Ninewells Cancer Campaign

Archive Services has recently received the archive of the Ninewells Cancer Campaign, the charity that raises money to support the world-leading research taking place at Ninewells Hospital and the University Medical School. Over the last 20 years more than £17 million has been raised to improve the treatment and care of cancer patients and we are extremely pleased to be given the opportunity, through caring for the archives, to preserve evidence of the work of this important organisation. 

Over the last two weeks the collection has been worked on by Nikki, a Skills for the Future Trainee, who has been with us as part of her traineeship. Under the guidance of the archivists she has been cataloguing and rehousing the material and has the following to say about her experiences. 

'I'm Nikki and I am one of ten people taking part in a one year traineeship at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in Edinburgh (RCAHMS).  Our traineeship focuses primarily on cataloguing and re-housing the different collections at RCAHMS. This entails working with RCAHMS’  fascinating collections in the main store but does mean we don’t get out much! As a result, the traineeship incorporates placements into the programme and I have just come to the end of my two week placement within the University of Dundee archives.

I have been cataloguing an accession from the Ninewells Cancer Campaign.  I have worked my way through 10 boxes of files to make detailed lists and uploaded the information onto the cataloguing software CALM.  The collection includes letters of correspondence, brochures, reports, badges and newspaper articles relating to the many fundraising events hosted by the NCC for cancer research projects.  I have also helped with a public enquiry and had a behind-the-scenes insight into the work of the archivists. 

At the end of our placement we will share our experiences by producing a report and presentation on the skills we gained.  I have really enjoyed my time here.  I have met some fantastic and inspirational people and this experience has been great for developing my skills for further use in the heritage sector.'

We've very much enjoyed having Nikki with us and wish her well during the rest of her traineeship. We look forward to Nikki and the other trainees taking some of our modules on archive management and outreach and education in September. 

For more information about the Ninewells Cancer Campaign collection contact archives@dundee.ac.uk. 

Responses online to CAIS conference - Democratising or privileging: the future of access to archives

Was 57% of Dundee's population in 1847 Irish?

Volunteers at Archive Services are working on a project to index the admission registers of Dundee Royal Infirmary.  Andrew Mackenzie, one of our volunteers, has been working on the register for 1847 and says:

‘The admissions register of Dundee Royal Infirmary from 1847 for the month of February reveals some valuable information about Dundee in this period. The most common illness was fever; out of 166 patients admitted between 1^st February 1847 and 28^th February 1847 there were 117 cases and of theses 15 patients died.

However, the register tells us more than just the illness of the patient, other information includes address, occupation, sex, age, nationality and county where born. The records therefore shed light on the demographic composition of Dundee in 1847. Out of the 166 patients admitted in February 68 were Scottish, 4 were English and 94 were Irish (57% Irish, 41% Scottish, 2% English).  As might be expected of Dundee in this period 53 patients were weavers and 38 were millworkers. Other common occupations included 17 housewives and 16 labourers.’

By creating indexes for the registers the information will become more accessibly, particularly to family historians. Clearly assumptions cannot be made about Dundee's population as a whole from these figures but the range of information included in the registers, stretching over many years, warrants more sustained academic analysis and we would welcome further research on these archives. 

 For more information about these and the other medical records held by Archive Services visit www.dundee.ac.uk/archives or contact archives@dundee.ac.uk

Was Disaster Built into the First Tay Bridge?

We were delighted to receive a donation from William (Bill) Dow recently. The gift was a volume of Bill's research into the collapse of the Tay Rail Bridge which happened in December 1879 with the loss of over seventy lives. Bill Dow believes that vital information in the form of correspondence was not revealed to the original enquiry and his volume details this.

This is one of several gifts to the archives by Bill Dow who was principle lecturer in physics and head of science at Dundee College of Education, now part of the University. Bill is well known in Dundee for his extensive knowledge of local history as well as his enthusiasm for physics, stemming from his work on radar in the Second World War.

 The University Archives have a number of items relating to the Tay Bridge disaster which can be consulted. For more information contact archives@dundee.ac.uk or visit our website and type Tay Bridge into our online catalogue.