Kate, Heritage library volunteer

I have been lucky enough to undertake a library placement as part of my London Arts and Humanities Partnership funded PhD. As I work on early modern recipe books, I have enjoyed being able to gain experience in the very library that houses some of my project's primary sources. My placement has included a range of tasks, such as transcribing accessions register entries from the early twentieth century, updating the library catalogue to include provenance information, and researching donors and librarians mentioned in the accessions register.

The only thing I have not enjoyed during this placement is deciphering a certain librarian’s handwriting in the register. Everything else has been such a fun and informative experience. I have especially loved being able to pull books from the shelves of the beautiful Dorchester library and looking through them for clues about previous owners, and subsequently finding joy in updating catalogue records to include women’s donations to the collection. It has also been remarkably interesting to research the impact of the first and second World Wars on the library. Especially the library’s response to the damage it received from enemy action during the Second World War. My favourite aspect of my placement, however, has not been poring over books and records, but getting to know the library, archives and museum team and being in receipt of their kindness, expertise, and patience over the course of my placement. 

Tilly, Archives volunteer

I first came to the RCP in January 2022 to undertake a two-week placement as part of my masters in Archives and Records Management. I was committed to pursuing a career in archives, but had never worked or volunteered in an archive before so was excited by the opportunity to gain hands-on experience. I enjoyed my time on the placement so much that I retuned that summer and have been volunteering here ever since. My work since returning has included the cataloguing of photographs and other records relating to the construction of the RCP building at St Andrews Place, London, as well as repackaging and condition checking records from the strong room. A particular highlight of the latter project was coming across an 18th century legal document on which someone had doodled faces (ENV218/N19).

I am currently working on cataloguing the personal records of Sir Max Rosenheim, who was president of the RCP from 1966 until his death in 1972. It has been fascinating to explore a person’s life in such depth, from his primary school’s magazine describing him as ‘undoubtedly the cleverest and most reliable boy in the School’ (MS6268/18), to the photographs he took whilst serving in the Middle East and Europe as part of the Royal Army Medical Corps (haven’t catalogued this yet), to obituaries written by friends (MS6272/2). It is these kinds of personal histories that make archives so fascinating to me, and it has been a pleasure to be able to spend time working on such an in-depth collection.

I have recently been offered a job at the National Archives, and although I will be sad to have to leave the RCP, I credit my time here with giving me the skills and experience that will allow me to begin my career.