While LSHTM remains closed and most of our archives are out of reach in Keppel Street, we thought we would highlight some of our digitised collections, available to researchers from the comfort of their own homes…
Student Registers
Our collection of student registers are an excellent resource for researchers interested in tracing the life and careers of past students. The registers detail the name and address of each student as well as their prior qualifications and country of origin and any institution or organisation they were affiliated with, such as a specific mission or colonial service. The registers also state the career of each student on leaving LSHTM. This is particularly interesting given the colonial history of the School. The registers document the role LSHTM played in supporting the British Empire, with many students going on to work in the colonies after studying tropical medicine at the School.
On occasion the registers provide a little more colour. For example, in one entry for a Ralph Storey who studied at the School in 1900, the record states that the unfortunate Mr Storey was ‘killed by an elephant’ in Uganda in 1905.
We currently have eight student registers – from 1899 to 1924 – digitised and available to researchers.
Staff and Student Photographs
Students and staff members attending the School were immortalised in class photographs taken during each new session. We have a number available as digital resources, showing students and their lecturers between the years 1901 and 1935. The photographs, which detail the names of the students and staff members depicted, are another useful means of tracing an individual’s history at LSHTM. Equally, the images show the changing demographics within the school – such as the gradual inclusion of more women and people of colour.
The Nutrition Collection is an especially rich and varied archive. The collection consists of material concerned with the study and research of human nutrition in the twentieth century, created and collected by LSHTM staff between the 1940s and 1990s. Material includes recipe cards produced by the Ministry of Food during the Second World War, obesity research, diets of prisoners of war and diaries documenting research trips undertaken by nutrition researchers. Parts of the collection have been digitised and can be made available to researchers.
This collection is made up of correspondence, manuscripts, reprints and newspaper cuttings collected by Ronald Ross himself – acclaimed for his work on the transmission of malaria. The papers include Ross’s research on malaria captured in his notebooks, diagrams and thousands of letters from medical scientists, as well as information on the major malaria control campaigns he was involved with during his career.
Ross was also a keen watercolorist, and several of his paintings feature in the collection, alongside greetings cards and correspondence from dignitaries and royalty from across the globe. A significant amount of this material has been digitised, such as the notebook in which Ross made his famous discovery regarding the transmission of malaria by mosquitoes. Discover more about Ronald Ross and his work here
Maps
The map collection consists of maps mostly concerning malaria and sleeping sickness in Africa as well as many other maps that relate to subjects such as population distribution, vegetation and geological features. Maps originate from all across the world, including Great Britain, Europe, Australia and much of Africa. They date from 1858 to 1973.
The maps within the collection were used by School staff in the planning of expeditions overseas, in spatial investigation of tropical diseases, recording research results and in prevention programmes. 96 maps have been digitised and are available to view.
HIV/AIDS collections
The LSHTM Archives Service contains seven collections relating to HIV and AIDS and we have digitised material from these collections including 95 posters from the Centre for Sexual and Reproductive Health Collection, leaflets and press releases from the AIDS Social History Programme and an assortment of material from the other collections. More information on these collections here
In 1976, Peter Piot was one of a team sent to Zaire (now DRC) to investigate an emerging hemorrhagic disease, which was named as Ebola. Digitised material within the archive includes fieldwork material created by Piot, plus reports. (This material remains copyright Peter Piot.)
For more information on any of these collections or how to access them digitally, please contact the archives
