Hello! My name Jayna and I have taken over the role of Archive and Digitisation Assistant from Helena. My role is to carry on in assisting in the digitisation and online accessibility of documents within the archive and historical book collection. I am currently in the process of obtaining my Diploma in Archives and Records […]
From February to April this year, RCVS Knowledge were very pleased to welcome Claudia Watts, an MA History student from King’s College London. As part of her studies, Claudia was tasked with selecting highlights from Fred Smith’s veterinary case notes, and digitising and transcribing them for us. The results are now published in our Digital […]
Hi, my name is Helena and I am the new Archive and Digitisation assistant. My role, like Adele’s before me, is to assist in the digitisation and online accessibility of documents within the archive and historical book collection. I hope to one day become a fully qualified archivist so this role is a wonderful opportunity […]
1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, is a day remembered as one of the worst in British military history. The attack commenced at 7.30am; by the end of the day, 19,240 British soldiers had been killed and three times that number injured. The battle lasted 140 days, and amongst […]
I have previously blogged about the almost 400 illustrations by Edward Mayhew that we have in our archives. We also have a number of other smaller collections of illustrations, one of which is the illustrated notebooks belonging to John Roalfe Cox. John Roalfe Cox MRCS FRCVS (?-1903) graduated from London Veterinary School in 1849 after which […]
Sitting proudly on top of the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square currently is ‘Gift Horse’ by Hans Haacke. The sculpture is based on illustrations from George Stubb’s Anatomy of the horse and so feels strangely familiar to me – apart from the live share-price ticker tied to its foreleg. Looking at our catalogue I […]
The Lightbox in Woking, is currently showing an exhibition describing the role of horse and mules in World War 1. The Horse at War: 1914-18 has a wide ranging display of artwork both from the war itself as well as more recent works, most noticeably ‘Joey’ the life size puppet from the National Theatre’s stage production […]
Our historical collection has over two hundred books on farriery and horse shoeing many of which contain anatomical drawings of the foot of the horse. One such book is Strickland Freeman’s Observations on the mechanism of the horse’s foot its natural spring explained, and a mode of shoeing recommended, by which the foot is defended […]
In January 1828 the first two British veterinary journals started, these were The Veterinarian and the much shorter lived Farrier and naturalist. Both owed their origins to a desire to comment, and pass critical judgement, on the state of affairs at the London veterinary college. The Farrier and naturalist is generally believed to be the […]
I was recently asked the date and subject of our earliest fellowship thesis. A quick check on the catalogue showed it was written in December 1893 and titled ‘Scabies in the horse: does it demand legislation?‘ The thesis is a neatly written document accompanied by 12 hand drawn illustrations. Regulations in place at the time […]
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