IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0114 MS0269
Held at: Royal College of Surgeons of England
Title: Carlisle, Sir Anthony (1768-1840)
Date(s): 1810-1837
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 46 items, 1 volume, and assorted letters.
Name of creator(s): Carlisle | Sir | Anthony | 1768-1840 | Knight | surgeon
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Sir Anthony Carlisle was born in Stillington, Durham, in 1768. He was sent to his maternal uncle, Anthony Hubback, in York, for medical training. Following his uncle's death Carlisle transferred to a Durham surgeon, William Green, in 1784. Carlisle went to London in the late 1780s, and attended lectures by John Hunter, Matthew Baillie and others. He became the house pupil of Henry Watson, and on Watson's death succeeded him to the post of surgeon to the Westminster Hospital, in 1793. He began offering lectures on surgery in 1794, hoping to establish a formal medical school there. He advocated the systematic collection and publishing of hospital statistics. He was active in securing the collections of John Hunter for the Royal College of Surgeons, during the 1790s. He was one of the original members of the College in 1800. He sat on Council and the Court of Examiners. He served as Vice-President and twice as President (1829 and 1839). He delivered the Hunterian Oration in 1820. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1804. With William Nicholson, he electrolyzed water into its constituent gases and communicated this to the Royal Society in 1800. He secured the post of Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy in 1808, and also studied art there. He was appointed surgeon to the Duke of Gloucester and then surgeon-extraordinary to the Prince Regent (later King George IV). He was investigated but exonerated for three cases of neglect in 1838. He opposed male midwives on the grounds of modesty and incompetence. He died in 1840.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers of Sir Anthony Carlisle, 1810-1837, comprising a letter from Carlisle to Mr Bartley (a surgeon) of Mitcham, Surrey, 6 Apr 1816; a note from Carlisle to William Clift, 6 May 1829, relating to a porpoise; a letter from Carlisle to Mr Balfour, 29 Jun 1824; assorted letters from Carlisle to William Clift and others, relating to museum specimens, 1820-1837; Academy lectures, 1822-1824; Museum lectures delivered at the Royal Collge of Surgeons of England, 4 May 1818 and onwards; series of lectures; a volume of student Henry Herring's notes taken at the surgical lectures of Carlisle, at Westminster Hospital, 1810-1811.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
As outlined in Scope and Content.
Conditions governing access:
By written appointment only.
Conditions governing reproduction:
No photocopying permitted.
Finding aids:
Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1928) by Victor G Plarr.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
The assorted letters from Sir Anthony Carlisle to William Clift and others, relating to museum specimens, were transferred from the Hunterian Museum in 1949. The Museum lectures and the series of lectures were presented to the College by Dr Jackson.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Compiled by Anya Turner.
Date(s) of descriptions: Sep 2008