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On display from the stores

This summer, a small exhibition, ‘Animal’, was displayed in the Binks Trust Exhibition Wall in front of the Centre for Research Collections reception. The exhibition celebrated the relationship between man and animals reflected in the varied archival collections across the University.

We were asked to contribute something to ‘Animal’ by our colleague Rachel, Edinburgh College of Art Archivist. As an archive dealing very much with human health, we wondered what we would have to suggest, but luckily we found the very thing in a canine case note!

Neurosurgeon Norman McOmish Dott was devoted to his two Samoyed dogs. When one of them, Kasyan, fell ill and had to be put to sleep, Dott ordered a thorough post-mortem to set his mind at rest that he did all he could for his beloved companion. The full case file was retained by Dott, Kasyan was given a patient number, and his case was filed along with the surgeon’s human charges…

The image to the right is of the Exhibition Wall during ‘Animal’, Kasyan’s case note is in the top right alongside a picture of Dott and one of his dogs in his published biography. This is just one example of the many opportunities to display LHSA collection items we’ve taken over the last year, from temporary exhibitions in hospitals to loans of patient art to Nottingham and Paris galleries!