Hello again!

This is my final week on the One Health project, in which I’ve undertaken research and academic engagement – it’s been a fascinating and exciting project to contribute to, with a fantastic team. I thought I’d provide a quick recap of what’s been done and what the future might hold in terms of engagement with the collections, as well as what I’ve learned from this experience.

Image of Our Fellow Mortals Magazine, volume number 6, February 1913, SSPV

What’s been done in the research space?

• mapping of research topics across the collections – there is so much to continue to explore!
• writing research articles – bacterial infections and how animal welfare was implicated in related public health issues across all three collections (submitted to the British Journal for the History of Science), and women and the politics of care, exploring the OneKind and Royal Zoological Society of Scotland archives (about to be submitted to the Journal of Women in Culture and Society!)
• writing up of possible follow on grant for the Wellcome Trust
• lots of engagement with academics internally and externally (see previous blog post!)

The future?

As I’ve said before, these collections provide a wealth of material for researchers, across different disciplines, and I hope those reading this blog post consider engaging with them! If you would like to view items you can book a time in the reading room:

Visiting in Person | The University of Edinburgh

You can peruse the Dick Vet and OneKind archives here:

Collection: Records of the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College | University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections

Collection: Records of OneKind animal welfare charity | University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections

The RZSS archive will be catalogued over the next year, an exciting follow on project. The future will no doubt include the realisation of multiple projects based on the archival materials, potentially around changing conceptions of cruelty since the early 1900s, exploration of conceptions of wellbeing benefits of interactions with animals and nature in the early to mid-1900s in Scotland, profiling various prominent women who appear in the archival materials to ensure their place in historical research/record, and much more!

What have I learned?

Archival research is a vastly rewarding journey of discovery. At first I felt quite overwhelmed by the amount of items in each archive and wondered how I would be able to digest it all – in the end I couldn’t look at everything in detail, instead becoming selective, in order to complete the two short research projects. But there is much I would still love to see within the collections! I also realised that finding out more about the lives of individuals named in annual reports and magazines (for example) takes much longer than you might anticipate, since some of the women in particular were relatively obscure (although they shouldn’t be!) – hunting for hours turned up almost nothing!

Finally, I learned so much about the actual process of doing archival research, huge thanks to the project archivist and lead, Fiona Menzies, and Amanda Dodd in conservation. I also found out that Fiona makes great cakes, for instance this vegan one of Our Fellow Mortals magazine (genius!), devoured in the kitchen today as we wind down the project:

Cake of Our Fellow Mortals magazine!

To introduce you to the methods used to handle various items, please watch this video:

The University of Edinburgh – Guide to Handling Collections Material (youtube.com)

Do contact CRC for more information and access: Centre for Research Collections | The University of Edinburgh

While I am leaving the One Health project, I’m still very happy to engage with anyone to share insights regarding what’s in the collections, so don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Elizabeth

My role in the Wellcome Trust One Health archival project has involved identifying research topics that can be found in archival records, undertaking research AND academic engagement.  

We have developed some very fruitful connections internally with Health in Social Science through my work with Alette Willis as well as Dick Vet academics and members of the Environmental Humanities Network. 

Some animal studies groups externally have shown keen interest in the One Health archival collections as well, such as Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre (ShARC) at the University of Sheffield and the British Animal Studies Network (BASN) at Strathclyde University.  

There are a few other animal studies networks in the UK that relate to the One Health project: 

• University of Manchester, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM) 
• University of Kent, Animal Humanities Network 
• University of Exeter, Anthrozoology group 

 Thanks to those centres and networks we’ve engaged with so far! 

Looking for ways to look after yourself during your studies and exams? The Library’s new Wellbeing Collection provides resources on all aspects of wellbeing, including but not limited to anxiety, exercise, general wellbeing, happiness, relationships, sleeping well and University life.

The collection of books and e-books is available to borrow for all students and staff. In this blog post we highlight just a few of the e-books available in the collection.

You can explore all the books in the Wellbeing Collection in DiscoverEd or browse a list of books by subject area in the resource list.

To launch our new collection we have a display of Wellbeing Collection books in the Main Library (30 George Square) which is in place until the end of May 2024. In the two weeks since the display was put in place 66 items have already been borrowed!

Wellbeing Collection books on display in the Main Library

What does the Wellbeing Collection cover?

Here we highlight some example e-books from the collection on a few different themes that you might wish to explore:

University life

It’s normal to feel nervous before an exam or overwhelmed with your workload sometimes, but it’s important not to let anxiety or stress have a negative impact on your performance.

• You’ve Got This : A Student’s Guide to Well-being at University and Beyond
• Stay Happy While You Study: Make the most of your student experience

Building good habits

If you have a tendency to procrastinate instead of revising, or want to develop healthy habits in your life, the collection has books to help.

• Procrastination : How to Do It Well
• How to be a productivity ninja : worry less, achieve more, love what you do 

Sleep and rest

It’s important to look after yourself at stressful times, and that includes getting plenty of sleep and rest.

• Insomnia: A Guide to, and Consolation for, the Restless Early Hours 
• Nothing Much Happens: Calming stories to soothe your mind and help you sleep

Getting more exercise

Keeping active can boost your mood as well as your physical health.

• Mind & Body : Mental Exercises for Physical Wellbeing; Physical Exercises for Mental Wellbeing 
• A Philosophy of Walking 

Why not pair your reading with a spot of rock climbing or yoga – Sport & Exercise have a whole range of activity running in April and May, from bootcamps to Yoga, from Learn to lift workshops to weekend courses at Firbush, and free gym entry for students and staff next week.

Exploring nature

Exposure to nature has been shown to have a positive impact on physical health and cognitive function. Spring has sprung in Edinburgh, so now’s the perfect time to get out into nature.

• The Natural Health Service: How Nature Can Mend Your Mind
• Gardening for mind, body and soul : how to nurture your well-being with nature

You can read more about using the Library for wellbeing and leisure on our subject guide.

The Wellbeing Collection is managed by a team including Library staff, University Student Wellbeing Advisers and the EUSA Student Opportunities Representative (Wellbeing).

If you are an Edinburgh student and you need to talk to someone there’s lots of help and guidance available from the Student Health and Wellbeing Services, and staff can access support through the Staff Health and Wellbeing Hub.

This week, I’m presenting viable research topics that span at least two of the archival collections and could be developed into projects in the One Health space. Here’s a list of what I’ve found (during the course of about 2.5 months, so it’s not exhaustive!): 

I introduce some of these in more detail, to give you a better idea of what you can find in the archives, please watch this video clip!

Watch the full version on Media Hopper.

Next week, focus on academic engagement!

We are delighted to welcome three new people to the Conservation and Collections Management Team this month. Abigail Miskin, Ella Joyce and Isabela Tapia Hernandez will be joining us as our first ever Student Collections Care Assistants.

Ella, Abigail and Isabela will be working with us until the end of July on a range of different projects and activities. Let’s hear them introduce themselves in their own words:

Read More →

LONDON, UK – 4 DECEMBER 2018: A statue of the English suffragist and union leader Millicent Fawcett, an early feminist campaigner for women’s suffrage (Photo: Shutterstock).

Welcome to this series on research for the One Health archival project!  

This week, I will present a bit about my current research project with Dr. Alette Willis, Chancellor’s Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the School of Health in Social Science. We have been looking at the roles of women in care practices in the early twentieth century, through evidence we find across OneKind (SSPV), the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College archival materials. I’ll provide a quick glimpse into what we’ve found so far regarding women’s caring roles during the time period of 1910-1930 in the three organisations. 

OneKind (SSPV): women as moral compass and source of compassion

Some women involved in women’s suffrage in the UK in the early twentieth century also became anti-vivisectionists. We found that women were central to the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Vivisection (SSPV), and many also proved active in other social movements. Women in the UK experienced the threat of government-sanctioned and medically applied control over their bodies after the passing of the Contagious Disease Act 1866 (see this article on the Victorian Web for an overview). Women, then, could identify with the suffering of animals whose bodies were controlled completely during acts of vivisection.  

Image of Our Fellow Mortals Magazine, volume number 6, February 1913, SSPV

But, the brutality of vivisection was also railed against as corrupting good souls, and women in the SSPV expressed a neo-romanticism that rejected material and impassionate science, apparent in their magazine, Our Fellow Mortals, with volumes published from 1911 to 1925; my previous research of cultural attitudes towards animals in France showed a similar perception in the 19th century of the corrupting power of witnessing or participating in acts of brutality or cruelty towards animals. Examples can be found in the SSPV magazine of women characterised, and characterising themselves, as the moral compass of society, the source of compassion. For instance, the SSPV included a quote from poet George Barlow’s essay, ‘Science and Sympathy’, in volume number 6 of the magazine, February 1913, page 7: 

‘More and more, for good or evil, women are beginning to study physiology and to take active part in medical practice … We must remember that the feminine faculty of tenderness is the saving factor in the coarse and selfish world. If we teach women to be cruel, our folly will re-act upon ourselves in unforeseen and terrible ways … No amount of scientific knowledge, no fabulous increase of material comforts or luxuries, would ever compensate mankind for the loss of its one most priceless faculty, the gift of loving-tenderness’ (1618/1/4/2/1)

Thus, women who entered medicine or veterinary medicine, could lose their feminine compassion. This perception of women also laid the burden of caring about and for other animals at their feet; women should care deeply about the fate of animals used in vivisection, as well as animals killed for food and other goods. This positioning of women is apparent in flyers held by the SSPV from the Council of Justice to Animals, in this case an appeal to women regarding humane slaughtering, by the Secretary of the Council, Violet Woods, most likely dated in the early to mid 1920s: 

‘It is to the women of this country that we must appeal to bring about this reform. Will they fail to realise their responsibility? The fate of thirty million animals slaughtered every year in these isles is in their hands, and humanity cries aloud to them to do their duty. Another year may prove whether it may be proclaimed to foreign lands that every animal in Britain has a painless death, because the women realised their sufferings, realised their own responsibility, exercised their power, and have done their duty.’ (1618/2/3/2/2) 

Women within the SSPV cared about animals but were not necessarily ‘on the ground’ caring for, and they represented the upper classes. 

Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS): unpaid labour and generosity

Red Pandas at Edinburgh Zoo (Photo: Elizabeth Vander Meer, 2024) 

Women appear in the RZSS archival records in terms of caring for animals, and plants, in the form of unpaid labour, undertaking keeper work and gardening on zoo grounds. Unpaid labour defines women’s involvement in care practices at Edinburgh Zoo in the early twentieth century, with wives of keepers, architects and garden designers fulfilling these roles alongside their husbands; this was the case for zoo founder, Thomas Gillespie, whose wife, Mary Elizabeth, supported many aspects of zoo animal care and management. Women also cared about animals and the establishment through monetary, food and animal donations. Women who donated money or food could be characterised as inhabiting higher socio-economic strata in Edinburgh, evident in RZSS Annual Reports for the period. Several women appear in paid work as refreshment manageresses, as described in the RZSS Annual Reports. 

We can find what could be considered an anthroporphising of animals in the case of descriptions of mothers and mothering found in the RZSS Annual Reports. This example is useful to consider here, from the 1930 Annual Report, page 12: 

‘For the first time in the history of the Park a litter of three polar bear cubs was born, but “Sheila” did not prove a good mother, and devoured them as soon as they were born’  

Polar bears, usually males, eat cubs when resources are scarce in wild conditions, but females are protective of young (National Geographic has shared footage of a male polar bear killing and eating a cub, February 2016); in this case, the zoo context at the time could be considered carefully to understand what triggered cannibalistic behaviour in the female.

Royal (Dick) Veterinary College: the absence of women

Women are conspicuously absent from the veterinary archival materials, due to the late allowance of women into the College, by 1948. But Alette and I are approaching the archive in terms of this absence and the presence of men who are caring for animals. This research is work in progress, so I will share more if I can in a later blog post!