We haven't been round these parts much recently so dropping in to say hello and please enjoy these images of Baillière’s Synthetic Anatomy. Published in the 1920s & a descendent of the earlier paper anatomical flap books, each section uses glassine transparent overlays. Have a good weekend!

#EdinburghSurgeonsProject - August 1668 - Five dollars (Scots) given to the widow ('relict') of Hector Mclie, surgeon, to pay for his funeral expenses, a traditional function of craft incorporations. #corporatism #palaeography

As knowledge of asepsis increased, the design of instruments changed to allow easy sterilisation. metal boxes that could be cleaned properly also replaced the wooden, velvet lined boxes of the 19th century. Surgeons still sterilised and re-used needles between procedures.

One of my projects is a transcription of the late 17th c. minute book of the Edinburgh Incorporation of Surgeons for the @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social. Masters were supposed to pay a booking fee to the Inc. for servants and apprentices, but some failed to do so, bringing a hefty £3 fine.

We had a great time welcoming the students to the College Library and @surgeonshall.bsky.social today. A truly inspiring group of women.

📣JOB ALERT 📣 The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has a vacancy for a Project Records Assistant, which will give experience of both Archives & Records Management. Closing date 5 pm on 22 Aug. Come join the Heritage team! cezanneondemand.intervieweb.it/rcsed/jobs/p...

📣JOB ALERT 📣 The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has a vacancy for a Project Records Assistant, which will give experience of both Archives & Records Management. Closing date 5 pm on 22 Aug. Come join the Heritage team! cezanneondemand.intervieweb.it/rcsed/jobs/p...

For South Asian Heritage Month see our guest blog by Dr Theeba Krishnamoorty on the pioneering doctor and activist Dr Nallamma Williams, a prominent voice in Sri Lanka’s early suffrage movement rcsedlibraryandarchive.wordpress.com/2025/07/18/d... #SouthAsianHeritageMonth #RootsToRoutes

An operation in progress, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, late 19th century.

Our Collections Coordinator, Danielle Dray, explores the remarkable life of Professor Dorothy Ann Geddes, who made history as the first woman to hold a professorship in dentistry in the United Kingdom. surgeonshallmuseums.wordpress.com/2025/07/18/p...

Today marks the start of South Asian Heritage Month. To celebrate we have a wonderful new blog post by Dr Theeba Krishnamoorty, discussing the very 1st South Asian women to qualify to practice medicine heritageblog.rcpsg.ac.uk/2025/07/18/a... #SouthAsianHeritageMonth #RootsToRoutes #womeninmedicine

#OTD 1505 the Surgeons and Barbers of Edinburgh united and were formally incorporated as a craft guild by the Town Council. Happy birthday to us, we’re 520 years old!

Dr Clare McNaught has been elected as the new President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Dr McNaught will become the College's first ever female President in the College's 520-year history, and will succeed Professor Rowan Parks. Read more: https://bit.ly/44kf55F

The latest episode of Beyond the Knife has dropped! In this episode, Steven Kerr, the Librarian @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social, discusses the extraordinary story behind one of histories most enduring medical texts -Gray's Anatomy. You can find Beyond the Knife wherever you get your podcasts!

It's #InsectWeek and also the @artukdotorg.bsky.social #OnlineArtExchange theme is wildlife & the environment. Insects feed on paper so library & archive collections are stored under strict environmental controls. Here's some illustrations of wildlife, who may also have dined on their host!

This is our 1st edition of William Harvey’s groundbreaking ‘Exercitatio Anatomica De Motu Cordis…’, published in 1628, which is often cited as the most important book in the history of medicine. Harvey was the first to recognize the full circulation of the blood in the human body #NationalBloodWeek

This art & anatomy lecture notebook belonged to Edinburgh surgeon Patrick Heron Watson, c.1856. The only @rcsed.bsky.social Fellow to have been President twice, some argue he inspired his pupil Arthur Conan Doyle's character 'Dr Watson'. Digitised here: archiveandlibrary.rcsed.ac.uk/special-coll...?

Anaesthesia pioneer James Young Simpson was born #OTD 1811. We love this student's sketch of Simpson lecturing as Professor of Midwifery at Edinburgh University in the 1850s.

When you can't decide on a font so just use them all.

It's #WorldOtterDay! To celebrate here's a lovely woodcut illustration of a very hungry little otter found in Conrad Gesner's Historiae Animalium (c.1602)

Have you taken a look at the Your Scottish Archives site yet? This extensive resource allows you to search for archival material from collections across Scotland as well as providing guidance on finding and engaging with records. Start exploring here: yourscottisharchives.com

Who needs AI for inspiration when you can marvel at things human beings made, and that librarians, archivists, curators, and photographer preserved, catalogued, and digitized at institutions like @rcsedlibandarchive.bsky.social? 💙📚 🗃 #histsci #histmed #archives #libraries

My next book SLEUTH-HOUND will be about Joseph Bell, the Scottish doctor who inspired the creation of Sherlock Holmes, and the milieu of medicine, mystery, and crime that surrounded him. I'm in the process of finishing the manuscript. It will be released in 2026!

After weeks of exceptional weather in Scotland sadly the sun's packing its bags, so if you're heading out to catch some last minute rays today don't forget to pop on your modesty loincloth! #FoldOutFriday

There used to be a guide in Edinburgh who did a superb Sherlock Holmes based tour. He went from the High St, to the University, George Sq, the Old Infirmary where Dr Bell practiced, then ending the tour at the statue. He wore full cape and deerstalker.

Apparently it's Sherlock Holmes day so of course we have to share the real Sherlock, Edinburgh surgeon and RCSEd President, Joseph Bell! Here he is with some letters from his former pupil, Arthur Conan Doyle that confirm Bell as inspiration for Doyle's literary detective.

Hi @hallierubenhold.bsky.social, thought you might like to know @rcsed.bsky.social is starting a staff Book Club and we've had a delivery in the College Library for the club's summer reading! 📚

Today is #InternationalNursesDay Taken 28th October 1915 in Liverpool this photo shows the amazing women from the Girton & Newnham Unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. They set sail for Serbia 2 days later to set up their hospital unit in Salonika #WW1 #histnursing #nurses #IND2025

Nurses have always played an important humanitarian role in response to crisis and war. This lantern slide from our collection is particularly poignant and shows nurses walking through a #WW1 trench. #InternationalNursesDay #HistNursing

On International Day of the Midwife explore our digital exhibition 'In Safe Hands: The Battle for Midwifery', on the history of midwifery and obstetrics and Edinburgh's contribution to the development of the profession. archiveandlibrary.rcsed.ac.uk/special-coll...?

The Western General Hospital in Edinburgh opened as Craigleith Poorhouse and Hospital in 1868. During #WW1 it was requisitioned as a military hospital with 1000 beds and you can view a digitised collection of photographs here: archiveandlibrary.rcsed.ac.uk/special-coll...?

One of the plates from Jacques Fabien Gautier d’Agoty’s “Suite de l’Essai d’anatomie en tableaux imprimés” from 1745. This illustration is often known as The Flayed Angel. I’ve seen a number of original editions of Gautier d’Agoty’s books in various places and they’re always stunning.

A small but favourite #ArchiveCollection for #Archive30, the family archive of surgeon brothers John & Charles Bell. It includes a locket with entwined hair of Charles & his wife Marion, with dates of their marriage & Charles' death. Sent to a nephew as "a memorial of your uncle Charles and me".

For today's #Archive30 we're looking at our William Macewen #ArchiveCollection. Macewen is the father of neurosurgery, a pioneer of asepsis, bone, & lung surgery plus so much more! Amongst the collection are his casebooks, correspondence, clinical photos, lectures & instruments tinyurl.com/48aycmra

COFFIN COLLARS like this one were used to thwart bodysnatchers in the early 19th century. The collar was fixed around the neck of a corpse and bolted to the bottom of a coffin, making it nearly impossible to remove the body from its grave. Bodysnatchers sold corpses to medical schools.

It's #ArchiveBuildings today for #Archive30 and this is our Playfair building in Edinburgh's Old Town. With a bonus pic of the reading room loo because it's rather fancy!

This beautiful miniature cabinet of microscopic slide preparations belonged to Professor of Materia Medica, Ralph Stockman. With the obligatory pencil for scale! #Archive30 #ArchiveObject

The knife used by James Syme (1799-1870), for amputations.. It is a large instrument used to part the flesh around the bone prior to cutting the bone.

If you can't make it to Edinburgh, we're currently working on bringing the exhibition to you digitally!

Day 18 of #Archive30 is #ArchiveAdvice. Our physicians give out lots of advice, these two prescriptions from Sir William Wilde (1815–1876), ophthalmologist and father of poet Oscar Wilde, were issued for eye conditions and digestive issues.

The anatomy of a rabbit, from Samuel Collins' Systeme of Anatomy published in 1685. The work contains many illustrations of comparative neurology, an emerging science in the late 17th century #OnlineArtExchange #Easter

After trying out carbolised silk as a ligature, Lister then searched for a material that could absorbed within the body, settling on catgut. Lister spent many years refining ligature & suture material; by 1881 he was using carbolised catgut that had been hardened by chromic acid.

#OnThisDay 1868 in our Faculty Hall, Joseph Lister presented his findings on antiseptic surgery. The Glasgow Medico-Chirurgical Society minutes record that momentous occasion. #histmed #historyofmedicine #JosephLister #Lister #Glasgow

For #WorldArtDay please enjoy this beautiful illustration of the brain from an anatomy student’s lecture notebook, dated 1881.

It’s #ArchiveAnimals for today’s #Archive30. This adorable dog is ‘Cuckles’, with a member of the WW1 Scottish Horse Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance.

To celebrate #NationalSiblingsDay here are two stunning illustrations by brothers John (1763–1820) and Charles Bell (1774-1842). The Bell brothers were Scottish surgeons and anatomist but they were also talented artists and illustrated their own works. #SiblingsDay

Medical practitioners in 17th century Edinburgh were often at loggerheads. Here's 6 metres of grievances by the surgeons about the apothecaries for having the audacity to "practice the art of chirurgery". Suffice to say they were absolutely livid! #Archive30 #SomethingBig

It's #NationalUnicornDay! The mythical "horse of healing" is the symbol of our College @rcsed.bsky.social & favourite heraldic animal of James IV who granted our Royal Charter in 1506. In 1652 Nicolaes Tulp described a sea-unicorn now known to be a narwhal. Its tusk was mistaken for a unicorn horn

We have launched a project aimed to reveal & celebrate women in surgery. The project has launched with an exhibition exploring the history of women in surgery & a new artwork representing eleven remarkable surgeons. You can find out more over on our blog: bit.ly/4ck45ZK

We forgot to take a 'before' picture but this beautiful and intricate board from the "Family Album" of James Young Simpson had completely detached. Our conservators did a grand job of remounting the original board, as well as extensive paper repairs! #Archive30 #ArchiveConservation