Blogs

Archives Volunteer, Jessica Reeves explores the miraculous medical use of honey as a cure all ingredient in early modern recipes.

Honey: The Elixir of Life Made Flesh 

The Archive, Heritage Library and Museum Services (AMS) team reflect on the racism, colonialism and other exploitative histories present in the collections, and how we are beginning to address these legacies.

This post contains potentially distressing discussion of enslavement and historic medical experimentation.

During summer 2022, the RCP archives team were delighted to welcome Traci Picard, Public Humanities masters student at Brown University, Rhode Island. Traci has begun creating a super-index of our 40-or-so handwritten medical recipe books, which will enable researchers to search across the whole collection for particular ailments, remedies, and ingredients.  The super-index will go online in 2023, and we are currently uploading the books themselves to the Internet Archive

Enjoy the first in a series of blogs focussing on each of the elements which make up a successful recipe.

RCP loans artworks to major national anatomy exhibition

Rare books and special collections librarian, Katie Birkwood explores the surprising dangers of sewing machines, representing wider medical concerns about women's bodies in 19th century Europe. 

UCL student placements Mavis and Karolina, share their experiences of volunteering at the RCP Museum.

Celebrating South Asian Heritage Month- Sanath and Buddhika Lamabadusuriya

Exhibition officer Sarah Backhouse is struck by a satirical print currently on display in our exhibition, A taste of one’s own medicine: medical satire at the Royal College of Physicians

Archive volunteer Jessica Reeves, takes a look at the elusive 'philosopher's egg', a miraculous medicine of the early modern period.