History, Heritage & Archives
College Heritage
When Dr Michael Linnett and I started to collect the first
College archives in 1954, two years after the foundation, the
librarian of the Royal College of Physicians commented: “I only
wish this college had started to collect archives long before it
did so.” It did so only from 1800, missing 350 years of
records.
Why did this matter? Why do institutions like Royal College
retain their archives, such as the Minutes of their Council?
Why is the past still important for people who are pre-occupied
with the present and with thinking and working for the future?
Every on-going institution needs to retain for its own future
use a record of its own past members, decisions, achievements and
failures. The same information may be needed to answer
enquiries from historians or from other institutions. But the
Heritage
Committee shared with the college library a wider
responsibility – to preserve the history of generalist medical
practice in this country and in others and the memory of many
aspiring personalities whose ideas and achievements may still prove
relevant and valuable in future. Historians will seek to trace what
has changed and what does not change.
So this committee seeks to preserve as archives the College’s
most important documents, together with obituaries, portraits,
photographs and audio-visual recordings of Fellows and Members who
have contributed to the College or to the development of general
practice in the past.
The history of general practice is represented by the College’s
collections of valuable books and letters and of medical
instruments used in past centuries, most of them donated by
past or present members.
In these and others ways this committee has been very active
since it relieved the library committee of such tasks six years
ago. It played an important part in planning and contributing to
the 50th Anniversary celebrations. The committee
organised a public open day at Princes Gate for anyone wishing to
see the building and its contents.
Successive chairmen have been two past Presidents, Dr Alastair
Donald and Dr Lotte Newman. One of their first actions was to
appoint a full-time archivist. Penny Baker and now Claire Jackson
have taken up the task started by Margaret Hammond, when Librarian,
of sorting out a half-century of unsorted papers and committee
minutes and deciding which of them could be destroyed, while
ensuring the preservation of essential items, such as the Minutes
of Council.
The large collection of old instruments has been the devoted
work of Dr Peter Thomas (South Wales Faculty) for almost fifty
years – an exceptional contribution to the College. He now has the
help of Dr Kenneth Scott (NW London). Dr David McKinlay (N W
England) has been responsible for the growing collection of books
relating to the history of general practice.
The past still matters. The present brings constant change in
the influences which play on our work, especially in the
application of new knowledge, but there are basic elements in
generalist practice which change little. The principles of personal
care for people who are ill, or think that they might be, do not
change in any essential way. Nor, do the principles, as distinct
from the methods, of diagnosis, prevention or quality assurance.
They need to be remembered and maintained.
College members are a constant source of new ideas, but some
will already have been tried, implemented or rejected. Trained
researchers always start by searching for what may already have
been published about their chosen questions. Wheels are less likely
to be re-invented if the past is remembered or recorded. It is easy
to forget that today’s actions are invariably influenced by the
past and that we are always travelling on the shoulders of
giants.
John Horder
12 April 2003
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