DOBBIN and PROTHEROE-SMITH: gifts to the College, including correspondence from Eliab Harvey, Wertheim Williams, Probyn Williams, Edward Jenner, Joseph Lister and Florence Nightingale

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 1538 S6
Held at	: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcog.org.uk/en/guidelines-research-services/library-services/archives-and-heritage/archives/ ›
Full title	: DOBBIN and PROTHEROE-SMITH: gifts to the College, including correspondence from Eliab Harvey, Wertheim Williams, Probyn Williams, Edward Jenner, Joseph Lister and Florence Nightingale
Date(s)	: 1676-1901
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 5 folders
Name of creator(s)	: Dobbin | Roy Samuel | 1873-1939 | Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Smith | Edward | Protheroe- | fl 1933

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Roy Samuel Dobbin FRCOG (1873-1939) graduated in medicine at Trinity College Dublin. His main interest was pathology, but he also worked in obstetrics and in 1906 was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Cairo. After service during the First World War he returned to Cairo, where he spent the rest of his professional life.

Edward Protheroe-Smith was a descendant of Dr Protheroe-Smith, the founder of the Hospital for Women in Soho Square (1842).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Letter from Eliab Harvey, later Sir Eliab Harvey, nephew of William Harvey, to William Garnay, 28 Apr 1676; correspondence between Wertheim Williams and Probyn Williams regarding anaesthetics, Nov 1900-Jan 1901; letter from Edward Jenner to Mr Hulme concerning vaccination, 26 Oct 1812; correspondence between James Matthews Duncan and Joseph Lister concerning the use of chloroform, 6 Mar 1875-18 Aug 1877; lease of rooms to British Gynaecological Society by the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London., Feb 1890; gift of Edward Protheroe-Smith; letter of Florence Nightingale to Heywood Smith concerning lying-in institutions, 10 May 1876.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Open.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Out of copyright.

Finding aids:

A general index to the files listed in the catalogue of the Archives of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is maintained in the College Archives; refer to the College Archivist.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Roy Dobbin established a library of books and manuscripts relating to midwifery while in Cairo and although the bulk of his collection ultimately went to the Royal College of Physicians, he also made several gifts from his collection to the College.

Protheroe-Smith presented a letter from Florence Nightingale to Dr Heyward Smith to the College in 1933; he also donated a number of books to the Library (see Council minute book A2M/2 p 31).

Immediate source of acquisition:

Allied Materials

Related material:

RCOG Archives holds correspondence relating to Dobbin's presentations to the College, 1931-1946 (Ref: S3); list of books presented to the Library, with related papers, 1937-1944, (Ref: B6/3).

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

For further information on the lease of rooms to British Gynaecological Society by the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, Feb 1890, see Historical Review of British Obstetrics and Gynaecology 1800-1950, Ch XXX1, "Obstetrical Societies and Clubs", editors J Munro Kerr, R W Johnstone and Miles Phillips, E and S Livingstone, Edinburgh 1954, pp 305-322.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Sources: Biographical details of the individuals who have presented material to the College and/or comprise the subject of the records, have been compiled using information in administrative files and, where relevant, consulting Sir John Peel's book The Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 1929-1969, Whitefriars Press Ltd, 1975. Compiled by Clare Cowling, Archivist, RCOG.

Rules or conventions:
National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997; ISAD(G), Second Edition, 2000.

Date(s) of descriptions:
September 2000