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.