About the catalogue

This is the catalogue for the archive, object and artwork collections held by Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums. The collections span nearly 900 years of records and artefacts, from medieval deeds to twentieth-century medical registers and from photographs to medical instruments. You can find more information about the people and institutions for which we hold records on our website . The catalogue also includes a reference collection of books and published works on subjects related to our collections. A Names database includes biographical information relating to many individuals associated with our hospitals.

What information do catalogue entries include?

As well as detailed descriptions of individual documents, the online catalogue also includes descriptions of entire collections. For more about the terms used to describe the archives, please see the Glossary . The catalogue provides a written description of every catalogued record or group of records; it does not include the full text of the documents so it is not possible, for example, to search for individual entries in a hospital admissions register online. This must be carried out by the researcher in person or by an Archives member of staff. Some catalogue entries, particularly for photographs, may include a thumbnail image, but in most cases it is not possible to view an image of the record itself online.

The catalogue includes entries for objects. Some of these are on display at St Bartholomew's Hospital Museum or on the hospital and medical school sites, or on loan for external exhibition, but most items are housed in our stores; to view these items, please contact us contact us to make an appointment. Most object descriptions include a thumbnail image of the object.

The catalogue is a work in progress. Not all the collections we hold are catalogued, and not everyone connected with the hospitals is listed on the names database. As we progress, the range and number of records described online will grow. If you can't find what you are looking for or would like further information please contact us

Outdated and potentially offensive language in our catalogues

Some of the information in our catalogues was created years (or even decades) ago and may contain language which is outdated and potentially offensive to describe, for example, ethnicity or particular medical conditions. We are currently working to revise and update our catalogues but this is an ongoing task which takes time. In addition, many of our catalogue records contain descriptive language originally used by the creators or former owners of the archives in our care (such as medical records). This language is retained in the catalogue records in order to preserve important contextual information, but may include outdated and offensive terms.
As we continue to update and add to our catalogues we are committed to:

clearly indicating (through use of quotation marks and/or explanatory notes) what language comes from an external source or is a legacy/older description

following up-to-date guidance about inclusive language and using controlled vocabularies such as Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and the UK Archival Thesaurus (UKAT) when creating index terms

If you have any questions about our work in this area, please feel free to contact us