Opportunities like this don’t come along often: review the collections of a medical history museum tucked away in the upper levels of an 18^th century church while working on a content update to enhance the accessibility of its online catalogue. This was my role as Collection Cataloguer at The Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret: the oldest surviving Victorian operating theatre in Europe.

My initial training on eHive, cultural heritage cataloguing and publishing software, allowed me to review, update and add content from The Old Op’s rich collection of medical objects, images, books and archives from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. I also received official practical training in collection cataloguing which introduced me to SPECTRUM accreditation and prepared me for the procedures involved in collection management. In addition, I was tasked with writing a procedure manual detailing my methods to ensure consistency throughout the cataloguing process: an exciting part of my role as it established my work in the long-term management of the Museum’s collections.

Our 2021 BSHS Engagement Fellow, Vanessa Sanders, MA student of Medical Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London describes their time at the Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret.

The BSHS Engagement Fellowships are opportunities for postgraduate students to collaborate with museums, archives and other heritage organisations. The collaborations generate new engagement activities, exhibition content or resources that are based on emerging scholarship in History of Science.

Alongside gaining experience in collection management was interaction with the collections and research into their histories to create engaging content. Historical medical objects are linked to personal experiences not only of suffering, inadequate treatment and death but also of innovation, perseverance and survival. Associated historical accounts reveal often harrowing experiences demonstrating complex patient-practitioner relationships which only enhance engagement with objects on display.

A famous example is Frances Burney’s account of her own mastectomy in 1811. Burney’s description of the excruciating agony from the ‘dreadful steel’ is made more poignant by the emotional affect her suffering had on the surgeons undertaking the operation. Burney was moved to pity during her ordeal, ‘I was sensible to the feeling concern with which they all saw what I endured.’¹ Similarly, the pioneering St Thomas’ surgeon William Cheselden (1688–1752) admitted in his book, The Anatomy of the Human Body, that ‘no one ever endured more anxiety and sickness before an operation.’²

Thankfully, Burney went on to live for another 29 years and Cheselden’s lateral lithotomy transformed ‘cutting for the stone’ and remained in practice until the late 19th century. In researching and producing well-rounded content from the treasure trove of sources at The Old Op I found the most challenging, but ultimately the most rewarding, aspects of my role. It also proved invaluable for my own research into occupational health and medical care in the era before anaesthesia.

As 2022 marks the 200^th anniversary of the operating theatre and the 60^th anniversary of the Museum’s opening, it has been an exciting time to be involved in one of the many interesting projects at The Old Op. I would like to thank the Museum staff for their knowledge and support throughout the project. I am also very grateful to the British Society for the History of Science for this rare opportunity to explore the Museum’s collections and develop my knowledge within the discipline of the History of Medicine.

¹ Frances Burney, ‘Journal Letter to Esther Burney, 22 March–June 1812’, in Peter Sabor and Lars E. Trodie, eds., Frances Burney: Journals and Letters (London: Penguin, 2001)

² William Cheselden, The Anatomy of the Human Body (London: Printed for C. Hitch & R. Dodsley, 1756)

All images: © Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret

Image 1: Surgical set in red velvet lined box c. 1840s

Image 2: The Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret Collections Management Procedure Manual