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A Brief History of the Collection
| The collection was founded in 1985 when Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University) and the Royal College of Physicians entered into a collaborative agreement to record on videotape interviews with Fellows of the College and distinguished medical scientists. Dr Max Blythe, a principal lecturer and then reader in the School of Biological and Molecular Sciences at the University, has been instrumental in founding and developing the collection. Early interviews were conducted by Max Blythe and Sir Gordon Wolstenholme, who was at that time Harveian Librarian at the College and responsible for the historical resources of the College. |
Dr Max Blythe |
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Sir Gordon Wolstenholme |
In 1989 Sir Gordon Wolstenholme retired from the College but he continued to support the project as a visiting interviewer. Lord Walton of Detchant and Sir Christopher Booth, who succeeded Sir Gordon Wolstenholme as Harveian Librarian, became visiting interviewers in 1991, and since then a number of others have joined the interview team. Max Blythe has remained the principal interviewer. Most of the interviews have been filmed and edited in the University's television studio, under the technical direction of David Dillon, the production officer in the Audio Visual Unit. |
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In 1992 the first international links were established with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Australian Academy of Science. Max Blythe has conducted three programmes of interviews in Australia and the University has collaborated with the Academy in the Video Histories of Australian Scientists project. In 1995 the Wellcome Trust awarded a grant to fund the development of the collection over the next two and a half years. This helped finance technical advances in filming and editing of tapes, and during this period the number of interviews recorded annually increased from approximately 10 to 30. As well as maintaining links with Australia, the project has had associations in the UK with the Nuffield Trust, the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Royal College of Anaesthetists. From 1995-98 interviews were conducted with 11 prominent British anaesthetists, providing a fascinating account of the development of anaesthesia as a speciality in the UK. A further series of interviews is planned. The project has been assisted by a distinguished advisory board with members who have included: Sir James Gowans, Dame Bridget Ogilvie, Sir Rex Richards and the late Lord Phillips of Ellesmere. The School of Biological and Molecular Sciences and the School of Humanities at Oxford Brookes University are currently involved in a joint project to publicise the Archive, and to transcribe and index interviews to improve access to the collection. The work is being carried out by Dr Carol Beadle and Susannah Wright, and is funded by a grant from the Wellcome Trust held by Professor Anne Digby of the School of Humanities. |
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