East Fortune Magazine

This week’s blog features two examples of Fortune magazine (LHB39/8/11-12) from the 1950s, an occasional publication by East Fortune Hospital in Drem, East Lothian.  The hospital was founded on the site of a former World War One naval airship station in 1922 and was used as a tuberculosis sanatorium and then later to look after children and adults with learning difficulties as the numbers of tuberculosis patients declined in the late 1950s. It finally closed in 1997.

The magazines claim to be for patients and the local community and each contains a substantial collection of articles, poetry and letters by staff and patients. Patients being treated for tuberculosis would often spend long periods resting in bed in reasonable health and would be grateful of something interesting to read. Typical article subjects include trips abroad and war stories. The 1955 issue includes a double-page spread of caricatures of the hospital staff!

 

Hospital staff from the 1955 edition (LHB39/8/11)

Both magazines feature striking screen printed colour covers. The one from 1955 is of the Bass Rock, a well-known landmark and bird sanctuary which can be seen along the coastline of East Lothian and Fife and is by Jemima Rennie.

 

Cover of the 1955 edition (LHB39/8/11)

The 1957 cover by George Millar features a glum looking individual with a walking stick and hunched posture entering what probably represents one of the huts which made up East Fortune Hospital in the upper picture.

 

Cover of the 1957 edition (LHB39/8/12)

In the lower section, the same man is seen striding out of the hospital relieved of his infirmities. Although tuberculosis is often thought of as a lung disease it can also affect the bones and in particular the spine. The picture shows the level of confidence the hospital staff had that some of their patients could be fully restored and become productive members of society again. As the Countess of Haddington wishes readers in the 1955 foreword, ‘good fortune and health in the years to come’.

Adventures in outreach...

Archivist Louise has been very much focused on genealogy this week….

“On Monday 19^th January, I’m off to talk to the Scottish Genealogy Society about the history of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital (REH). As with most archivists, outreach is a key part of my core work, and LHSA has worked with everyone from P7 schoolchildren to university students and retired NHS staff. Talks like these are not only a chance to introduce the uninitiated to archives and what you can find there, but are also a chance to introduce seasoned researchers (like the Scottish Genealogy Society!) to what LHSA can offer family historians.

My talk on Monday will combine a history of the REH (which has recently celebrated its bicentenary) with a guide to what researchers can learn from our collections from the institution. Despite not being the largest of our hospital collections (our Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh papers have that distinction!), LHB7 (for the REH) is the one that is consulted most often - by academic researchers and genealogists alike. In addition to the fascinating history of psychiatry that all asylum collections can convey, I think that one of the reasons for the popularity of our REH records is that they recorded information so thoroughly – I’m sure that many of the medical and administrative staff would have made admirable archivists!

Last year, 230 out of a total of 938 enquiries came from family historians – just under one quarter of the whole, which is quite a small number compared to many other archives. However, if you do find out that your relative was in hospital, health records can offer a great deal of biographical information to family historians. The REH collection is a case in point – and the excellent record-keeping skills of the institution means that I can often trace a patient from certification (compulsory admittance to the hospital, saying why the admission was thought necessary) to admission, case history, and finally discharge or (for the unlucky ones) death. Most of our family history enquiries about the Royal Edinburgh Hospital come to us after research of death and census records has led people to find that a relative has either died or was recorded as living in the REH (earlier known as the Royal Edinburgh Asylum).

Sketch of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum, 1808 (LHB7/57/1d)

Of all our REH records, the 121 case books that we hold from 1840 to 1932 are an invaluable resource for anyone wanting to delve deeper into personal or medical histories in a fascinating period of advancements in psychiatric care. Case records such as these come with caveats, of course – they only record what the physician and / or clerk thought to be relevant, many are governed by a printed pro-forma layout which determined how patients were described (and how much room there was to do that in), and notes on the progress of patients can be at times frustratingly short (for example, simply recording no change in condition, or whether the patient had lost or gained weight). Nevertheless, the detail that they offer is matched by few of our collections prior to the introduction of folder-based case notes. I can also be sure of finding a record for each patient in the hospital if they were resident in the period that case books were in active use. A further advantage is that they are indexed, meaning that the researcher (in a lot of cases, me!) can find an individual fairly quickly if no precise date of admission is known.

 

For the family historian, the case books not only contain biographical detail (such as the originating address, age and occupation of the patient), but also can tell you whether the patient paid fees, giving a hint of their financial circumstances. Fees were paid by patients across the hospital - East House (which was later demolished to make way for Craighouse, which opened in 1894) as well as in West House, which also took pauper patients. There were different levels of fees in each house – if your relative was in East House, you could assume that s/he (or the family) was reasonably well off, with fees costing up to £200 per annum in the late 1870s, compared to an intermediate rate of £45 for patients residing in West House.

The billiard room in Craig House, showing the level of accommodation offered to paying patients (from LHB7/7/10)

Reading case histories of ancestors in the REH can also lead researchers to new lines of enquiry. Not only were patients sometimes discharged to other institutions (leading their descendants in turn to new archives), but the clerk was required to record whether any hereditary history of mental illness was known, which can bring new histories to light. Reading these histories can be upsetting, no doubt, but they can also be compelling, and while some researchers can become upset that their relative was institutionalised, others have been impressed by the concern and care that was expressed in the case history, far beyond what they had been led to expect by the forbidding reputation of the ‘Victorian asylum.’ It’s also comforting to remember that these histories were written at a very different time, and that it is misleading to superimpose our current expectations of the treatment, definition and understanding of mental illness upon the past. However, what we can do is try to understand that past a little more, which is what academics, genealogists and archivists are all striving to do.”

If you’d like to learn more about how LHSA can help family historians, you can find more information here: http://www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/family/index.htm

You can find more about the Scottish Genealogy Society (where Louise will be speaking on Monday evening) here: http://www.scotsgenealogy.com/

 

If you would like LHSA to talk to your club or society about the work that we do, please contact us on lhsa@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 3392

 

What’s on the cards for 2015?

Happy New Year from the LHSA team!

2014 was a great year for LHSA – we recapped some of our highlights in our last blog before the Christmas break, ranging from completing major pieces of work and ongoing developments with our projects and internships, to new and exciting outreach and engagement and our recent Accredited Archive Status.

Having looked back, it’s now time for us to look forward to what the next 12 months have in store for the team.

Of course our enquiries work continues to be a top priority for us; we saw a 10% increase in demand for our user services in 2014 so we will carry on helping to answer those research questions and meet the requests for access to LHSA material! But there will be a major change in this area. Laura, who has been with LHSA since 2007, has resigned as Archivist and Louise (who has been working as the Archivist since March last year when Laura went on a period of leave) will take over. We’re very sad to see Laura go, but she has exciting plans in Munich, where she has been for the last 10 months or so. We wish Laura all the very best and warmly welcome Louise to her new role, which will begin officially on 1 March.

Our other core business will continue as usual, including bringing in material to the Archive (we already have our first accession of the new year!), cataloguing, and conservation/preservation. In the case of the latter, we’ll be seeing more of our bound volumes and loose sheet material treated to make sure they are available for research now and in the future. Our established programme for volunteers, students on placement and internships will also be developed in the coming months. This means that important, supervised, work to catalogue, conserve and promote our collections can be carried out while, at the same time, we’re able to offer valuable experience to those wishing to pursue careers in our sector. We already have one new volunteer and in a few months we’ll be starting some new outreach work with a John Lewis Golden Jubilee Trust award holder.

We’ll also be doing some exciting work on our Wellcome Trust funded projects. Clair joins us to complete the cataloguing of our HIV/AIDS collections, and Emily will be leading some new public engagement work, including the development of educational resources, with those collections. Our case note cataloguing work will carry on with the Norman Dott collections, and be joined by new work on our case notes that relate to TB and diseases of the chest.

The team are looking forward to the 2015 programme of outreach work within hospitals, and with staff from NHS Lothian and healthcare charities. This is something we do every year but it’s always different depending on the activities we’re getting involved with or the interests of the people with whom we’re collaborating. We’ll be helping to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of St John’s Hospital and working with NHS Lothian colleagues to create new art installations drawing on archive material. We’ll also be offering talks and presentations to a wide variety of interest groups from the Scottish Genealogy Society to visitors to Edinburgh Central Library. The Central Library talk, open to all, will be on the 22^nd of April at 2.30pm, looking at tracing patient experiences in the nineteenth century. You can book your free place here: http://bit.ly/1xKHAp9! 

And, of course, we will continue to support the University’s teaching programme with both our collections and our own areas of expertise. Our contribution to the regular undergraduate History in Practice sessions and the postgraduate module for the MSc History of the Book will be accompanied by our work with Widening Participation (for more information about this please see our recent ‘Broadsheet’ article at http://www.scottisharchives.org.uk/broadsheet/issue31education.pdf), and events within Innovative Learning Week in February and the Festival of Museums in May.

We've already got a lot planned for the year ahead - we'll be kept busy building on our successes of last year. Watch this space for updates on all this work, and new developments as the year progresses!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from LHSA!

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Splish, Splash… it’s the Hydrotherapy Pool...

Hydrotherapy is a form of physiotherapy where the physical ailments of patients are treated by a series of exercises performed whilst submerged in water. The water is heated to 33-36 degrees Celsius to keep the patients and their muscles warm, improving blood flow. Carrying out the exercises helps them build up their strength and increase the range of movements they can carry out. The water supports the body weight making it an ideal situation for rehabilitating weakened limbs without causing further injury. Hydrotherapy is usually focussed on slow controlled movement and relaxation of the patient.

The use of immersion in water for treating illness dates back to ancient times. However in the 19th century in particular it was revived as a reliable treatment in western Europe, backed up by scientific research and publications. This is the hydrotherapy pool at the Princess Margaret Rose (PMR) Orthopaedic Hospital in approximately the 1950s, and comes from a pamphlet commemorating the hospital’s closure in 2001:

 

The PMR Hospital was built in 1932 specifically to deal with crippling diseases in Scotland. At various times the causes of these disabilities included tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, road accidents, arthritis and rheumatism and using the pool helped with rehabilitation of the patients. The pool was popular with many staff and patients and originally the physiotherapists wore chest waders as they treated patients!

The Western General Hospital also had a hydrotherapy pool and it continues to provide this type of treatment to this day. The image dates from approximately the early 1970s:

Hydrotherapy pool at the Western General Hospital, 1970s (P/PL13/P/055)

The hospital has been a centre of excellence in surgical neurology since 1960 and hydrotherapy provided treatment for patients recovering from paresis due to brain trauma and spinal surgery. Wards and clinics also likely to have made use of it would have included the orthopaedic department (which was open from 1960-1992) and the rheumatology department.


References

http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/therapies/hydrotherapy/what-is-hydrotherapy.aspx Accessed 12.12.2014

Princess Margaret Rose Orthopaedic Hospital (1932-2001), Ed. Macnicol, M

Conserving Condoms: Modern Materials in Medical Archives

This week’s blog reviews the conservation symposium organised by LHSA and held at Edinburgh University last week….

Last Friday, LHSA and the CRC hosted “Conserving Condoms: Modern Materials in Medical Archives” at Edinburgh University. The event consisted of lectures, workshops and advice clinics that focused on the conservation of modern material, and grant application to the Wellcome Trust for conservation work. It was funded by the Wellcome Trust’s small grants scheme and inspired by the modern objects that I have found in the HIV/AIDS collections.  While working with these collections, I have come across many plastic items that were degrading in strange ways. As I researched these objects further, I found that there was a lot of contradictory research that was sometimes difficult to understand. Since the conservation of modern materials is a relatively new field, there is a general lack of understanding and confidence when treating these items. Also, because the items are newer, they are often not treated with as much care as older items, even though they may have equal historical importance. We thought a symposium on the subject would be a great way to share knowledge, encourage debate and dispel any myths surrounding these modern materials.

Poster used to advertise the event

 

                The event proved to be extremely popular, with tickets selling out within a month. Students, interns and professionals came from all over the UK to find out more about this complex subject. The day kicked off with a keynote lecture by Dr Anita Quye, Lecturer in Conservation Science at the University of Glasgow. Anita’s main area of research is modern materials analysis, so she was ideally placed to start the proceedings. She defined exactly what the difference is between plastics and rubbers, and then went on to describe how these plastics can degrade and how to identify them. Anita focused on four of the most problematic plastics that are commonly found in heritage collections; cellulose acetate, PVC, polyurethane and cellulose nitrate. Inspired by the title of the symposium, Anita also gave us a fascinating insight into the conservation of condoms! Condoms are well preserved by their foil packet, as it has good vapour barrier characteristics and prevents the ingress of moisture, light and oxygen. In fact, the foil packet is made from a very similar material to Moistop Barrier Film™, which is frequently used in the storage and transport of museum objects!

Dr Anita Quye giving her keynote lecture on the conservation of modern materials

                Sniffing modern objects was the topic of the next talk by Linda Ramsay, Head of Conservation at the National Records of Scotland. She discussed ‘Heritage Smells!’ a collaborative project led by the University of Strathclyde that aimed to identify plastics by taking air samples surrounding the items. Plastics release specific volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) as they age. By capturing and analysing these VOC’s, conservators can identify the plastic and also detect any chemicals emitted by the items that are potentially harmful to humans or neighbouring objects. An interesting case study Linda highlighted was a postcard (screen print on yellow transparent PVC) by Joseph Beuys at the National Galleries of Scotland. A large amount of “sweat” was present on the surface of the artefact, which was assumed to be caused by the loss of plasticiser. Interestingly, Beuys named this piece “Flowing Honey”, which makes us wonder; did he know the plastic would sweat? Did he choose to use this material for this effect?  Or is the name just a coincidence!

 

After a short break, Ruth Honeybone, Archive Manage at LHSA gave a presentation about scoping for conservation work and how to put together a successful funding bid. Ruth talked about the practicalities of deciding what to treat, how to treat it and the materials and equipment needed, how long it will take, who should do the work and where and, most importantly, how much it will cost. To be able to tap into various funding schemes is key for many smaller institutions and this sharing of knowledge was extremely beneficial to many.

Ruth Honeybone discussing scoping out for conservation funding applications

Following Ruth’s explanation on how she put together a successful bid which led to the HIV/AIDS project, it was my turn to talk about the conservation of it. I chose to talk about the some of the storage solutions I had designed for problem plastics in the HIV/AIDS collections. I have talked about these in previous blogs such as “Thinking about the Box: Storage of Plastics”. I wanted to share these solutions in the hope that they could be used for all types of collections and not just modern ones.

After lunch, Sue Crossley and Amy Vickery (Grant Advisors from the Wellcome Trust) discussed the various funding streams available for conservation at the Wellcome Trust. The Wellcome Trust Research Resources grant scheme funds the preservation, conservation, cataloguing and digitisation of significant medical history collections in the UK and Republic of Ireland. There are lots of funding opportunities available and Amy and Sue were both very open and willing to answer all funding related questions. They suggest getting in touch and talking to a member of the team directly to discuss any potential projects.

Sue Crossley and Amy Vickery describing the funding streams available at the Wellcome Trust

Next it was time for the workshop section of the symposium and the group broke up to go to separate discussion groups based on their interests. Some people stayed with Anita to discuss the conservation of modern materials further, others joined Linda and Saho (Paper Conservator at National Records of Scotland) to find out more about the ‘Heritage Smells!’ project, while some joined Claire Knowles (Library Digital Development Manager) and Kirsty Lee (Digital Curator), both from Edinburgh University, to consider the challenge of digital preservation – another very modern problem in our collections. I hosted a workshop on ‘Ethics and Plastic Packaging’ which looked at the ethical issues surrounding the removal of certain packaging items from collections and how this can alter the meaning and understanding of the material.

Workshop group discussing ethics and plastic packaging

 

The day ended with tea, coffee, cake and advice clinics. These were informal one to one clinics where delegates could talk to the speakers directly about specific points. It was also an opportunity for the participants to discuss the topics raised throughout the day and to network. There was also the chance to have a tour of the CRC and conservation studio with Conservation Officer, Emma Davey.

Overall, the event was really well received with many positive comments and feedback from participants. I think the interest in this day points to the growing concern surrounding the conservation of modern materials and the need for further information on the subject. Hopefully, based on the success of this event, many more like it will be hosted at Edinburgh University in the future.

Occupational Therapy: history behind the photographs

As I am coming to the end of my ten week internship at LHSA, working on the photograph collection, I have come across a selection of photographs from the Royal Edinburgh Hospital (REH) that led me to do some further investigation. The following set of photographs show patients from the REH carrying out activities in occupational therapy (OT). OT, in principal, endeavours to improve mental and physical health by providing practical support and activities, for individuals suffering from a wide range of conditions. OT helps individuals apply themselves in practical activities, from day-to-day tasks, such as preparing meals, to work and leisure.  This helps to bring purpose to people’s lives and helps them to live as independently as possible, which plays a key role in rehabilitation and helping the recovery of many health related conditions. Improving general outlook and well-being are also key concepts of the role of occupational therapy.[1]



A garden created by the patients at MacKinnon House over the past few years and now maintained by them, P/PL7/P/068

Keep fit class, P/P7/P/066

 

Whilst the roots of the development could be arguably traced back to China in 2600 BC, when Cong Fu was taught as “medical gymnastics” where physical training was believed to promote health[2]; I decided to try and track the developments at a more local level. It was not until around the eighteenth century that new approaches were beginning to take shape in the treatment of psychiatric patients by founding fathers, such as French physician Philippe Pinel, in moral treatment. This was a more humane approach to treatment of the mentally ill that preferred the use of practical therapy over incarceration or punishment. In his book published in 1801 Pinel prescribes, “physical exercises and manual occupations” for mental illness because “rigours executed manual labour is the best method of securing good morale discipline. The return of convalescent patients to their previous interests, to the practice of their profession, to industriousness and perseverance have always been for me the best omen of finial recovery”.[3]  Whilst OT was also evolving in the treatment of physical conditions, it was this relationship between OT and the treatment of mental illness, where some pioneering work was demonstrated in Edinburgh hospitals. 

An important recent development is the introduction of industry into the hospital through the co-operation of outside firms, P/PL7/P/065

A cooking lesson, P/PL7/P/067

Dr D.K. Henderson (1884 – 1965) was a Scottish born physician. He was a Physician Superintendent of the REH and a Professor of Psychiatry, through the hospital’s links with the University of Edinburgh.  The pictures from this collection would have been taken at a much later date, from Dr Henderson’s time at REH but they demonstrate some of his founding work there. A balance of farming, gardening work, as well as domestic and craft activities tailored to the patient’s condition, are examples of OT that he believed could, “increase a person’s self-esteem [due to the] ability to accomplish something”.[4] These sorts of activities could also create structure and organisation to a patient’s day, creating a balance between work, rest and play. Henderson believed this ultimately helped individuals adapt and removed feelings of hopelessness. By 1932 he had encouraged the founding of the Scottish Association of Occupational Therapy. 

 

Instruction in typing P/PL7/P/061

 

 

A corner of the farm, P/PL7/P/062

 

For individuals suffering from more physically debilitating conditions, OT was also being encouraged as a form of treatment. Casualties resulting from the First World War saw many men facing adapting back into civilian life with debilitating injuries and a lack of employment support. Curative workshops were opened within military hospitals, based on similar workshops already established in the United States, and were equipped with tools and machinery to exercise joints and muscles. Application in work based tasks could, therefore, help in physical healing and strengthening help but also in rehabilitating into society with permanent disabilities. Based on these workshops the first occupational therapy department in Scotland was opened in 1936 at the Astley Ainslie Institution in Edinburgh. The Astley Ainslie grew from being a convalescent hospital to become a leading rehabilitation centre and school for training occupational therapists.

An important recent development is the introduction of industry into the hospital through the co-operation of outside firms, P/PL7/P/064

Brush up your baking, P/PL7/P/063

 

From these early days of establishing the role that OT could play in improving health and wellbeing, we can see that as the profession has grown, it is still very relevant in society today.

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[1] College of Occupational Therapists:  http://www.cot.co.uk/ot-helps-you/what-occupational-therapy.  Last Accessed 27/11/14.

[2] Hopkins, H. An Historical Willard and Spackman’s Occupational Therapy (Sixth Edition, USA:1983), p. 3.

[3] Ibid, p. 4.

[4] Creek, J. Occupational Therapy and Mental Health (Elsevier:2008), p.9.