Item of the Month – Medicine and Philately
At the moment I am cataloguing a series of individual items donated to the College archive, covering a range of different record types and medical subject. This month's item of the month was donated to the College in 1947 by Dr Stephen Frederick Bourke an Irish medic and Fellow of the College – it represents a synthesis of two areas of interest to Dr Bourke, Medicine and Philately (the study of stamps). Bourke's album of stamps, meticulously arranged by country of origin, provides a fascinating glimpse into the use of medical subjects and personalities on stamps across the globe during the first half of the twentieth century.
Unsurprisingly the Red Cross features heavily, with examples from many European countries, especially in 1939 when the Red Cross celebrated its 75th anniversary.
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| Finland Red Cross Stamps, 1940 |
Stamps were also issued to support a number of public health campaigns including leprosy research (Egypt 1938), anti-cancer (Ecuador 1938, Danzig 1939, France 1941-6) and most frequently anti-tuberculosis (Belgium 1934-9, Cuba 1938-1942, Finland 1946, France 1934 and 1945, Spanish Morocco 1946).
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| Ecudor Anti-Cancer Stamp, 1938 |
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| Spanish Morocco, Anti-Tuberculosis Stamps, 1946 |
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| Belgium Stamp, 1939 |
Many familiar faces from the history of Medicine also appear on the stamps, including Florence Nightingale (Belgium 1939) and Louis Pasteur (France 1920s-1930s), as well as individuals with a medical background who are primarily remembered for other reasons. One such example is Sun-Yat-Sen (1867-1925) the first nominated President of the Republic of China, who was also the first graduate from the new medical school of Hong-Kong. Living in exile in London, Sun-Yat-Sen was kidnapped and held at the Chinese Legation until released on the intervention of his former Surgery Professor Sir James Cantile.
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| San-Yat-Sen Stamp, 1931 |
As well as Bourke's album the archive also holds a number of other philately related items, including a further collection of stamps donated by Bourke in the 1950s (which are waiting to be sorted), a small book on Medicine and Science in Postage Stamps and first day cover stamps from the first meeting of the WHO in 1948 and a stamp issued in Ireland in 1978 to mark the expected eradication of smallpox.
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| First Day Cover - The Eradication of Small Pox, 1978 |