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Royal College of Physicians Museum

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The Royal College of Physicians museum, library and garden. History, medicine, art, exhibitions and modernist architecture.

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🕯️ Happy Birthday Nicholas Culpeper born #OTD 1616 🕯️

📖 In 1649 the College of Physicians published an official list of the approved medicinal drugs, with their effects and directions for use, that doctors could prescribe. The Pharmacopoeia Londinensis was written in Latin like most academic texts at this time which restricted who could access the knowledge

💫 To the frustration of the College, doctor and botanist Nicholas Culpeper (1616–1654), was determined to make protected medical knowledge accessible to the non-professional population. Culpeper (1616–1654) produced an English translation revealing the physicians’ list of approved ingredients and included additional instructions on how to administer them (slide 2)

🌱 The RCP Garden of Medicinal plants has an area dedicated to the display of plants which were included within the first edition of the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis and Culpeper’s translation was a crucial reference for deciding on which plants to include

📆 Recent illustrations of this dedicated garden area by artist in residence Karl Simmons (slides 3,4,5,6) will be included in a 2027 Calendar due to be published in November

📸 1&2 John Chase Portrait of Culpeper

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📚 What can the Heberden Library collection tell us about the history of rheumatology?

In his latest blog, Honorary Heberden Librarian Paul A Sanders selects five fascinating titles from the online catalogue, including an 1873 atlas featuring hand-coloured illustrations of joint damage from chronic rheumatoid arthritis.

Discover the stories behind his top five and explore the BSR Heberden Library for yourself. Search the online catalogue of more than 1,500 items, or book a research appointment to access the collection in person.

Read the blog and explore the collection via the link in our bio!

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June / July ❤️‍🔥

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We’ve done some digging, well we used our free app Exhibits (ofc) and found you some exhibitions to catch this month!

🎨Yinka Ilori: Joy Through Resistance
📍 Cristea Roberts Gallery, until 11 July (Free)

🎨Emery Walker: Both a Figure and a Person
📍 Emery Walker’s House , until 15 July (Free)

🎨 A Body of Knowledge
📍 Royal College of Physicians, until 23 July (Free)

🎨 Criminal: An Untold History of Homelessness
📍 Museum of Homelessness, until 25 July (Free)

🎨 Wes Anderson: The Archives
📍 Design Museum, until 26 July (From £20)

🎨 Holy Pop!
📍 Somerset House, until 9 August (Pay what you can)
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#exhibition #thingstodoinlondon #culturalevents #londonculture #londonevents

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What’s On in July

Check out these events taking place this month - more information and booking details can be found on organisations’ websites and social platforms.

RCP Museum Taster Tour - July
Weds 8 July, 13:30-14:00
RCP Museum
Explore the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) 500-year history with an expert guide.

Electrophotography workshop with Magda Kuca
Thurs 9 July, 19:00-20:00
Museum of Anaesthesia
Capture your own Kirlian electro-photographs with artist Magda Kuca. Experiment with different objects & exposures, before scanning your prints to create physical and digital copies to keep.
Tickets £25

Victorian High Life and Low Life - Walking Tour
Weds 15th July, 11:00-13:00
Florence Nightingale Museum (starts outside Farlow’s, 9 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5NP)
This walk will highlight the contrast between the rich few and the many poor of Victorian Londoners. It will shed a light on the conditions faced and the problems encountered – disease, poverty, prostitution and criminality.
Tickets from £16

Teas from the Garden: Seasonal Workshop
Weds 22nd July, 18:00-20:00
RCP Museum
Join the RCP Garden team for a delightful evening of tea tasting and blending featuring ingredients grown in the RCP garden of medicinal plants. Led by our expert gardeners create a blend to take home or give as a gift!
Tickets £25

'What we have seen here today will go round the world': Anaesthesia in Nineteenth-Century Art
Tues 28 July, 18:30-20:00
Museum of Anaesthesia
From doctors’ drawings to grand oil paintings, art historian Dr Hannah Halliwell explores how anaesthesia and pain were portrayed in nineteenth-century art.
Tickets £12

South Asian women doctors and healing herbs: A creative textile workshop
Weds 29th July, 18:00-20:00
RCP Museum
Join us for a unique evening workshop with historian and artist Theeba Krishnamoorthy, celebrating pioneering South Asian women doctors and healing plants.
Pay what you feel

Museum Late: The Nightingale Training School
Thurs 30th July
Museum open until 20:00, talk at 18:30
Florence Nightingale Museum
This months late will include a special talk on the history of the Nightingale Training School.
Talk included in general admission.

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This Monday 29 June we will be opening the gardens 12-4 pm in support of the National Garden Scheme charity.

There will be informative medicinal plant tours guided by physician Garden Fellows, refreshments served in the grade one Denys Lasdun building, medicinal plant publications for sale, and our gardening team on hand to answer any questions!

Tickets are £6 on the door, and money raised supports the work of the National Garden Scheme, which has been funding nursing and health charities since 1927.

You can also visit the @rcpmuseum exhibition A Body of Knowledge: 500 years of book collecting at the RCP which is coming to an end on 23 July.

We hope to see you there!

🌼 🌸 🏵 🌹 🌼 🌸 🌻 🌹 🏵

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Step into a world of history, storytelling and botanical creativity 🌿🌸🌺

As part of South Asian Heritage Month, join me for a unique evening workshop, celebrating pioneering South Asian women doctors and healing plants.

What to expect:

Storytelling: Discover the lives of trailblazing South Asian women doctors who navigated patriarchal societies and intersecting medical traditions.

Botanical dyeing and printing: Get hands-on with natural dyes and printing techniques to create your own layered calico textile masterpiece to take home.

Sensory exploration: connect with history through the sights, scents and textures of plants and textiles.

📅 : 29 July, 6- 8pm
📍 : Royal College of Physicians Museum, London
🎟 : Pay as you feel, booking essential (link in bio)
⭐️ : Suitable for beginners - everyone is welcome!
☕️ : Light refreshments will be provided.

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So proud of you, Sandeepetta. Working towards this goal for the past 20 years is no small thing, and achieving it is truly a remarkable accomplishment.

Your dedication, hard work, and perseverance have brought you to this proud moment, and we are all incredibly proud of you.
Now we are eagerly waiting to see you receive the Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCP Edin) this November. It is a prestigious recognition and a wonderful milestone in your career. Congratulations on this great achievement you truly deserve it!

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A young girl from Vembadi Girls' High School became the first Sri Lankan Tamil woman doctor over a century ago. Now the piece I wrote about her, is returning to inspire the girls walking those same corridors today.

Last year, I had the privilege of writing a piece for the The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) blog for South Asian Heritage Month about Dr Nallamma Satyavagiswara Aiyar (née Williams), the first Sri Lankan Tamil woman doctor.

It’s incredibly special to now see my article republished in the alumni magazine (Beacon 2026) of Vembadi Girls’ High School - the very school where Dr Nallamma's journey first began in Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

Dr Nallamma’s life was defined not only by being a pioneer in medicine, but also by her strength, compassion, and commitment to advocating for those most marginalised in society. Her legacy sits within a broader history of change, including the expansion of rights and representation in Sri Lanka.

A short excerpt from the alumni magazine feature is below 👇

There’s something powerful about a story returning home. Grateful that this one has travelled from Edinburgh to Jaffna, and now back into the hands of the next generation.

You can read the full article on the RCSEd blog: https://rcsedlibraryandarchive.wordpress.com/2025/07/18/dr-nallamma-williams-from-medical-studies-to-womens-suffrage/

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Happy Volunteers’ Week!

This week is Volunteers’ Week and many of our members have wonderful volunteers that help with their work. Volunteers are ever enthusiastic and often experts in the museums that they volunteer in, bringing the history and stories to life.

We have loved seeing all of our members volunteers’ stories across the week!

You can also out blog posts from the Royal College of Physicians and Florence Nightingale Museum about some of the work their volunteers do (see their individual websites for the posts).

Finally, a huge thank you to our committee, who all volunteer their time to the London Museums of Health and Medicine!

#medicalmuseums #volunteersweek

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