Activities

The Dough School in the 1950s and 60s:

Hundreds of ‘Dough School’ alumni were invited to the launch of an exhibition at Glasgow Caledonian University on Wednesday 10 April which marked the end of a unique oral history project led by Dr Vicky Long. GCU founding institution, The Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science, or ‘Dough School,’ was a well-known Glasgow college and its courses included domestic science, institutional management and dietetics. It became Queen’s College in 1975 and eventually merged with Glasgow Polytechnic to form Glasgow Caledonian University in 1993.  

The exhibition was displayed in the university's Saltire Centre and involved visual and audio material including excerpts from interviews with a number of former students from the 1950s and 60s. These interviews will eventually be placed with the University’s Institutional Archive.

Podcast on 'The Political Economy of the British National Health Service, 1945-1975: Opportunities and Constraints?’, Medical History, 52, 4, 2008, by John Stewart with Emily Rootham:

This article was selected as one of the 'Highlights of a Decade' by Medcial History and the podcast is an interview about the article in which John is interviewed by one of the Centre's PhD students, Emily Rootham.

 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300000181

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2012:

On Saturday 10 November, the Centre, in collaboration with The Museum of Scottish Industrial Life at Summerlee in Coatbridge, held a one day event on the subject of, 'Understanding Occupational Health in Scotland since 1800'.  Led by Dr Janet Greenlees,  assisted by Rhona Blincow, the event comprised an exhibition and film showings which aimed to demonstrate how and why health and safety legislation had developed in Scotland's major industries such as coal mining, iron &steel production and shipbuilding over the last 2 centuries.

Child Guidance in Britain: c.1918-1955

http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/ 

The Health of a City:  Glasgow 1860s-1960s

On Sunday 17 June, at the People's Palace in Glasgow, the Centre held a family day of activities as part of the Glasgow Science Festival on the theme of The Health of a City:  Glasgow 1860s-1960s.  In collaboration with Glasgow Museums, The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow Archive and Glasgow Caledonian University Research Collections, the organisers produced an Exhibition  in the beautiful Winter Gardens adjoining the museum; held screenings of old black and white health promotion films which were introduced by one of our PhD students, David Black; and provided fun activities for children including a chance to wash clothes in an old 'Steamie'.  The Glasgow Science Festival was gven excellent media coverage and the Centre's event was highlighted by STV News  and by the Herald newspaper.

The History of Health and Healthcare Teaching Resource:

Curriculum for Excellence Resource is a joint venture between historians working in the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare at Strathclyde University in Glasgow and local school teachers and archivists. Our aim is to impact upon the teaching of History, Geography and Modern Studies at the transition stages of Primary 7/Seconday 1 levels.  The website can be accessed by the following link:- http://ewds.strath.ac.uk/Default.aspx?alias=ewds.strath.ac.uk/historymedicine

History and Policy Seminar Series, London:

 Professor John Stewart presented at a History and Policy Seminar Series in London in October 2011.  H&P co-organises seminars and publishes briefings on issues of concern to policy makers. His paper was on, 'Child Guidance in Britain: 1918-1955'.

‘Global Citizens, Local Roots:  John Boyd Orr, Alexander Fleming and Kilmarnock Academy’:

This event took place on Saturday 24 September 2011 at Kilmarnock Academy which both Boyd Orr and Fleming attended at the end of the nineteenth century.  The one-day conference was organised by the Centre in collaboration with the Ayrshire Federation of Historical Societies as a celebration of the lives and achievements of these two Nobel Prize winners and was a tremendous success, attracting an audience of over 150 people, including the local Provost, Stephanie Young.   It generated great interest among the local community, especially from former pupils of the Academy who turned out to support their old school.  The speakers excelled themselves as did the Chair, Professor Hugh Pennington, who directed the conference with courtesy and humour, occasionally providing anecdotes from his own career in Bacteriology as the meeting progressed.  John Stewart, Elaine McFarland, Bobby Pyper and Karly Kehoe all gave fascinating talks, as did Neil Dickson (AFHS) and Kevin Brown, of the Alexander Fleming Museum in London.  A buffet lunch was prepared in the school dining hall after which, the audience could view an accompanying exhibition which was set up in the Memorial Hall.

From left to right: Prof. Bobby Pyper, Bryan Paterson (Headmaster), Prof. John Stewart, Prof. Elaine McFarland; Kevin Brown; Provost Stephanie Young; Prof. Hugh Pennington; Dr Karly Kehoe and Dr Neil Dickson.

Dr Lachlan Grant of Ballachulish: 

Two weeks earlier, on 10 September, a similar event was held at the Shinty Pavilion in Ballachulish.  Dr Annie Tindley welcomed speakers from all over Scotland to discuss historical issues affecting the Western Highlands during the first half of the twentieth century, a period when Dr Lachlan Grant was a GP in Ballachulish.  Annie reported that, “Turnout among the community (around Ballachulish) was excellent – indeed, we were fully subscribed for places – and initial feedback suggests that the event was much appreciated and stimulated interest for future work.”

Dr Annie Tindley presenting her paper on, ‘The havoc played by an irrational land system:  Dr Lachlan Grant and the land question in the western Highlands, c. 1886-1911’, in the Ballachulish Shinty Pavilion, as Prof. Ewan Cameron of the University of Edinburgh takes notes.

Professor Jim Mills discusses how opium helped fund the Empire in the BBC Radio programme 'Making History'.

The Guardian, Thursday 5 MAY 2011   Which Country is Best for Your Health?

The National Library of Scotland (NLS):

Dr Samiksha Sehrawat collaborated with the NLS on the digitization of its’ India Papers collection, which includes publications of the British Indian state from c.1850 to 1920.  Funded by the Wellcome Trust through a Research Resources in History of Medicine grant,  Dr Sehrawat  provided specialist consultation for the website design of the web feature, the ‘Medical History of British India:  Disease Prevention and Public Health’. In addition to this, she wrote the copy and academic content for the website, thus providing an overview of existing research by historians of medicine in South Asia on key themes covered by the collection. The website makes rare official publications available online free of charge for use by both academic and lay audiences and is expected to be a key history of medicine resource for researchers in the UK, South Asia and America.

The second phase of this National Library of Scotland project will be continued by Chris Gill, one of our PhD students, whose doctoral studentship has been funded by the AHRC. The title of his thesis is, ‘The Civil Veterinary Departments of British India 1876-1974:  Science, Medicine, Power and Nature in a Colonial Context.’ 

History of British Healthcare: 

Professor Stewart provided an article to the Intute website on ‘An Introduction to Research into the History of British Healthcare’.

Scottish Oral History Centre: 

Professor Arthur McIvor is the Director of the SOHC based at the University of Strathclyde. With grant funding support, he has developed oral history training, seminars, consultation and CPD for museum and archives staff and local community oral history projects.  He was successful in winning an AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship (2008-10) working in partnership with Glasgow Museums.