recording our history

History

This year, the Women’s is proudly celebrating its 150th anniversary. Creating an online history and digitally recording many of our artefacts is one of the ways in which we are marking that milestone.

This online history of the Royal Women’s Hospital makes available many of the records from our first 150 years. Our History, Archives and Alumni Committee has supported and championed this project, which has been made possible by a generous donation from the John T Reid Charitable Trusts. We have included access to the hospital’s records through an online guide, biographies of people who have contributed to its work and a timeline recording our history and accomplishments during the past century and a half. Only a small proportion of the material to be published is available now. More material will be added during the next 12 months. Early 20th century, a midwife with a group of medical students under an old fig tree in the hospital grounds.

The hospital is extraordinarily fortunate to have patient records from its first admissions in 1856 through to the present, as well as many administrative records and artefacts. The online guide shows some and lists many others.

Online guides to the collection

The Women's existing archival descriptions of record series are being formatted for presentation on the internet utilising software developed by the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre at the University of Melbourne (Heritage Documentation Management System). The General Guide to the Archives will eventually publish descriptions of most of the records and artefacts held by the hospital and in many cases will include scanned images or photographs of the items themselves. 1926, Post-natal ward.

The Guide to Patient Records provides more detailed and descriptive accounts of the most precious records in the collection. An article indicating the value of the 19th century patient records by Dr Janet McCalman, author of the prize winning book Sex and Suffering: Women’s Health and a Women’s Hospital appears in that section.

Patient records

The greatest strength in this collection is the mass of patient records retained from the hospital's establishment to the present. A vivid image of women’s health through the 19th and 20th centuries can be drawn from the hospital's two initial Midwifery Books (1856-1858), through Honorary Physician Case Books (1878-1910), to Labour Ward Case Books and Registers (1888-1982) and many others. Images of Midwifery Book no 1, 1856-1876 are now available. Infirmary Department casebooks from 1909.

Most 19th and early 20th century patient records are not indexed and still exist only in their original bound volumes. It verges on the impossible to find a specific patient’s record unless specific admission dates are known.

Birth records are comparatively easy to find, as birth dates are usually known, but the Infirmary Department records are a very different matter.

Biographies and stories

Biographies of people associated with the hospital are presented in the Biographical Compendium. Some biographies were written to celebarate the Women's 100th anniversary and other are currently being compiled.