Monthly Archives: June 2015

A Life Cut Short: Stephanie’s Story

Stephanie (courtesy of Lauren McGregor)

In 1936, Julia Stephanie Evadne McGregor was in the final year of a five-year medical degree and showed all the signs of a highly motivated and conscientious student who would do well.  In January 1936, she was admitted to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, again in May and then June.  She died on 4th July of rheumatic fever.  On the anniversary of her death this year, the University is awarding a posthumous degree, with her family in attendance.

Stephanie (as she was known) was born in Gayle St. Mary, Jamaica on 9th April 1911, the daughter of Peter James McGregor and his wife Julianna Drucilla Marsh. She attended Wolmer’s Girls High School in Kingston, Jamaica from 1923-1929 and matriculated at the University of Edinburgh to study medicine in April 1931, having obtained her matriculation certificate at the University of London the previous August. On 21 October 1931 she registered as a student member of the General Medical Council.

Her first year of study saw her study under (amongst others) Professors James Hartley Asworth (Zoology), George Barger (Chemistry) and William Wright Smith (Botany), passing her first professional exams in 1932. In her second year her Professors were Edward Sharpey-Schafer (Physiology) and James Couper Brash (Anatomy). She passed her second professional exams  in 1933.

Holiday at Kirn, Argyll, 1932

On holiday at Kirn, Argyll, 1932 (courtesy of Lauren McGregor)julia2back

In October 1933, Marjorie Rackstraw in her capacity as Adviser of Women Students, wrote to Professor Sir Sidney Smith, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, informing him that Stephanie was in financial difficulties, having received no allowance since the previous August, due to her family being in financial difficulties themselves. As a result, she was able to gain an award of £25 from the Medical Bursaries Fund. By the following February, this plus money Stephanie had managed to raise elsewhere was once again exhausted and Miss Rackstraw wrote again to Prof. Smith to explore other options, specifically a loan

She described Stephanie as capable and sensible, “one of the best of her class and has gained merit certificates in four of her subjects and one prize in Botany”. The letter also recorded that Stephanie was planning to apply for a Vans Dunlop Scholarship and, “if the  banana harvest is satisfactory she should be able to meet her expenditure during the next two years”. A further grant of £50 from the Medical Bursaries Fund was awarded.

Further troubles arose in late 1934. On 29th October Miss Rackstraw wrote again to Prof. Smith, explaining that Stephanie’s father had died a few weeks earlier, presenting more financial problems over and above dealing with the bereavement.  She was to receive further small pots of money.

By 1935, Stephanie was living in Masson Hall of Residence, where Marjorie Rackstraw was warden.  The building no longer exists, having been demolished in the 1960s to make way for the Main Library building.  However there are extensive records, including photographs, and one that includes Stephanie survives.

Group photograph of residents and others at Masson Hall of Residence, 1935

Group photograph of residents and others at Masson Hall of Residence, 1935

1936 did not start well for Stephanie.  She fell ill on the 17th January and ended up in the Royal Infirmary but was let out after 15 days on the condition that she go away for convalescence.  She went to say with a Mrs Corrigall at “Stromness, Kirn, Argyll”, but the ordeal journey there resulted in a week in bed and further time away from study.  She wrote to Prof. Smith to explain her situation.

Mrs. Corrigall, with whom I am staying, called in her family Doctor and I have been under his care ….. I am still quite unfit to face classes and work ….. I am very troubled about my attendance and classes ….. This is the first time in the five years of my academic life, Sir, that I have for any reson or other been forced to miss my classes

Steph's signature

Signature, from letter in her student file

On 5 July 1936, Marjorie Rackstraw again wrote to Prof Smith but this time she was not looking for financial assistance.  Instead she had the task of informing him that Stephanie had died the day before, a victim of “rheumatic fever following tonsillitis which affected her heart”. Her funeral was held at St. John’s Episcopal, where she had been a member of the congregation, and she was buried at Piershill Cemetery.

Funeral notice (copy from her student file)

Funeral notice (copy from her student file)

Since the later 19th century, women students had been battling to gain parity with their male counterparts.  It was not until the 1890s that women were able to matriculate as students and it was only in 1915 that they gained an equal status to men within the Faculty of Medicine.  Even by the time Stephanie was studying, numbers of female students were very small compared to men, having only just edged over 10%.  Had Stephanie graduated, she would have made up one of only 19 women who were awarded a degree of MBChB that year.  Although she probably never saw herself as such, Stephanie can be seen as a contributor towards a major change within medical education, paving the way for those who followed.

At the graduation ceremony which takes place on 4th July 2015, coincidentally on the 79th anniversary of Stephanie’s death, the University of Edinburgh is awarding her a posthumous degree.

Implementing ArchivesSpace

Meeting our Needs

Since the early 2000s we have been looking for suitable software to manage our archives in a holistic manner. We began to deliver online catalogues at this time via various project initiatives, with metadata encoded as EAD/xml, but this only dealt with resource discovery and was quite cumbersome. Moreover, along with other digital developments, the work inhabited one of a number of parallel silos.

As time moved on, we got better at developing systems to move different elements of work from the analogue to the digital but were still some way off developing or finding a comprehensive, robust and sustainable way to join things up in a meaningful way. This changed when we began to investigate Archivists’ Toolkit in 2011. Although we had looked at it in one of its earlier versions, we were surprised to see how much subsequent developments had brought it quite close to ticking everything on our wish list. It was lacking a resource discovery layer but a successor product, ArchivesSpace, was already planned and would include this.

From Archivists’ Toolkit to ArchivesSpace

We therefore began looking at Archivists’ Toolkit in more detail, assessing issues such as functionality and usability but also those of sustainability and interoperability. It scored very highly, high enough for us to be able to make the business case to commit to ArchivesSpace and obtain the internal funding to sign up as Members.

The involvement of the profession in the development of ArchivesSpace has been and continues to be crucial. What has been developed is not just other people’s idea of what the product needs to be but what we as archivists actually require. Although heavily influenced by the predominant US partners and the specifics of US practice, it has been developed in way that is equally intelligible to others and easily customisable to reflect local needs and terminology.

Priorities and Impact

We originally focused on moving our behind-the-scenes work over but then switched to frontloading our resource discovery, migrating existing EAD xml files and also retro-converting a wide range of old spreadsheets, databases and similar. In terms of impact, this both provides evidence that our business case was sound but, most importantly, meets growing user expectations of what and online catalogue should deliver.

Phase one saw the delivery of nearly 17,000 catalogue records along with over 22,000 authority terms. We still have more to add, along with a whole range of management metadata about accessioning, locations etc. This will feature in Phase 2.

Because the source metadata has been drawn from a variety of legacy sources, there are issues of consistency and quality to be addressed. These are outstanding issues which could never be solved just by getting the metadata into ArchivesSpace. However, with all the metadata now in one place we can now look to quantify and rectify them. Experience told us that’s users would often rather have partial metadata rather than no metadata at all so we chose to go for a warts and all approach, only correcting what was obviously erroneous at this stage.

Community and Participation

We are proud to have signed up as the first European partner and the support we have had from a growing community of ArchivesSpace users and developers. This discussion is also two-way, with us feeding ideas back for future development.

Locally we are also more fully integrated into developing solutions that deliver all our collections online, through a suite of applications and interface that work together, improving user experience and improving how we manage the collections themselves.

Next Steps

We still have lots to do with the system to leverage the full functionality of the system and fully showcase our amazing archives collection. So watch this space.

View the online catalogue.

Read about this from a technical perspective

200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo – 18 June 2015

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO REFLECTED IN OUR ARCHIVE COLLECTIONS

Decorative stripOn Sunday 18 June 1815, on the muddy fields of Waterloo just outside Brussels in today’s Belgium, Napoleon Bonaparte with his French Imperial Guard faced off the Duke of Wellington and the British and Allied army. The course of the Battle of Waterloo, notable officers and men, and the battle outcome can all be referred to elsewhere. Instead, on this 200th anniversary of Waterloo, we focus on some of the material curated by the Centre for Research Collections which reflect these hours of 18 June 1815 and the aftermath of battle.

Drinking bottle on the field of battle in scene No.7 of the Barker Panorama of Waterloo (produced in 1816), shown at Leicester Square, London

Drinking bottle and personal effects on the field of battle in scene No.7 of the Barker Panorama of Waterloo (produced in 1816), shown at Leicester Square, London. (Coll-1101 – Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC)

Wound sustained by Etiene G*** during the Battle of Waterloo and appearing in the case-notes of ***

Wound sustained by Etienne Gerarghier during the Battle of Waterloo and appearing in the case-notes of Dr. Thomson and Dr. Somerville. (On p. 18 of Gen.594, in Coll-530 – Collection of sketches and reports of wounded at the Battle of Waterloo, CRC)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The collections profiled are: scenes from the panorama of the field of battle at Waterloo drawn by Henry Aston Barker (Coll-1101); and, sketches and reports by Dr. John Thomson and Dr. William Somerville of the wounded at Waterloo (Coll-535).

The farm of La Haye Sainte 'where the Life Guards *** the Cuirassiers' of the French Imperial Army. In part No.1

The farm of La Haye Sainte ‘where the Life Guards charged the Cuirassiers’ of the French Imperial Army (armour and firearm equipped cavalry). In part No.1 of the panorama. (Coll-1101 – Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC)

Firstly… scenes from the panorama of the field of battle at Waterloo (Coll-1101).

Henry Aston Barker (1774-1856) was the younger son of Robert Barker (1739-1806), the panorama painter. Aged 12, he was sent by his father to take outlines of Edinburgh from the city’s Calton Hill for the world’s first 360 degree exhibition panorama.

Barker panoramas were exhibited at an establishment in Castle Street, off Leicester Square, London, and the first was a view of London from the roof of the Albion Mills in 1791, the drawings for which were made by the young Henry.  Later on, from 1793, Barker panoramas moved to the first purpose-built panorama building in the world, in Leicester Square itself.

Scne showing the distant spire of Planchenoit 'where Bonaparte slept the night before the Action'.

Scene showing the distant spire of Planchenoit (top left) ‘where Bonaparte slept the night before the Action’. In part No.2 of the panorama. (Coll-1101 – Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC)

The scenes for the panorama of the field of battle at Waterloo were drawn by Barker on the  Plateau of Mont St. Jean, the escarpment which provided Napoleon’s name for the battle – La bataille de Mont-Saint-Jean.

Scene showing distant platform or scaffold 'near which Bonaparte gave his orders in the early part of the Action'. From Coll-1101 Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC

Scene showing distant platform or scaffold (top left) ‘near which Bonaparte gave his orders in the early part of the Action’. In part No.3 of the panorama. (Coll-1101 – Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC)

Barker had also visited Paris to research the project and to interview officers who participated in the battle. The scenes were etched by J. Burnet, and they were produced in 1816 for sale to visitors to the panorama building at Leicester Square. The credit to both Burnet and Barker is printed on each of the eight components of the ‘souvenir’ panorama.

The drawings were initially done by Barker, and then etchings were made by J. Burnet

The drawings were initially done by Henry A. Barker, and then etchings were made by J. Burnet. (Coll-1101 – Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC)

This scene showing the trees that approximately 'mark the Right of the edge of the British position'. In part No.4 of the panorama. From Coll-1101 Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC

This scene showing the trees and field that approximately ‘mark the Right of the edge of the British position’. In part No.4 of the panorama. (Coll-1101 – Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC)

It was intended that the eight parts of the panorama be joined together to form a complete circle. The viewer would then stand in the centre and have a panoramic view of the entire scene of Battle.

The church and windmill of the village of Braine La Leude on the battle site. In part No.5 of the panorama. From Coll-1101 Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC

The church and windmill of the village of Braine La Leude on the battle site. In part No.5 of the panorama. (Coll-1101 – Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC)

Each component is around 60cm x 29cm in size and together they show principally: 1 -The farm at La Haye Saint; 2 – Around the orchard of La Haye Sainte; 3 – Prominent part of the Plateau of Mont St. Jean; 4 – The crest of the hill on which the Imperial Guards were charged; 5 – The village of Braine La Leude; 6 – The village of Mont St. Jean; 7 – The Forest of Soigne; and, 8 – Road and hedge leading to Ter La Haye.

Distant Dome of the Church of Waterloo (Église Saint-Joseph de Waterloo) and the village of Mont St. Jean. In part No.6 of the panorama. From Coll-1101 Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC

Distant Dome of the Church of Waterloo in Brabant (Église Saint-Joseph de Waterloo) and the village of Mont St. Jean. In part No.6 of the panorama. (Coll-1101 – Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC)

At Waterloo, the French army of around 72,000 faced the outnumbering 113,000 allied British, Low Countries, German and Prussian forces. Napoleon lost around 25,000 men either killed or wounded, and 9,000 captured, while the allies lost around 23,000. Napoleon abdicated four days later.

Part of the distant Forest of Soigne, on the site of battle. In part No.7. of the panorma. From Coll-1101 Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC

Part of the distant Forest of Soigne on the site of battle. In part No.7. of the panorama. (Coll-1101 – Barker Panorama of Waterloo, CRC)

Scene showing personal effects on a part of the site 'where the Highlanders suffered so severely'. In part No.8 of the panorama. From Coll-1101 Barker Panorama of Waterloo

Scene showing personal effects on a part of the site ‘where the Highlanders suffered so severely’. In part No.8 of the panorama. (Coll-1101 – Barker Panorama of Waterloo)

So then… secondly… emphasising the human loss and injury… sketches and reports and case-notes of the wounded at Waterloo (Coll-535).

The wounds of French and Allied alike were described and reported on – as case-notes and sketches – by Dr John Thomson, Professor of Military Surgery at Edinburgh, and Dr William Somerville, the principal medical officer in Scotland. In the summer of 1814, Thomson had toured medical schools in France, Italy, Austria, Saxony, Prussia, Hanover and Holland, and in 1815 he was a staff-surgeon in Brabant and was at the Battle of Waterloo.

Wounds suffered by Jean Louis le Jeun who was cut with a sabre. From Coll-535

Wounds suffered by Jean Louis le Jeun who was cut with a sabre. (On p.21 of Gen.594, in Coll-535 – Collection of sketches and reports of wounded at the Battle of Waterloo, CRC)

Contents (Coll-535)

Contents pages at the beginning of the volume containing reports and cases at Gens d’Armerie Hospital in Brussels. (In the volume Gen.595, in Coll-535 – Collection of sketches and reports of wounded at the Battle of Waterloo, CRC)

The two-volume work profiled here was probably done in 1815. One also contains statistical tables of the wounded at the site – Reports cases and returns of the wounded at Waterloo (Gen. 595).

Index of the names of soldiers, description of wounds, and place of wounds, from the volume of reports, cases and returns. (Coll-

Index of the names of soldiers, description of wounds, and place of wounds, from the volume of sketches of the wounded. (In the volume Gen.594, in Coll-535 – Collection of sketches and reports of wounded at the Battle of Waterloo, CRC)

The other is illustrated with sketches of specific wounds of the soldiers, their names, their regiments, and details of their injuries – Sketches of the wounded at Waterloo. Drs. Thomson & Somerville (Gen. 594). Along with a number of other items both of the ‘Waterloo wounds’ volumes were transferred Edinburgh University Library from the Library of the Anatomical Museum, Edinburgh University, in June 1962.

Description of the wounds suffered by Angus McKinnon

Description of the wounds suffered by Angus McKinnon (On p. 39 of Gen.594, in Coll-535 – Collection of sketches and reports of wounded at the Battle of Waterloo, CRC)

Description of the wounds suffered by Anton Wallenton

Description of the wounds suffered by Anton Wallenton (On p.49 of Gen.594, in Coll-535 – Collection of sketches and reports of wounded at the Battle of Waterloo, CRC)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sketches show the kind of sabre wounds suffered by Etienne Gerarghier and Jean Louis le Jeun, and also wounds caused by firearms and cannon… e.g. the musket-ball wounds of Angus McKinnon, 79th Regiment, and the accidental wound of the German soldier Anton Wellonton. The sketches show the entry points at ‘A’ and the exit points at ‘B’.

Return for join cases treated at the St. Elisabeth General Hospital, Brussels, from 20 June to 5 August 1815. (Coll-535)

Return for joint cases treated at the St. Elisabeth General Hospital, Brussels, from 20 June to 5 August 1815. (From volume known as Gen.595, in Coll-535 – Collection of sketches and reports of wounded at the Battle of Waterloo, CRC))

In addition to the work of Thomson and Somerville, reports in the volumes have also been written by: J. Gordon, Surgeon to the Forces in charge of Gens d’Armerie Hospital; Henry Home Blackadder; J. Cole, Surgeon to the Forces; W. Blick, Surgeon to the Forces; Roderick MacLeod, Hospital Assistant; Charles Collier, Surgeon to the Forces; and J. Roche, Surgeon to the Forces; and others. The sketches and reports are of cases in several of the hospitals accommodating the wounded around Brussels – these being the Jesuits’, the Annonciate, Gens d’Armerie, and St. Elisabeth – and in Antwerp, at the Corderie and the Facon.

Return of operations (Coll-535 )

Return of operations performed at the St. Elisabeth General Hospital, Brussels, 1 August 1815. (From volume known as Gen.595, in Coll-535 – Collection of sketches and reports of wounded at the Battle of Waterloo, CRC)

Today in 2015, the battle site of Waterloo is a popular attraction for visitors to Brussels and to Belgium generally. The site is dominated by the artificial Butte du Lion created in the 1820s in the earliest days of Waterloo tourism and before the founding of modern Belgium. The Butte du Lion is an artificial earth-mound topped by a large giant sculpted lion commemorating the location where William II of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange, was knocked from his horse by a musket-ball to the shoulder during the battle. Decorative stripAdjacent to the Butte and to the new tourist facilities built for the 200th anniversary, stands a panorama building offering a large vista of the events of 18 June 1815. The Waterloo panorama building was designed by Franz Van Ophem in 1911 for the then forthcoming 100th anniversary of the Battle. It houses a 360° panoramic oil-on-canvas painting completed by the French artist Louis-Jules Dumoulin in 1912.

Decorative stripDr. Graeme D. Eddie, Assistant Librarian Archives & Manuscripts, Centre for Research Collections

Decorative stripThis blog post was compiled with the help of some information contained on pp.307-308 of The Edinburgh professoriate 1790-1826 and the University’s contribution to nineteenth century British society. Anand Chidamber Chitnis. Ph.D. 1968. Edinburgh… and also on pp.39-50 of ‘British Medical Arrangements during the Waterloo Campaign’, by Colonel H. A. L. Howell, in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. (Sect. Hist. Med.). 1924 (17).