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The filing cabinet has been collected by various honorary archivists at St George's. In addition to references, enquiries and photocopies of articles and items relevant to St George's, many of the folders also contained primary archival material removed from their original contexts. While in some cases it was possible to connect these items to the relevant filing structures elsewhere in the collections, it was not always possible. It was therefore decided to retain the order imposed in the filing cabinet, and use name and subject access points to connect the contents to other collections and items held in the archive.

The arrangement follows that in the physical filing cabinet, and has been divided into
Subject files, arranged according to subject headings; and
Name files, arranged according to the surname of the subject

The collection contains records created by St George's, University of London (formerly known as St George's Hospital Medical School). Medical school records include:

• Minutes and papers of the School Council, Academic Board and other committees, 1862-2000

• Student registers, record cards and certificates, 1752-1970s

• Manuscripts relating to the early administration of the medical school

• Institutional publications including school yearbooks, 1990-2014; directories, calendars and prospectus' relating to the school, 1852-c.1960

• Photographs relating to the medical school and St George's Hospital, including photos of staff, students, events and sports teams, 19th century-21st century

• Other miscellaneous materials

Collections of personal papers relating to former members of staff or students of St George's

The post mortem records contain manuscript case notes, with medical notes both pre and post mortem. These include details on patients’ admission to the hospital, treatments and medication administered to patients and the medical history of patients; the medical histories were copied into the volumes from hospital registers, which are no longer extant. The post mortem cases include detailed pathological findings made during the detailed examination of the body after death. From the 1880s onwards the case books contain original anatomical drawings and photographs.

For more information and updates about the project, see our project page

The following information is recorded for each case. The information is transcribed from the case notes and/or the relevant index and, where relevant, additionally standardised using MeSH (Medical Subject Headings)

• Name of the patient. If a name is not entered in the volume, it is noted in the catalogue as ‘[No name stated]’

• Gender of the patient (female / male / unknown)

• Age of the patient. Usually in numbers, following the original, with the following exceptions: 4/12 = 4 months, 4/52 = 4 weeks, 4/365 = 4 days. If no age is entered, it is noted in the catalogue as ‘[No age stated]’

• Occupation of the patient. Where no occupation is entered, it is noted in the catalogue as ‘[No occupation stated]’. Children are often designated according to their father’s or mother’s occupation and women by their husband’s occupation (e.g. ‘F / Horsekeeper’, ‘M. Charwoman’, ‘Hd Grocer’); these have been rendered in the catalogue as ‘[Child of] Horsekeeper’, ‘[Wife of] Grocer’

• Date of admission and date of death

• The names of the doctors treating or examining the patient. ‘Admitted under the care of’ denotes the senior doctor in charge of the case (usually entered at the top of the page and in the index); ‘Post mortem performed by’ denotes the doctor responsible for the post mortem examination (usually signed at the bottom of the page) and ‘Medical examination performed by’ denotes the doctor responsible for the medical examination prior to death (usually signed at the bottom of the page). The earliest records usually contain only one name, and some of the later ones may contain multiple names in each category. An authority record (name access point) with basic biographical details has been created for each doctor mentioned in the records; these can be used to explore all the cases related to a particular individual

• Disease(s) or cause of death of the patient. Transcribed from the medical case and/or the index and standardised, e.g. ‘Disease (transcribed): Phthisis. Fractured base. Disease (standardised): Tuberculosis (lungs). Fracture (skull)’

• Medical and post mortem notes. Brief summary description or transcription of the case notes relating to previous medical history (not a full transcription of the case notes)

• Note on whether the case includes illustrations or photographs; these can also be browsed via genre access points

• Note on whether the death was caused by trauma, accident or suicide

• Subject access points, using standardised terms from MeSH, with disease type (e.g. respiratory tract diseases, cardiovascular diseases) and anatomy type (e.g. cardiovascular system, musculoskeletal system), which can be used for browsing all relevant cases

Note on transcriptions and abbreviations

Names have been silently expanded, e.g. Jas = James, Wm = William

Some common abbreviations and acronyms

AMCH = Atkinson Morley Convalescent Hospital, Wimbledon
BID = Brought in dead
COA = Condition on admission
F = Father
H or Hd = Husband
HP = House physician
HS = House surgeon
IP = In-patient
L = Left
M = Mother
MR or Med reg or Med r = Medical register or Medical registrar
MS = Museum specimen
OP = Out-patient
OPD = Out-patient department
OR = Obstetric register
PMH = Previous medical history
PH = Previous history
Pt or Pat = Patient
PM = Post mortem
R = Right
RF = Rheumatic fever
Ry = Railway
SR or Surg reg = Surgical register or Surgical registrar
TB = Tuberculosis
VD = Venereal disease

Collection of rare books accumulated by the medical school library when it was originally located at Hyde Park Corner and in Tooting, as well as books donated, owned or written by St George’s staff and alumni. The descriptions note ownership inscriptions present in the volumes

This collection contains reference material held in the archives relating to St George's Medical School, St George's Hospital and associated institutions and individuals.

Collection charting the development of nursing education at St George's and related institutions from the 19th century to the present day.

The collection includes:

• Student registers, training and examination records, prospectuses and syllabuses
• Administrative records, including committee minutes, reports, rules and regulations
• Publications and printed material including books, newsletters and journals
• Papers, photographs and artefacts from St George’s Nurses’ League
• Personal papers, memoirs and memorabilia from individual nurses, including papers of matron Dame Muriel Powell (c.1910s-­1970s)
• Photographs, including student photographs, group photographs and personal photo albums
• Artefacts and objects, including items of nurses' uniform, badges, medals, and medical instruments
• ‘Nurses’ Voices’ oral history project: interviews with over 100 former St George’s nurses and midwives (and related documentation), recorded 2003-2008

From in-­job training at the hospital, nursing education was gradually formalised during the latter half of the 19th century. From 1882 onwards, probationer nurses were offered lectures by the medical school and hospital staff; these lectures developed into a more formal syllabus, becoming compulsory for probationers in the 1890s, and the first formal examinations were introduced in 1894. The archive charts the development of nursing education from the late 19th century to the 21st century, including important changes in the demographics of the nursing staff, such as the arrival of the Windrush generation.

The collection encompasses training of nurses at St George’s and related institutions: for instance, nursing training at Victoria Hospital for Children and Grove Hospital were merged with St George’s School of Nursing in the 1950s, leading to the establishment of a branch of the School of Nursing at Tooting, where St George’s Hospital and Medical School (later university) moved in the 1970s from Hyde Park Corner, central London.