Welcome to the E-Team!

Sally Boyle is one of two students joining George Marshall Medical Museum from the University of Birmingham to help research a project we’re working on with Heritage Freelancer Nadia Stone.

With an initial stall due to coronavirus, we’re aiming to apply for funding to record memories of birth through the decades by the end of this year and create podcasts and teaching resources. Sally will be helping us to find community groups within Worcestershire who might like to be involved.

Watch this space for more details!

“I’m Sally and am currently an undergraduate History student at the University of Birmingham.

I jumped at the chance to be part of this placement as I felt it combined several areas I am interested in. Having studied biology previously, researching obstetrics and birthing stories perfectly combined this interest with my enthusiasm for history.

Additionally, by reaching out to medical organisations and community groups, I’ll be delving deeper into the social care sector and the creation of community connections, which are areas I’d ideally go into post-graduation. Through this project, I hope to amplify the voices of people in and around Worcestershire by researching and sharing their stories, and allowing others to access, relate to or learn from these experiences”

— Sally Boyle

Medicine in the Age of Revolution

We were invited by the University of Kent to help them create one in a series of wonderful short films about the factors driving change in medical practice during the Age of Revolution.

Watch the film about the Kymograph, with George Marshall Medical Museum’s Curator, Louise Price below, and head to their webpage to see more films, which are particularly useful for students studying the History of Medicine as part of a GCSE or A level course.

Thanks for including us!

An Anti-racist organisation

Racism has devastating consequences. We recognise, that as an organisation promoting the study and commemoration of the histories and material cultures of medicine and healthcare in the Midlands, we accept that we have not more, but everything to do. We apologise for being silent for so long. We want a society built on inclusion and equality of access and opportunity. We want to overturn institutional racism. We want a collection and workforce to reflect diversity and affect change.

Last year we trained with ‘Inclusive Boards’ to understand how we might be able to embed the Creative Case for Diversity in our small organisation and we are progressing. We are making new connections to diversify our small workforce of volunteers, including our steering group who report to the Board of Trustees at the Charles Hastings Education Centre.

Right now we are beginning to gather oral histories and witness testimony from staff within hospital and healthcare settings in Worcestershire focussing on the coronavirus pandemic and hope to highlight the reliance of the county and nation on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff (our doctors, nurses, cleaners and porters amongst them), who have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19.

There is still everything to do, because Black Lives Matter.

VE Day 75

We hope you can all do something to mark #VEDayAtHome. At GMMM, we'll be observing the two-minute silence at 11am, and hopefully there'll be a cake (or two!). Not forgetting all of those who served on the Home Front, here's a photograph from our collection of the Worcester Home Guard.

Worcester’s Home Guard

Set up in 1942 as Britain's 'last line of defence', many members of the Infirmary staff joined what was originally the LDV (Local Defence Volunteers), and a copy of this photograph is on display in our War Surgery case alongside the medals they were awarded.

Winston Churchill announced the end of the War in Europe with a speech broadcast from Downing St on 8 May 1945. He said "we may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing, but let us not forget for a moment the toils and efforts that lie ahead".

We’ll meet again.