12 Feb 2021
Team of volunteers from UK and beyond, many of whom were furloughed, put time to good use to trace part of profession’s foundations.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
Part of a letter written by J Martin of Newbury in February 1840 that features in the collection (image 374 – visit the collection website for the full letter and transcription).
A collection of more than 250 letters from the profession’s earliest days have been transcribed in a lockdown project involving vet professionals from the UK and beyond.
The letters were written in 1840 to support a petition calling on the reformation of teaching and examination of students of the RVC, and the wave of support paved the way for the formation of the RCVS.
More than 50 volunteers helped to transcribe the 256 handwritten letters, bringing them from 19th century handwriting to full access for 21st century researchers and history enthusiasts online.
Current vet students, practising and retired vets and VNs, those on furlough and a former CVO from Jersey, Linda Lowseck, were among the team to take on the transcription challenge.
Alison Skipper, a vet and PhD student researching the history of health and disease in pedigree dog breeding, said: “There is a sense of fraternity and cooperation in these letters – a wide variety of veterinarians, scattered right across the country, coming together to support an important cause – which also reflects the best of our sense of community today.”
RCVS Knowledge’s Vet History project is preserving the history of the professions through the cataloguing and digitisation of RCVS’ official archives. The collections are being made available online and free to all.
Lorna Cahill Bannister, archivist at RCVS Knowledge, oversaw the transcription project. She said: “We are enormously grateful for the commitment and contribution of our band of volunteers on this project. It was brilliant to be able to collaborate on something positive during such a difficult time.”
RCVS Knowledge already has plans for a second transcription project, likely to be launched later this year, focusing on the papers relating to early veterinary education.
The letters are available to view online.
