Stirland Public Health Collection

Date range: 1842–1994

Medium: Archive

The Stirland Collection comprises research material gathered for a history of public health in Manchester which was never completed.

The collection was created originally by Hugh Bethune Maitland (1895–1972), an eminent microbiologist, and Professor of Bacteriology and Director of the University of Manchester Public Health Laboratory. Further material was added by Maitland's colleague, Robert Mandell Stirland (1930–2002), a lecturer in bacteriology and consultant bacteriologist at Manchester Royal Infirmary.

The archive includes substantial information about the Public Health Laboratory, which was founded in 1895 by Professor Sheridan Delépine. Delépine played in a leading role in the application of bacteriology to public health issues.

There are papers relating to the Venereal Diseases Regulations of 1916 and surveys of laboratories in the 1940s, as well as family papers of Professor Delépine. The Stirland Collection is an important source of information for the development of laboratory medicine in UK universities and hospitals in this period, and for organisation of public health services in major cities.

See also:

• Society of Medical Officers of Health, North Western Branch Archive
• Manchester Medical Collection

Further information:

Catalogue available online via ELGAR.

Location:

• The University of Manchester Main Library, Oxford Rd  [Map]
• Find out how to use the reading room in the Main Library