Conservation (2): Condition Surveys and Re-Housing

Last month, we started a new series that explores the conservation work that cares for LHSA collections. LHSA has spent years establishing a conservation profile and now has an active programme of preservation and conservation work funded by the annual budget. Condition surveys are a pivotal aspect of this work and help us assess and prioritise items in need of interventive treatment and/or re-housing. In this blog, we look at why condition surveys are needed and sneak behind the scenes to enjoy some truly satisfactory before/after photographs of some of our re-housed collections.

Condition Surveys

A full understanding of the condition of the LHSA collections is necessary to inform priorities for preventive and interventive conservation treatment. To date, LHSA has carried out two National Preservation Office (now National Advisory Centre, NAC) Preservation Assessment Surveys; the first in 1999-2000 of the collection as a whole and the second in 2001 of the photographic material only. These surveys have helped establish and develop LHSA’s preservation and conservation programme and have provided supporting evidence for external funding applications.

Once priorities have been identified by the NAC Survey, more in-depth surveys of specific parts of the collections are carried out to determine which particular items need interventive treatment and/or re-housing, and to provide estimates for associated cost and time required. These surveys are not based on a formal model like the NPO Survey. Instead, the criteria for assessment and format for recording the data collated varies according to the type of material and proposed end use for the findings. Examples of this include a survey the Scottish Museums Council were commissioned to undertake in order to determine the condition of the object collection, and an in-house assessment to ascertain how far the repository met the specifications of BS5454:2000: Recommendations for the storage and exhibition of archival documents.

The survey data and written reports based on it are retained for comparison with future condition surveying in order to assess progress. The image below shows a bar chart from the 1999-2000 NAC Survey showing the anticipated impact of improved physical conditions for the collections: most items would be (2) low preservation need.

Re-housing LHSA collections

Many of the collections are accessioned with little, no or unsuitable housing, putting the items at risk of accelerated deterioration and/or accidental damage. LHSA has implemented a boxing policy to ensure that the collections will be provided with appropriate long-term housing. This will ensure that incident light damage and dust accumulation are reduced, ameliorate against any fluctuations in the ambient environment, improve handling and aid access. Boxing may also help ensure the most efficient use of available storage space.

Before and after: Correspondence from Jordanburn Nerve Hospital.

A range of standard size boxes and folders have been developed to meet the housing needs of the majority of the collections, particularly paper-based items in sheet format. Customised storage solutions for outsize items or those that have specific requirements, for example photographic material, are also provided. Wherever possible, re-housing is coupled with any interventive treatment required by the collection items.

Before and after: Object collection.

Original storage systems are kept where they pose no risk of damage to the collections contained. When replaced, written and photographic documentation of the original system is produced to record any additional information that would otherwise be lost.

Before and after: Patient index cards.

Before and after: Glass plate negatives.

Collections to be re-housed are prioritised according to physical vulnerability, demand for access and historical importance. The highest specification materials within the available budget are used and principles of best practice are adhered to. On entry, all new accessions are assessed and re-housed as necessary, and work continues to provide all collections with suitable secondary protection.

Tales from the Archive (2): Miners and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, 1900-1950

Patients and Funding at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

The issue of how the Hospital would pay its ever-increasing costs was always pressing. The annual reports built a picture of the pressures it faced. During the period 1900-1950, ordinary expenditure always exceeded ordinary income. In 1900, ordinary income amounted to £30,009, whilst ordinary expenditure was £47,868. The report cites the cost of coal, lights, cleaning materials, ordinary repairs, wages, and the rising price of meat as reasons for the increase in expenditure.

As the prices rose, so too did the number of patients. In 1900, 8,914 new patients were admitted to the Hospital; the average number of patients in the Hospital on a given day was 701.

The annual report for 1939 specifically mentions the start of World War Two as contributing towards the large rise in the number of patients. It also cites the increase in the number of motor car accidents as a significant factor. By 1946, ordinary income had risen to £264,965 but expenditure was £350,108.

By the 1930s, the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh was the largest voluntary hospital in Britain. Its policy of being ‘the Ever Open Door’ with medical need as the only criteria for entry, enabled it to appeal for voluntary contributions on the broadest possible basis. In fact, as early as 1900 the annual report noted that the Hospital was dependent to a large extent on annual income derived from contributions. Each parish in Edinburgh was listed individually and within this, each church, individual and firm which contributed £1 or more. Many wealthy benefactors left money to the Hospital in their wills and bed plaques were often commissioned to record this, or wards were sometimes named after particularly generous individuals.

To maintain this level of contribution, the Hospital had to have an organised system of raising money. As a result, in 1917 the League of Subscribers was instituted. At the same time, the area for collection was greatly extended with subscriptions from individual donors and parishes received from all over Scotland as well as England and Ireland.

The Miners

During the period from 9 May to 8 June 1928, 77 miners were admitted to the Hospital. Their admissions can be traced through the General Register of Patients. 21% were admitted due to accidents that had occurred in the mines; nearly two-thirds were diagnosed with chronic conditions. There were some admissions which cannot be categorised as either, such as typhoid.

Of those who were admitted with injuries, the most common were fractures and breakages of the tibia and fibula bones in the leg. This was followed by penetrating injuries to the eye and fractures of bones in the arm. There were also several injuries to the head, spine and ribs noted.

There was also a definite pattern in the types of chronic illness that the miners presented with.

These conditions are all associated with the bacterium H. Pylori; presumably contained in the dirt that they were inhaling.

If 77 miners were admitted to the hospital during one month, it is likely that up to 1,000 were admitted in one year. Given that the average cost per hospital bed per annum in 1928 was £149 18s 3d, the cost of the miners’ healthcare was not inconsiderable.

Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, General Register of Patients, May 1928-Mar 1929 (LHB1/126/72).

The Hospital’s annual reports show that the miners were very generous in giving money to it. This was perhaps in recognition of the fact that many of them would require hospital treatment at some point in their lives. This generosity didn’t go unnoticed by the Hospital managers; in each annual report, they were singled out for praise. In the managers’ 1946 annual report, shortly before the Hospital was handed over to the NHS, the following comment appeared: “Many groups of employee contributors outside the membership of the League of Subscribers, including particularly the workers in the mines and the oilworks who have been so consistently loyal and generous in their support of the Royal Infirmary have again contributed in substantial measure”.

The money contributed by the miners was in addition to health insurance which the majority of miners had by the 1930s as a result of the 1911 Health Insurance Act. This covered the costs of their medical care. With one or two exceptions, the 77 miners admitted to the hospital in May-June 1928 were all members of an insurance scheme.

The connection with the miners continued beyond the establishment of the NHS in 1948. In the 1950s, miners were sent from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to the Astley Ainslie Hospital, a rehabilitation hospital. It provided for those requiring longer care and supervision to fit them for a normal life.

The Astley Ainslie created a miniature mine within its grounds to rehabilitate miners. At this time, it was thought that as many as 1 in 4 miners were suffering from industrial injuries. The miniature mine enabled miners to regain their confidence and physical stamina and reacclimatise so they could return to work in the pits.  

After the introduction of the NHS, it was felt that the contributions from the miners should be commemorated with a plaque. It is slightly larger than the usual size, perhaps in recognition of the size of the contributions that the miners made from their own wages. Between the years of 1918 and 1948 (when the NHS started), the coal and shale workers had contributed over £408,000 to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. In today’s money, that is approximately £11 million.

Photograph of the 'Narratives' opening (LHSA photographic collection).

This plaque is the centrepiece of the 'Narratives' installation at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, on the first floor, north corridor between Wards 104 and 101. Links with the past are considered important at the hospital and although there is no direct link with the miners today, it was felt important to continue commemorating them and their efforts. 

LHSA Sources for Further Study

Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (LHB1)

Astley Ainslie Hospital (LHB35)

Public Health Department of the City of Edinburgh (LHB16)

 

 

Spotlight On… (3): Class ticket signed by Joseph Lister, 1876

Below is a class ticket issued to Mr Thomas Preston Lewis and signed by Joseph Lister.

Class ticket signed by Joseph Lister, 1876 (GD1/3/4).

Joseph Lister (1827-1912) had become Professor of Clinical Surgery at the University of Edinburgh in 1869. He was given fifty beds to supervise at the Royal Infirmary which at that time was still at its site at the bottom of Infirmary Street. His research into the use of carbolic acid to prevent infection during surgery had already gained him a considerable reputation and he continued his pioneering work while in post. 

It is testimony to Lister’s popularity with his students that, on being offered a post at King’s College London, 700 of them signed a petition to encourage him to stay in Edinburgh. He chose to take up the new post, however, and the winter session 1876-1877, for which this class ticket was issued, was his last in Edinburgh.

Disability Livelihood and Employment (2): The Register of the Outdoor Blind

Content Warning: This blog post contains derogatory terminology that wouldn't be used in present-day records and can be distressing.

In his book Hearing Our History, Iain Hutchinson frames the concept of the ‘outdoor blind’ as the ‘people with sight loss who lived in the wider community rather than in institutions such as Edinburgh’s blind asylum’ (2015, p.1). These Registers listed blind men and women living in local communities, gave basic information about their work circumstances, and granted aid. Many people listed in the register were elderly and frail, whereas others were employed in some way.

Hutchinson explains that ‘the Society for the Outdoor Blind focussed on teaching people with sight loss to read raised type and this was primarily so that they might access religious works. The system of raised type that was promoted was the Moon system, although by the Edwardian period the society had also embraced braille and therefore offered instruction and library facilities in both methods of tactile print’ (2015, p.2). The image below shows a female register recording information concerning their age when sight was lost, the cause of the blindness, and their previous and present (at the time!) employment. While the Register shows numerous gaps, it still provides a sense of the wide range of occupations women held before and after they lost sight.

The Register of the Outdoor Blind, 1903-1910 (GD52/9).

Some of the occupations mentioned in the volume before women lost sight were servant, Bible woman, sewer, nurse, mission worker, dressmaker, charwoman (a dated term for a female cleaner), chemical worker, kept house, book sewer, poor house matron, school pupil, and mill worker; whereas the terminology or jobs listed after losing sight offer an apparent contrast in most instances: unable, knitting, unemployed, infirm, keeps house, none, labourer, small shop, bedridden, helps in house, mangle turner, on street. There is also a mention of a woman who worked as a music teacher.

Occupations performed by men covered the whole spectrum of trades and traditional jobs. Before losing sight, some of their professions were hawker (a door-to-door seller), collector, clerk, carpenter, plumber, mechanic, baker, jeweller, shoemaker, labourer, tailor… It very much covers the whole spectrum of traditional trades. While the job or terms listed after they lost sight are radically different and include hawker, on street, selling tea, not able, unable, nothing, street reader, mattress maker, bakers shop, infirm, sells fish, musician, pedlar (a dated term for a travelling salesperson), sells tea, piano tuner, street music, unemployed.

Instructions for filling out the Register of the Outdoor Blind, from the Royal National Institute of Blind People collection (GD52/9).

Interestingly, tea sellers and mangle turners were approved in Edwardian Edinburgh, whilst street musicians were not. People who earned a living ‘on the street’ were considered to not be engaging in a respectable form of ‘self-help’. Neither were musicians or oratory readers of raised type. Musicians would perform on the street, in public houses or music halls, all of which were places that didn’t present the image of blind people that the missionaries to the outdoor blind sought. On the other hand, music teachers, piano tuners, and organists were highly regarded. The first two could end up working in the homes of respectable middle-class families, whereas the latter would perform in places of worship. Some people underwent drastic career changes. Knitting was the main employment for women, whereas a high number of men worked as hawkers with different levels of success. Selling tea was the most remunerative option. For instance, there is evidence of a tea seller who was a miner prior to losing his sight. While he was widely respected for his ability to develop his business, he earned considerably less than he had earned as a coal miner.

You can learn more about the Register of the Outdoor Blind here.