As I work through the archive material for my PhD, the people and the places leap off the page and create such a vivid picture of the events I’m reading about. The places, in particular, are striking a chord with me as so many of them are in London, my home for over 20 years. […]
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 […]
I thought before I leave my role here, and go off to study for my MA in Archives and Records Management, it would be a nice idea to share snippets of my favourite finds and favourite materials that I’ve had the pleasure of working with during my time with RCVS Knowledge’s historical collections. For those […]
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 […]
After months of development and tweaking, I am now very happy to show the world our fantastic new Digital Collections website! My most recent blog posts have described the cataloguing process – with the end result of the online archive catalogue. The Digital Collections site serves the other main aim of the RCVS Vet History […]
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 […]
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 […]
I have recently had the opportunity to look more closely at the almost 400 watercolours by Edward Mayhew that we acquired in 1990. Edward Mayhew (1808-1868) was the brother of Henry Mayhew, founding editor of Punch. It is thought he spent his early years in the theatre before enrolling at the London Veterinary College in […]
The RCVS headquarters tidy-up has revealed another gem, and led us to discover the fascinating story of a troubled man. Eight large prints of paintings by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873), depicting animals and bucolic scenes, have been discovered. Landseer (1802-1873), an English painter, was renowned for his paintings of horses and dogs. Included in his […]
In our 168 years we have collected a wealth of paintings, enough to fill a small gallery! We are by no means unique in this so it’s no surprise that the Public Catalogue Foundation (PCF) and the BBC started an ambitious project to put all the UK’s oil paintings in public ownership online. They have […]
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