Celebrating Explore Your Archive week

Last week, the archive community celebrated “Explore Your Archive” week, an annual campaign run by the Archives and Records Association to encourage everyone to visit, use and be inspired by archives.

Each day, archivists were challenged to find content that fits into certain themes, which gave our Archivist Lorna Cahill Bannister a chance to delve into our historical collections, which record the development of the British veterinary profession, to find some delights. Here are some of our favourite finds.

Monday – #EYAMapsPlans

Starting off strong for Monday’s map plan theme, we found a fascinating sketch map of the prevalence of cattle disease in the ‘Madras Presidency’ in 1883/1884 from the fascinating ‘Quarterly Journal of Veterinary Science in India and Army Animal.

All six volumes of the journal, created by vets John Henry Steel and Frederick Smith, both working in India under British rule, are available to read in our Digital Collections. Read about it on our blog.

Wednesday #EYABeards

On Wednesdays we wear beards! Wednesday’s ‘Beard’ theme was right up our alley, as our collections feature many portraits containing fantastic beards, giving the RCVS Knowledge team a chance to rank our favourites. Charles Spooner (1806-1871) took the top spot – briefly vet to the Zoological Society, demonstrator of anatomy & later Principal at the Royal Veterinary College London, he was also one of the seven signatories of our Royal Charter. Congrats Spooner! Can you guess which is his beard from the selection below?

Friday #EYAParty

And for our final highlight, for Friday’s Party theme, we love this poster for a ‘Cheerio Concert Party’ that the Army Veterinary Corps issued ‘during the Great War’, found in Major-General Sir Frederick Smith’s papers. Sadly, we don’t know the date or location of this party, only that it was sent to a Sgt S Cashfield at the Woolwich Depot.

You can learn more about the Explore Your Archive project on their website and visit our Vet History website to learn more about the history of the veterinary profession. Be sure to follow our Archives Instagram account @rcvsknowledge_vethistory for more highlights from our collection!