Bell, John (1763-1820)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0114 MS0220
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	: Bell, John (1763-1820)
Date(s)	: Late 18th century- early 19th century
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 painting, 1 reproduction, and pencil drawings
Name of creator(s)	: Bell | John | 1763-1820 | surgeon and anatomist

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

John Bell was born in Edinburgh, in 1763. Aged 17 he was apprenticed to Alexander Wood, the leading surgeon at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and attended the lectures of Joseph Black, William Cullen and Alexander Monro secundus. He was admitted freeman surgeon apothecary by the Royal College and Corporation of Surgeon Apothecaries of Edinburgh, in 1786. He began his own practice and also his own programme of lectures. He opened his own lecture theatre in Surgeon's Square, Edinburgh, in 1790. He published a series of textbooks on surgical anatomy and emphasised the practical experience of surgical techniques in training. He had a talent for drawing and produced his own illustrations for his The Anatomy of the Bones, Muscles and Joints (1793-1794) and Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds (1793-1795). He died in Rome in 1825.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of John Bell, late 18th century- early 19th century, comprising a watercolour painting by Bell, of the Dutch Vice Admiral Rutzius, who was mortally wounded in the Battle of Camperdown in Oct 1797; a reproduction of the watercolour which was made for Gordon Gordon-Taylor in 1951, for an article in the British Journal of Surgery; and annnotated pencil drawings of the bones of the skull.

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:

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Watercolour painting donated by Sir William Ferguson, in 1866. The provenance of the pencil drawings is not known.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.
Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Matthew and Harrison eds.) Volume 4: Barney-Bellasis, Oxford 2004.

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:
Sep 2008