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Wellcome Library

Cook, Sir Albert Ruskin (1870-1951) and Cook, Lady Katharine (1863-1938)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0120 PP/COO

Held at: Wellcome Library

Title: Cook, Sir Albert Ruskin (1870-1951) and Cook, Lady Katharine (1863-1938)

Date(s): 1812-c 1960

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 14 boxes, 2 oversize boxes, 1 oversize folder, 25 reels of microfilm

Name of creator(s): Cook | Sir | Albert Ruskin | 1870-1951 | Knight | physician
Cook | Lady | Katherine | 1863-1938 | nurse

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Sir Albert Ruskin Cook was born, 1870; Graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge. B.A, 1893; Graduated from St Bartholomew's Hospital. MB, 1895; Went to Uganda with Church Missionary Society mission, 1896; Established Mengo Hospital, 1897; MD, 1901; A.R. Cook and J.H. Cook were first to diagnose sleeping sickness in East Africa, 1901; President of Uganda Branch, British Medical Association, 1914-1918; Founded school for African medical assistants, 1917; Lady Coryndon Maternity Training School founded, 1921; retired, 1934; President of Uganda Branch, BMA, 1936-1937; Represented Uganda at coronation, 1937; Died in Kampala, Uganda, 1951.

Lady Cook, CMG OBE MD (1863-1938), was matron of Mengo Hospital 1897-1911, was involved in the foundation of the Lady Coryndon Maternity Training School and founded the Nurses Training College in 1931.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Sir Albert Ruskin Cook and Lady Katharine Cook including correspondence, 1812-1951, giving many details of the Cooks' life and work in Uganda. There is also a large collection of diaries, 1855-1951, a number of photographs of Uganda and holidays abroad, c 1896-1930s, family and personal papers, 1882-1951, a small amount of printed material, [1896-1947], and microfilms of records held at the Albert R Cook Library of Medicine at the Makerere University Medical School, Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda, covering 1897-1960s and including patient case notes and registers 1897-1920.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

As far as possible the collection has been kept in a similar order to that in which it was found, although much of the correspondence had been re-arranged by W D Foster whilst researching his book Sir Albert Cook A Missionary Doctor in Uganda (Newhaven Press 1978).

The correspondence falls into several groups: letters from A R Cook; letters sent to him by his family and friends; the journal letters of Albert and his wife; and family letters not concerning him. All of these are arranged chronologically within their divisions. The index at the end of the list refers to sections A and D of the correspondence only (hard-copy version available only - index is not on database).

An outline list follows:
A: LETTERS FROM ALBERT RUSKIN COOK 1881-1951
B: JOURNAL LETTERS FROM A.R. COOK (SOME IN A) 1896-1921
C: JOURNAL LETTERS FROM KATHARINE COOK 1897-1910
D: CORRESPONDENCE RECEIVED BY A R COOK
1-525 family 1881-1942
525-648 friends 1889-1950
649-658 business 1916-1943
E: FAMILY LETTERS NOT CONCERNING A R COOK 1812-1910
F: MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE 1897-1943
G: DIARIES OF A R COOK 1884-1951
H: DIARIES OF HARRIET BICKERSTETH COOK 1864-1888
I: DIARIES OF CHARLOTTE BICKERSTETH 1855-1863
J: FAMILY AND PERSONAL PAPERS 1882-1951
K: PHOTOGRAPHS [1896-1930s]
L: MISCELLANEOUS PRINTED MATERIAL RELATING TO UGANDA c.1896-c.1947
M: MICROFILMS OF HOLDINGS AT MAKERERE MEDICAL SCHOOL LIBRARY 1897-1959

Conditions governing access:

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Finding aids:

The catalogue is available on microfiche via the National Inventory of Documentary Sources (NIDS).

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

This collection of Sir A R Cook's papers was given to the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (now the Wellcome Library, Archives and Manuscripts department) by Sir Albert's grandson Richard Bax in 1984. In 1994, the Wellcome Trust funded a project to microfilm the Mengo Hospital records at Makerere Medical School Library and 25 reels of microfilm were produced before the project was suspended due to political difficulties. Copies of the films have been added to this collection and are listed as Section M.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Related material:

In the Wellcome Library: There is correspondence between Cook and Henry Wellcome in the Wellcome Archives, including a file on Wellcome's support for Mengo Hospital, with a history and progress report, 1931-1936 (WA/HMM/CO/Alp/153).

At other repositories: Material of A R Cook is also held by the Henry Martyn Centre, Cambridge, amongst the papers of a) Bertha and Ralph Leech who worked in Church Missionary Society Hospitals in Mego, Uganda, and in Kenya between 1938 and 1964, and b) Dr Roy Billington, medical missionary in Uganda 1937-1972.

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Copied from the Wellcome Library catalogue by Sarah Drewery.Knight Physician

Rules or conventions: In compliance with ISAD (G): General International Standard Archival Description - 2nd Edition (1999); UNESCO Thesaurus, December 2001; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Jan 2009


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Community health nursing | Health services
Hospitals | Health services
Medical charities | Charities | Charitable organisations | Associations | Organizations
Medical missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Midwifery | Nursing | Medical sciences
Tropical diseases | Diseases | Pathology
Medical institutions
Nonprofit organizations

Personal names
Cook | Sir | Albert Ruskin | 1870-1951 | Knight | physician

Corporate names

Places
Uganda | East Africa