Guide to the Medical Archive collections
On this page:
Manchester Medical Collection
Our core collection, unique in terms of its coverage, is the Manchester Medical Collection (MMC).
This was the creation of Ernest Bosdin Leech (1875-1950), a physician at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and a medical historian.
Leech intended that the Collection document all aspects of the medical history of the Manchester area including the lives and writings of local medical practitioners, local hospitals, medical education, local medical societies and charities, and major subjects such as nursing, public health and disease in Manchester.
Due to the size of the Collection, the catalogue has been divided into the following sections:
- MMC collection description
- Publications files A-G
- Publications files H-Q
- Publications files R-Z
- Biographical files A-G
- Biographical files H-Q
- Biographical files R-Z
- Other MMC sections (MMC/3-16)
Institutional archives
We also have the independent archives of several local medical associations, including the Manchester Medical Society (MMS), which has enjoyed a close relationship with the University since 1874 (the Society's superb collection of medical books was added to the Library in 1929).
Collectively, these archives are an invaluable source of information for the development of the medical profession in Manchester from the mid-Victorian period onwards.
We hold archives for the following bodies:
- Association of Certifying Factory Surgeons
- Manchester Medical Society
- Manchester Odontological Society
- Manchester Paediatric Club
- Manchester Pharmaceutical Association
- Manchester Surgical Society
- Manchester and District Society of Anaesthetists
- National Medical Union, Manchester branch
- North of England Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society
- North of England Ophthalmological Society
- Pathological Society of Manchester
- Society of Medical Officers of Health, North Western Branch
- Charles White Club
- Christie Hospital Collection
- Charles O'Neill Medical Club
Personal papers
Personal papers of Manchester-associated doctors are also a significant component of our collections. These date from the late eighteenth century to the present day.
- Manchester Medical Manuscripts Collection
- Bill Beswick Papers
- George Campion Papers
- Donald Elms Core Papers
- Dorothy Davison Illustrations Collection and Sketches Collection
- Daniel Dougal First World War Diaries
- Derek Guttery Papers
- Rodney Harris Papers
- Leslie Hilliard Papers
- Hudson Watt Collection
- Ian Isherwood Papers
- Sir Geoffrey Jefferson Papers
- Ronald Lane Papers
- Sir Thomas Legge Collection
- G A G Mitchell Papers
- Sir Harry Platt Papers
- Grafton Elliot Smith Collection
- Stirland Public Health Collection
- William Stirling Papers
- William Waugh Papers relating to John Charnley
- John Frederick Wilkinson Papers