Detail from image of a hospital in Palestine. Lantern slide, Church Missionary Society collections, ref. CMS 33/43
Links to digital images (Cambridge Digital Library) and online catalogues (ArchiveSearch) for some nursing archives within the RCS collections:
Asia
These include:
- RCMS 77 Indian nursing collection of Diana Hartley (Diana Hartley, 1894-1986, was the first full-time Secretary of the Trained Nurses Association of India (T.N.A.I.), 1935-1944. She died on 15 July 1986)
- Y3022NNN Diana Hartley's Indian photographs, circa 1935-1944
- Y3022OOO Indian nursing photographs of Dora Chadwick (Miss Dora Chadwick, O.B.E., Kaisar-i-Hind Gold Medal, was matron of the Government General Hospital for Women and Children, Madras, from 1928 until 1941, when she was promoted to Principal Matron with the Government of Madras, the first such appointment to be made. She was President of the Trained Nurses Association of India).
- Photos from the RCS Gallery Photographs of nursing in Asia
Africa
These include:
- Y3043TT-VV Weston collection: Nursing in West Africa (Elsie May Weston, who died at the age of 61 in February 1988, worked as a nurse in Northern Nigeria and Ghana, 1950-1966, with fellow nurse Miss Gladys M. Pearce Simmonds ('Simmie'). View the lantern slides (Y3043UU) in this collection, and blogpost, Ghana: health and nursing.
- Y304E/127-138 Institute of Education African Collection: Maternity and child welfare in Freetown, Sierra Leone. (circa 1946-1954)
- Y3011U/408-418 Institute of Education Collection: A health visitor in Africa (A series of British Official photographs taken in Nairobi, Kenya during the 1940s)
- RCMS 134 Mary Ward collection (relating to Nigeria and Sierra Leone,1840–1987). Mary Alexandria Ward (1866-1965) joined the staff of the Princess Christian Hospital in Sierra Leone, where she worked until 1897. She was in government service in Nigeria, 1899-1917, during which time she took charge of the base hospital at Cape Coast during the Ashanti Campaign of 1900. From 1917 until her retirement in 1930 she was Honorary Matron of the Princess Christian Hospital. Mary Ward died on 8 September 1965. Mary Ward photographs of nursing in West Africa.
- Photos from the RCS Gallery Photographs of nursing in Africa
Australia
From the RCS Gallery:
Britain
Including:
- COI/N Central Office of Information photograph collection: Commonwealth Doctors and Nurses Training in Britain (1982-1985)
Worldwide
- There are many individual photographs in the Royal Commonwealth Society collections depicting nurses, hospitals and health care, including many within the Church Missionary Society (CMS) collections. Glass slides in the CMS collection have been digitised. By selecting the Contents tab, you can browse the collection by caption.
- You can search across ArchiveSearch as well as Cambridge Digital Library for additional nursing or health-related items in the RCS collections, using search terms such as: nursing; hospital; health; medical.
Donations
The Royal Commonwealth Society Library is not actively collecting new archival collections, photographs or manuscripts. However, donations of small collections which complement its existing collections will be considered.
Potential donors should contact the Smuts Librarian with details of their collection including, in the case of photograph collections, approximately how many images, whether or not they are captioned, geographical regions covered, dates, and, where known, the names of photographers or collectors.
Consideration will be given to the size and condition of the collection, as well as its subject content and provenance. If the Library feels unable to accept a collection, advice about alternative repositories will be given.