Sources for women and medicine

Image credits: The Women's Library, London Metropolitan University - see image references below

Key class numbers and search terms
Key references, latest academic works and acquisitions
Periodicals
Press cuttings and ephemera
Zines and artist books
Electronic resources
Archives (personal and organisations' papers and oral histories)
Museum (objects, textiles, visual materials)
Identifying images
Further information

The Women's Library, founded in 1926 as the Library of the London Society for Women's Service, exists to document and explore women's lives in Britain in the past, now and in the future. Printed material, ephemera, archives, oral histories and museum objects together form The Women's Library collections. The collections cover a range of topics including women's rights, suffrage, sexuality, health, education, employment, reproductive rights, the family and the home and are the most extensive resource for women's history in the UK.

The Library holds a range of material on women and medicine. The printed collections include books describing women's fight to enter the professions, as well as biographies of pioneer women doctors and medical missionaries. In addition to contemporary books, pamphlets and periodicals on the subject the collections also include the Library of the Josephine Butler Society, which contains many nineteenth and early twentieth century texts on medical issues. The Library's collection of early household manuals also gives an insight into homeopathic remedies and the role of women as healers in the domestic sphere.

Key class numbers and search terms

The printed collections of The Women's Library are arranged in the Dewey Decimal Classification and listed the online catalogue, available in the Reading Room and via the website Key class numbers and search terms for women and medicine include:

Key reference sources

The Library holds the following guides and bibliographies useful for identifying further information and material on the subject:

Alexander, W. First ladies of medicine: the origins, education and destination of early women medical graduates of Glasgow University. Glasgow: Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Glasgow, 1987. Reading Room 610.6952082

Dyhouse, C. 'Driving ambitions: women in pursuit of a medical education, 1890-1939'. Women's history review 1998, no 7 p321-341. Reading Room

Hardy, A. and Conrad, L. (eds). Women and modern medicine. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi BV, 2001. Reading Room 610.69082

Martindale, L. The woman doctor and her future. London: Mills & Boon Ltd, 1922. (Appendix contains a list of the early women-run hospitals and their staff) Vault 610.69520941MAR

Riska, E. and Wegar, K. Gender, work and medicine: women and the medical division of labour. London: Sage, 1993. Reading Room 305.4361

Thomson, William. Blacks medical dictionary. London, Adam & Charles Black, 1981. Reading Room Quick Ref 610.3 BLA

'Women and work (v) Professional' in Hannam, June, Hughes, Ann and Stafford, Pauline, British women's history: a bibliographical guide. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996 p321-341. Reading Room 016.30540941

The Women's Library's most recently published and newly available acquisitions

Periodicals

The Library holds a wide range of periodicals on women, including academic titles, popular magazines and campaigning newsletters. Some relevant periodical titles on medicine are Women in medicine newsletter and National Association of Women Pharmacists newsletter. Further periodical titles on the subject can be identified through the online catalogue.

For further guidance on identifying periodicals click here.

Press cuttings and ephemera

The presscuttings collections cover the whole of the 20th century and are particularly valuable for identifying contemporary comment where retrospective online newspaper coverage is unavailable. The Library holds microfilmed cuttings, up to 1979, on medicine at number 61, medical services at number 614.2 and women doctors and surgeons at number 614.25. Two press cuttings scrapbooks, 7LGA/3 and 10/22, cover women doctors' work during the First World War. A press cuttings scrapbook on the campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts is also held at 10/3. The biographical press cuttings supplement the printed biographies collection and are a useful source of information about women doctors.

The Library's ephemera collection contains information relating to women's organisations, including leaflets, flyers, minutes of meetings, agendas and all kinds of campaign literature. It includes ephemera for for organisations such as the Association of Radical Midwives and campaigns, such as the Save the EGA Campaign, etc.

Zines and artist books

The Library's collections currently include more than 350 zines and 27 artist books.

Electronic resources

Electronic resources (online journals and databases) are currently only available to London Metropolitan University staff and students, and can be accessed via the online catalogue with their institutional identification and password. London Metropolitan Academic Liaison Librarians have

Archives (personal and organisations' papers and oral histories)
A brief guide to the archives is available on The Women's Library's website. Further details of archive collections available for research can be found in the archive and museum catalogue or in the hard copy catalogues in the Reading Room on the shelves adjacent to the Information Desk. The following archives, including records of organisations, societies, campaigns, personal papers and letters relate to medicine:

2SWH Scottish Women's Hospitals
3AMS Association for Moral and Social Hygiene
3BGF British, Continental & General Federation for Abolition of Government Regulation of Prostitution
3HJW Wilson, Henry J 1833-1914, pro-activist for the Contagious Diseases Acts
3JBL Josephine Butler letters
3LCA Lancashire and Cheshire Association for the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice
3LNA Ladies' National Association for Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts
3NAR National Association for Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts
7EGA Papers of Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
7LGA Papers of Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson
7NLA Papers of Nina Last 
7VJH Papers of Vera (Jack) Holme
7OCW Papers of Dr Octavia Wilberforce
9/05 Autograph Letter Collection: Women in Medicine
9/10 Autograph Letters of Dr. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

Museum (objects, textiles, visual materials)

The museum collection comprises postcards, photographs, posters, banners and badges. and the cataloguing of this collection is currently in progress. Further details of museum objects available for research can be found in the archive and museum catalogue or in the hard copy catalogues available in the Reading Room on the shelves adjacent to the Information Desk.  Museum objects on this topic can be located in the catalogue using terms such as hospital, medic* and nurse

Specifically the Library holds photographs on the subject of medicine and photographs of the Josephine Butler Society. We also hold posters and badges for campaigns such as Save South London Hospital for Women, and the Save Wendy Savage Campaign. 

Identifying images 

Images can be found throughout The Women's Library's collections. Many digital images are available on Flickr, Vads, the archives catalogue (click on the number in the left hand side) and Mary Evans Picture Library.  Use Mary Evans Picture Library's fast service for a non-watermarked high resolution images suitable for publication. If you require an image which has not been digitised you are welcome to use our reprographic service. Normal copyright conditions will apply.

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Web Archive

This collection of web sites about Women's Issues is maintained by the British Library in collaboration with the Women's Library, London Metropolitan University.  The collection was established in 2005 and has regularly collected web sites since then. It includes sites of women's organisations and campaigns, research reports, government publications and statistics pertaining to women, personal sites of women, such as blogs, and women focused e-zines such as Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice, Thames Valley University

Further information
The staff of The Women's Library can help you find material relating to your subject area; please don't hesitate to ask. You can contact the Information Desk staff prior to your visit via email twlinfodesk@londonmet.ac.uk, telephone 020 7320 3515, or by asking at the Information Desk in the Reading Room on the day of your visit.

Image references

Central Employment Bureau for Women. Careers for educated women. London : Women's Employment Publishing Company, [19-?) Vault pamphlet 610.69 CEN ;  National Council for Maternity and Child Welfare. Annual report 1933 [London]: [National Council for Maternity and Child Welfare], [1933] Vault pamphlet 362.1982006041 NAT ;  Parlane Kinloch, J. Maternal mortality: report on material mortality in Aberdeen, 1918-1927, with special reference to puerperal sepsis Edinburgh : HMSO, 1928 Vault pamphlet 614.599279094123 MAT

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