Contemplations by our Curator



Contemplations by our Curator

It’s been another busy month for the archives team here at the RHN. There’s only 6 weeks to go until the big unveiling of our exhibitions, preparations are well under way.

Updating you on our progress is our resident curator, Sophie Mew, who has been bravely delving into the archives and boldly infiltrating staff inboxes in order to showcase our unique story.

“Hello, well, we’ve gone from being concerned about not having enough material to having so much that we are trying to fit it all in, which is hard work, but wonderful!

Everyone has been really supportive and kind with their time and sharing their stories with us. We hope the exhibition will reflect all the fantastic people here and work that is carried out at the RHN.” – Sophie Mew

Archives of the month

One of the recurring themes of the exhibitions will be ‘before’ and ‘after’, rather fittingly, this month’s theme for #ExploreYourArchive is #NowAndThen.

As a little taster, compare and contrast these wonderful photos of our building and assembly room taken now and around 1910:

IV drip
IV drip
Despite being taken over 100 years apart, there’s no mistaking those distinctive pillars or stained glass windows, is there?

IV drip
IV drip

Coming up

We’re delighted to be taking part in Wandsworth Heritage Festival again this year.

The theme for 2022 is ‘sporting Wandsworth’. We’ll be doing an online talk entitled “Sports and Recreation at the RHN” on 31 May at 11:00am. Be a sport and sign up here. This talk is free to attend

Next month

June will showcase the transcription of our early admission casebooks, which is all part of the National Lottery Heritage project to make our collections more accessible.

Our archive volunteers will be sharing what it’s like to be working on these fascinating and unique items, that are useful to both family historians and epidemiologists alike.

We look forward to seeing you then!