Libraries

Historical Collection

Click image to enlarge

The College was founded in 1791 and since that time many thousands of books, journals, manuscripts, artefacts, and ephemera have been accumulated, representing the history of the veterinary college and the history of the veterinary profession in the English-speaking world.

The Historical Collections began being assembled in 1990 and now include a collection of over 500 artefacts; a photographic archive; a rare book collection; and a paper based archive. This includes records such as minute books, student registers, newspaper cuttings and correspondence, as well as the personal papers of individuals such as Frederick Smith and James Beart Simmonds.

With thanks to a HEFCE grant, the rare book collection has now been catalogued and the titles can be searched using the library’s Unicorn catalogue. Also nearing completion is a database of the museums artefact collection and a project to digitize and catalogue the photographic collection is underway.

The RVC Historical Collections are located in the Eclipse Building at our Hawkshead site. All enquiries should be directed to Museum Curator, Library Services, Eclipse Building, Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, North Mymms, Hatfield, AL9 7TA. Tel. 01707 666 457.

Visitors by appointment only.

Further reading:
Alder, Garry
Beyond Bokhara: the life of William Moorcroft Asian explorer and pioneer veterinary surgeon 1767-1825. London, Century Publishing, 1985.

Cotchin, Ernest
The Royal Veterinary College, London: a bicentenary history. Buckingham: Barracuda, 1990.

Ford, Connie M.
Aleen Cust, veterinary surgeon: Britain's first woman vet. Bristol, Biopress, 1990.

Pattison, Iain
A great British veterinarian forgotten: James Beart Simonds 1810-1904. London, J. A. Allen, 1990.

Pattison, Iain
The British Veterinary Profession 1791-1948. London, J.A. Allen, 1984.

Pattison, Iain
John Mcfadyean: founder of modern veterinary research. London, J.A. Allen, 1981.

Pugh, L.P.
From Farriery to veterinary medicine 1785-1795. London, W. Heffer, 1962.

Smith, Frederick
The early history of veterinary literature and its British development. 4 vols. Balliere Tindall, 1976.

Thompson, Ruth D'Arcy
The Remarkable Gamgees... Ramsay Head Press, 1974.

Ware, Jean
The Several lives of a Victorian vet. London, Bachman and Turner, 1979.

- and for an excellent general book about the history of veterinary medicine in English:

Dunlop, Robert H
Veterinary medicine: an illustrated history. St Louis, Mosby, 1996.