Langstaff, George (c1780-1846)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0114 MS0056
Held at	: Royal College of Surgeons of England   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/archives/ ›
Full title	: Langstaff, George (c1780-1846)
Date(s)	: 1799-1842
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 11 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Langstaff | George | c1780-1846 | surgeon and anatomist

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

George Langstaff was born in Richmond, Yorkshire, in c 1780. He studied medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He travelled to the East and West Indies and became a naturalist and zoologist, collecting specimens which would become his museum. He became Surgeon to the workhouse of St Giles's Cripplegate where he had abundant opportunities of studying both pathology and practical anatomy. He became a Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, in 1814. He published the catalogue of his museum, Catalogue of the Preparations illustrative of normal, abnormal, and morbid structure, human and comparative, constituting the Anatomical Museum of George Langstaff in 1842. Part of the collection was bought by the Hunterian Museum, and the remainder bought by the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He died in 1846.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of George Langstaff, 1799-1842, comprising 2 volumes of commonplace books, 1818-c 1838; correspondence concerning preparations purchased by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1842; Diurnal remarks of a voyage from Calcutta to old England, by G Langstaff, Surgeon, Ship Phoenix (1799) including a transcript by S Wood, 1799-1801; catalogue of the anatomical preparations forming the George Langstaff Museum, 1820; manuscript of miscellaneous preparations, 1799-1842; catalogue of the Langstaff Museum titled Heart, early 19th century; manuscript list of preparations titled Abridged History of the Museum, early 19th century; lecture notes, 1785-1816; and an explanation of John Abernethy's paintings of Lithotomy, 1804.

Access & 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

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The provenance of the collection is not known.

Allied Materials

Related material:

A sale catalogue of George Langstaff's Museum is kept in the Library. This catalogue includes manuscript notes of prices and purchasers. 'A catalogue of the very extensive and valuable museum of morbid, human and comparative anatomy, formed by G. Langstaff, Esq. : which will be sold by auction, by Messrs. J.C. and S. Stevens, at their great room, 38, King Street, Covent Garden, on Thursday, 22d of September, 1842, and six following days (Sunday excepted), commencing at one o'clock precisely', RCS Library, CS8/SAL.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.
Source: The Lives of the Fellows of The Royal College of Surgeons of England, Volume 1: A-MCD, page 679.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Aug 2008