter for the establishment of our College.
BHL is featured in @theguardian.com's Age of Extinction series. The article highlights the extraordinary value of BHL and the urgent need to ensure it remains free and open into the future. Please read and share: www.theguardian.com/environment/... 🧪 🌎 📖 🔗 🐟 💚
A bonanza for fans of the natural world: the digital library sharing 64m pages of scientific knowledge with everyone
The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an invaluable online archive of historic texts on species living and lost supplied by the world’s leading museums and universities. Now its future is in doubt
theguardian.com
It's #InternationalPicnicDay! To celebrate here's a photo of patients and medical staff from the Scottish Women's Hospital enjoy a picnic in the sun in Salonika, 1916 #WW1 #Histnursing
It's #CleanAirDay - & on 5 July, the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Clean Air Act. In this letter, a TB patient describes his experience of the 'Great Smog' of 1952, estimated to have contributed to 12,000 deaths in London - unable to move “owing to the exertion of breathing…trying to hold onto life”
![Section of a handwritten letter in blue ink, reading 'I would like to render you a report of my health, as I think one id due about October. Well I am very pleased to say that I have survived an alarming experience during the last 3 days + nights of 'Fog'. I was totally incapable of raising my body to an upstanding position or for that matter moving a limb owing to exertion of breathing or shall I say trying to hold on to LIFE. Well it is all over now thank God. My doctor has prescribed the necessary medicine and recommends a fluid diet. But I don't want to undergo such an experience again without having some remedy...".
From correspondence between patient WA and the Lady Almoner at Frimley [TB] Sanatorium, 1942-1957 [RLHBH/AL/3/27/9]. The patient goes on to make a request for a prescription for a respiratory mask to help with future smog, and a note indicates the Lady Almoner has requested a Burney Yeo inhaler (mask) for WA from the dispensary at the Brompton Hospital.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kpxxiqvlbi3oovm5uue5sbnh/bafkreiajtc6c4of5rumploqa35dw6z6o53bzsbn4p7je5rlxxg54jo2wlq)
A #lithotomy set presented to former College member, David Wark, lecturer of anatomy & surgery in Glasgow, c.1833-34. The set was a gift from his students who praise the "highly satisfactory manner in which he has discharged his duty towards them". Great gift! 🎁
🌍 How can heritage organisations embed anti-racist practice into all areas of their work? The newly-published ‘White Thinking’ report highlights the lessons learned from anti-racism projects at heritage organisations across Scotland: buff.ly/U951ePY
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman to obtain a formal medical education in Britain, was born on this day in 1836. Through the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH), you can research Anderson and other incredible female pioneers in the history of medicine.
Today is #WorldOceansDay. These fabulous sea creatures feature in Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (A History of the Northern Peoples), c.1558 by Olaus Magnus.
#OTD Ian Donald published the first description of imaging via ultrasound 👏 "Abdominal Masses by Pulsed Ultrasound" was one of the defining publications in the field, making Glasgow the birthplace of clinical ultrasound. #Heritage #Glasgow #Ultrasound
The laundry room at Glasgow Royal Infirmary c.1909. Look at all those lovely white aprons, coats and sheets! Pictured centre left is Miss McLaren, Superintendent of the laundry and later Matron of the Ophthalmic Institution.
These tools were used by Joseph Lister for cleft palate operations. They had originally been owned by J. Smith but were modified by Lister to meet his needs.
