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medicine

A common emblem for medicine depicts one or two snakes coiling up a staff. This symbol, often referred to as a ‘caduceus’, has been frequently used as a pharmacy or healthcare company crest. However, the term ‘caduceus’ has a distinct meaning and historically has been confused with the real first medical symbol: the ‘Rod of Asclepius’.

This image from the Daily Herald Archive features Britain’s first Black matron Daphne Steele at St. Winifred’s Maternity Home with a patient and her new baby.

On this day in 1948 – just 13 days before the National Health Service was established – the Empire Windrush ship arrived at Tilbury Docks in Essex with 429 Caribbean migrants aboard. In this blog post Trainee Assistant Digital Curator Rachael Simoes explores the integral role Caribbean nurses have played in the NHS over the past 75 years.

Trainee Assistant Digital Curator, Gabrielle Bryan-Quamina, delves into our collection to tell the story of the Radium Girls, the first casualties of industrial radium poisoning.

Spring has sprung, summer is heating up; insects and creepy crawlies are starting to buzz, wriggle, and flutter once again. Often these animals are treated as pests, yet bugs and insects play a very important role in our ecosystem. But more than that, many of these insects also have a long and important historical role in medical treatment and healthcare – a tradition that is continued in modern medicine. Here we explore some examples of these helpful bugs – all of which continue to be used by the NHS today!

infant feeding bottle

Assistant Curator Miriam Dafydd looks back at some of the objects used to support parents in feeding babies over the centuries.