Our collections help celebrate a birthday

Next week is an important one for the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. On Friday the 19th, it will be 200 years to the day that the very first patient was admitted. LHSA have been helping the Hospital, its patients, staff and local community, celebrate the bicentenary, and two key events have been focused on this time of year.

In June we took the Royal Charter to the City Chambers for a Civic Reception, and it was an opportunity to talk to the invited guests about the history of the Hospital. We were able to use the Charter as a window into that history - it’s a beautifully produced artefact from 1807 and it got a great response. Here the Charter is photographed against the backdrop of the City Chambers' list of Lord Provosts of Edinburgh, which records the Lord Provost named in the Charter itself, Donald Smith. For more information about the Charter please see our online posters.

Next Friday we’re delighted to be involved in a one-day event, ‘The History Room’, in the Hospital itself. Heritage objects held by the Hospital and key documents from LHSA will be on display for those who would like to find out more about the last 200 years of this Edinburgh institution. It will also be a chance for you to share your stories and memories of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and we hope to see you there. It’s a free event, available to all, and more details can be found here. 

For those of you who can’t make the 19^th, we hope to repeat the display for the Hospital’s annual fete which will be in September, so watch this space!