At the end of 2022, our Corporate Records Management team had come across two small wooden boxes which contained images on glass plates.
These glass plates have now been digitised by the archivists at the University of Stirling.
While some are clearly for more clinical purposes, a great many of them were taken to showcase what life was like for the children at RSNH in the 1930s and feature quite strongly in the institution’s annual reports of that period.
Without these images – showcasing sporting endeavours, recreational activities and the work undertaken by able patients to occupy them, teach them new skills and, where possible, encourage them to enjoy fresh air – the daily lives of these children would be reduced to short paragraphs within annual reports.
These images capture therefore capture moments within the lives of patients whose records, would otherwise, be almost entirely clinical.
The annual reports also provide some additional fascinating details to accompany these images. For example, highlighting that produce from the hospital farm was sold to raise money for the institution as well as feed its residents and one of the colony buildings was furnished entirely by creations from the onsite hospital workshop.
Further information on RSNH can be found here.
Please contact fv.corporaterecords@nhs.scot if you have any records, paper or digital resources that you feel should be transferred to the NHS Archive at the University of Stirling for permanent preservation.
