RCVS Knowledge has announced a new way to access their unique veterinary history collections. The new Archive catalogue is now available to view online, with detailed descriptions of hundreds of items from the last 150 years.
RCVS Knowledge holds the historic archive collections belonging to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons; these consist of unpublished manuscripts, correspondence, clinical case notes and photographs illustrating the history of the British veterinary profession from 1800 to the present day.
Following the appointment of a qualified archivist in October 2015, a five year project commenced to improve access and awareness of the wealth of material held. This began with the creation of an online database with descriptions of material catalogued to international archive standards. The catalogue will be fully searchable with biographical profiles for major persons featured in the collections.
The papers of the prolific veterinary author and army veterinarian Major General Sir Frederick Smith (1857-1929) are amongst the first collections to be fully catalogued and described online. The material covers the length of Smith's career from case notes recording treatment of army horses in India in the 1880s to correspondence from the last 20 years of his life, in which he wrote a four volume history of veterinary literature. Smith was involved in the Army Veterinary Service during the Second Anglo-Boer War and the First World War, and his honest and candid accounts of the loss of horses by the Army illustrate fascinating aspects of veterinary, social and military history.
The RCVS Vet History project is ongoing, and further collections will be catalogued periodically over the next four years. Visitors are encouraged to check the catalogue regularly, and follow RCVS Knowledge's social media channels for news and updates.
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