Ideas For Your Dissertation! #3

Posted on 14 October, 2015 by nspeccoll

CHOR-CHORLEY 176-CHILDREN’S BOOKS-GINGERBREAD-PAGE 1

Idea #3 The Chroley (Sarah) Collection

Subjects: Children’s Literature

The Chorley Collection, presented by Sarah Chorley, comprises children’s literature chiefly from the Nineteenth Century and first decades of the Twentieth Century.

Date Range of Material
19^th Century and early 20^th Century

Size of Collection
10 linear metres

Collection Reference Code
Choreley

How To Order Items From This Collection
# First, use the library catalogue link below to see a list of the individual books we have within this collection.
# If you find some books you would like to consult, click on each item and you should find yourself in the Request section of the catalogue. Then simply hit the ‘Request to consult in Special Collections’ button, complete the order form, and the book will be brought out of the stores for you. You will receive an email from us as soon as the books are ready for you.

Library Catalogue Link
The Chorley (Sarah) Collection catalogue is available via the Library Catalogue

Handy Links

Guide to finding and using Archives and Rare Books

More Archives and Special Collections for English Literature, Language and Linguistics students

More Archives and Special Collections for Education, Communication and Language Science Students

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #2

Posted on 13 October, 2015 by nspeccoll

Idea #2 The Baker Brown (Thomas) Archive

Subjects: History / Military History

GB186/TBB/1/3/1

This is fascinating collection of material relating to Thomas Baker Brown, born 22nd December 1896, a soldier who fought in World War I and was taken prisoner of war in Germany in 1918. The collection predominantly comprises of the private letters from Thomas Baker Brown to his family at home in North Shields while he underwent his training in York, and then while he served as a soldier in France. His correspondence describes his training, exercises and daily routines as well as conditions in the trenches. Also included is the correspondence between Thomas Baker Brown’s father and various official bodies after Thomas Baker Brown was reported missing, as well as field cards sent home by Thomas Baker Brown from a prisoner of war camp in Dülmen.

The collection includes of a significant amount of war memorabilia collected both during and after World War I. Items include comics such as ‘The Bystander’ which was published during the war, Thomas Baker Brown’s ration books, maps of France, Germany and Austria showing the position of trenches and Thomas Baker Brown’s handwritten notes for a book on his experiences as a soldier.

Date Range of Material
1915 – 1970s

Size of Collection
6 files of 827 items

Collection Reference Code
GB186/TBB

How To Order Items From This Collection
# First, use the finding aid below to search through a list of the individual items we have within this collection.
# If you find an item you would like to consult in the Special Collections reading room, simply make a note of the reference number and title of the item(s) you are interested in (for example GB186/TBB/1/5/1 War Office Procedures For Missing Officers And Men).
# You can then place your order by linking to our request form

Finding Aid
The catalogue for the Baker Brown Archive is available via the Archives Hub.

Handy Links
A Guide to finding and using Archives and Rare Books
More Archives and Special Collections for History, Classics and Archaeology students

Ideas For Your Dissertation! #1

Posted on 12 October, 2015 by nspeccoll

Idea #1 The Donaldson (Sir Liam) Archive

GB 186 LD/3/8/1/40

Subjects: Public Health / Medicine / Politics / Communication/Marketing

This collection comprises material relating to the 15th Chief Medical Officer for England and Chancellor of Newcastle University Sir Liam Donaldson (1949 – ). It includes published and unpublished material covering Sir Liam’s early professional career and achievements in health care management in the Northern and Yorkshire regions and as Chief Medical Officer.

The majority of material relates to his time as Chief Medical Officer from 1998 – 2010, covering his major health and health care campaigns, including published reports and contextual material related to these reports.

Date Range of Material
1985 – 2010

Size of Collection
52 boxes (26 linear metres)

Collection Reference Code
GB186/LD

How To Order Items From This Collection
# First, use the finding aid below to search through a list of the individual items we have within this collection.
# If you find an item you would like to consult in the Special Collections reading room, simply make a note of the reference number and title of the item(s) you are interested in (for example GB186/LD/1/3/4 Proposal to Develop a Regional Quality of Care Commission within the Northern Region).
# You can then place your order by linking to our request form.

Finding Aid
The catalogue for the Donaldson (Liam) Archive is available via the Archives Hub.

Handy Links
A Guide to finding and using Archives and Rare Books
More Archives and Special Collections for Politics students
More Archives and Special Collections for Biology students

‘An Exhibit’

Posted on 17 August, 2015 by nspeccoll

We recently scanned a set of deteriorating transparencies and came across this. It shows one of the Fathers of Pop Art, Richard Hamilton, and his fellow King’s College Fine Art lecturer, Victor Pasmore, hanging their ground-breaking exhibition ‘An Exhibit’ in the Hatton Gallery in 1957. The exhibition consisted of hanging perspex sheets which formed a visual ‘maze’. Hamilton and Pasmore pioneered a new method of art training at Newcastle and mounted a series of ground- breaking exhibitions between 1953 and 1966.

Pybus during the First World War

Posted on 13 August, 2015 by nspeccoll

Operating Theatre, Fine Art Dept., 1st floor., 1st Northern General Hospital, Armstrong College, 1915 – 16 (Pybus in the centre with a mask on)

Pybus was informed of his mobilisation in 1909, he became a Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, Territorial Force. Initially he had very little to do in his role as Captain, he spent time in York Military Hospital and camped at the Royal Station Hotel, during this stay he described visiting the hospital to understand the organisation and also lots of form filling.

In 1913 Pybus was persuaded by a colleague to become a Registrar at the RVI which meant he had to be coached in military law, organisation and equipment, he passed this and became a field officer; meaning his authority changed to training the unit based at the RVI. For Pybus, this mainly meant leading marches. This all changed in 1914 and on the 4^th of August he received the mobilisation papers to take authority of Armstrong College and establish the First Northern General Hospital. Pybus surveyed the college deciding which rooms would be turned in to wards, bathrooms and sanitary accommodation. He renamed the main building block A and two newer buildings B and C. Block C first floor was designated ordinary rank and lower floor for officers.

The notebook details patients name, ward, regiment, number, date of surgery, type of surgery, surgeon (Pybus), anaesthetic used, anaesthetist, result and remarks. 1364 operations are listed.

This was organised within 48 hours and set up with Infirmary staff so if any wounded soldiers arrived they could be provided for immediately. It was sometime after the initial set-up that the first wounded were brought to Newcastle, these consisted of Belgian soldiers and officers.

Section of the Operating Theatre C notebook

The Hospital gradually expanded from 520 beds to 2166 in 1917. Huts were built in the grounds of Armstrong College and extra wards built on the North side of main infirmary corridor. Further places were offered as convalescent or auxiliary hospitals these were mainly Country houses on estates such as Howick Hall owned by Earl and Countess Grey. The most northern of these homes was Haggerston Castle just south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the most southern was Crathorne Hall in Yarm. These were all visited weekly by surgeons and physicians including Pybus, his work also meant that he was on boards which decided what to do with soldiers after injury.

Pybus eventually transferred from registrar to surgeon due to shortages, he was briefly posted in Alexandria, but on his returned continued as surgeon at Armstrong College where he performed at least 1346 operations.

Pybus’ Cancer Research

Posted on 29 July, 2015 by nspeccoll

A brief introduction to Pybus’ research interests

Pybus had a wide ranging interest in cancer and published many cases and research papers in the medical journals concerning all aspects of his research. What comes through in his papers is that his main research focus was on lung cancer and carcinogens found in the air pollution, particularly benzopyrene in soot from burning materials and diesel fumes. Pybus did discuss lung cancer and tobacco smoking but felt that air pollution should be considered a bigger threat. He primarily used statistical evidence and cases he had seen to understand lung cancer and its association with air pollution. He worked in his own research institute for 30 years and retired from active research in 1955; going on to campaign for cleaner air in the UK due to his findings.

1-3-49 [boxlist number]

Pybus’ interest in cancer first began as a schoolboy, but became fully realised when he saw his first tumour as a veterinary pupil in about 1899. He saw a human cancer for the first time in 1903 after deciding to switch from veterinary school to medical school. He made this decision due to his distaste of the treatment of animals; such as lack of anaesthetic while surgery was performed. Pybus worked primarily as a surgeon, but in 1925 was able to set up his own Cancer Research Institute.

During this time Pybus was supported by the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, this fund was set up in 1902 and was aimed at finding new approaches to cancer and its treatment. In the 1920’s a new funding party was set up, namely the British Empire Cancer Campaign who also went on to fund Pybus’ Newcastle based Research Institute.

During his active research period Pybus used similar techniques to other researchers, including a “Tar-Painting” method which was first used in 1915 by Katsusaburo Yamagiwa and Koichi Ichikawa at Tokyo University to induce cancer in animals – the tar acted as a carcinogen. Using this method in 1924 Pybus produced neoplasms in mice.

3-1-29 [boxlist number]

Not only did Pybus explore various carcinogens he also researched and published an article in the British Medical Journal on hereditary bone tumours in mice. This follows a strong research theme within oncology which, since the discovery of DNA, has led to the ability to actively pinpoint inherited defective genes which can lead to cancer, such as a mutated BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene which link to breast cancer.

3-1-22 [boxlist number]

The Pybus Papers

Posted on 7 July, 2015 by nspeccoll

Pybus c. 1913

Professor Frederick Charles Pybus (1883 – 1975) was a surgeon and alumni of our College of Medicine, graduating in 1905. He joined the 1st Northern General Hospital shortly after its formation and was serving as its Registrar in 1914. As a Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps, except for a brief posting at the 17th General Hospital in Egypt, he served as a surgeon at Armstrong College throughout the war. Up until 1919, he carried out at least 1,364 operations on wounded servicemen.

WW1 MRC

Professor Pybus went on to have a distinguished career as a surgeon in the Royal Victoria Infirmary from 1920 until his retirement in 1944, becoming Professor of Surgery in the College of Medicine in 1941. Amongst his claims to fame was inventing a drink to sustain patients before operations, which was later developed and sold by a local chemist to Beechams, becoming Lucozade.

Lucozade

His lifelong concerns included cancer research, developed during his 50 year surgical career from 1924 and pursued through his own cancer research laboratory. He was amongst the first to make the link to atmospheric pollution as a major contributing cause of cancer and his work directly informed the Clean Air Act 1956.

For some 40 years Professor Pybus also built up a collection of international importance on the history of medicine, including books, engravings, letters, portraits, busts and bleeding bowls. In 1965, he donated the collection to the Library, where it remains a valuable source of information for medical historians. Meanwhile, his papers, also held in Special Collections, offer a unique insight into a renaissance man of medicine.

Universities at War: Chronicling the Fallen of Newcastle and Durham Universities (1914 – 1918)

Posted on 8 June, 2015 by nspeccoll

Our new project to tell the lost stories of Newcastle and Durham University staff and students who fell during the First World War has been awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant. Newcastle University and Durham University Library’s Special Collections are seeking volunteers in the region and beyond to help research the lives of mainly alumni who were unable to fulfil their potential.

Wounded soldiers in front of the Quadrangle entrance to the Armstrong Building

Like heritage organisations across the country, we are marking the centenary with a programme of commemorations relating to our collections and the university’s role in the conflict. We are holding a series of exhibitions from 2014 – 2018, the first of which A Higher Purpose explored how the university became a military hospital; the 1^st Northern General.

Universities at War itself came from another project based around the 223 names on the Armstrong Memorial in the foyer of the Armstrong Building. Often overlooked as part of the furnishings, our Head of Archaeology Dr Jane Webster sought to remedy this in 2011 through original research by undergraduate Sophie Anderton as part of her dissertation Small Sorrows Speak: Great Ones Are Silent. This piece of work, based around the University Archives, shone a light on many of the personal stories and provided the basis for further research by Archaeology students and library staff.

The Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal recognised the importance of making this research available to the widest possible audience, awarding the project a grant to create the initial Armstrong Memorial Digital Memory Book. This also included teaching resources aimed at schools into how to research war memorials, devised by our Education Outreach Officer Gillian Johnston. The site was launched in 2014 and the project was nominated for a Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Award (THELMA) in the same year.

Digital Memory Book Launch Event, with Dr Jane Webster presenting the new interface

The Armstrong Digital Memory Book on a kiosk in front of the memorial, with Library Systems Developer Scott Bradley, Archivist Ian Johnson, and Archaeology student Ben Howson

It now takes a prominent place on a kiosk in front of the memorial itself, providing context and personal depth to the names. This resource has also seen many descendants of the fallen and members of the public get in touch with more information, and it was this that sparked us and colleagues at Durham, already undertaking their own research on everyone that served, to team up and create a much more expansive picture.

However, the information we have, including the 53 fallen from our Medical College not yet represented, is incomplete. Further research into these important stories will be promoted through public events and an exhibition in 2017 showcasing the work of any volunteers who come forward. Both Universities will also work with local schools to help young people understand the local impact of the conflict and develop the skills to research their own memorials.

We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund to engage the public in the important aim to make these fallen more than just names on a memorial. As many of these fallen were local and the commemorations have sparked everyone’s interest nationally, we know the experts are in our communities and we want them to get in touch to make this a success through credited contributions.

Ivor Crowther, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund North East, said:

“The impact of the First World War was far reaching, touching and shaping every corner of the UK and beyond. In this Centenary year we’re pleased to fund this project which will provide a truly personal link to the conflict and ensure the stories of Durham and Newcastle alumni are heard and remembered.”

Both universities invite anyone interested in learning more to an open event at Newcastle University’s Robinson Library at 6pm on 25^th June. The work done so far is available to view both at the Armstrong Memorial Digital Memory Book and dur.ac.uk/library/asc/roll/. Anyone interested in joining the team are also welcome to get in touch through contact details available on these sites.

Durham University Officers’ Training Corps, Stobs camp, 1914, Durham University Library Special Collections, Ref: MIA 1/307