ANNUAL SPRING CLEAN
Louise relies on the helping hands of many volunteers to assist with the annual spring clean at the George Marshall Medical Museum. This year, the Museum will be open on Saturday 8th April for a dust and a polish and to ensure the life of our displayed collections well into the future. This year we'll be focussing specifically on the boardroom table and objects relating to dentistry, nursing and ophthalmology.
The Museum will be open from 10am until 4pm, and there will be plenty of refreshments for all helping hands. If you have a spare hour or two, and think you would enjoy learning how to empty display cases and handle objects, then do please email or telephone Louise so she knows how many to expect.
|
|
BUILDINGS TALK- HOSPITAL HISTORIES
We will be hosting our fourth annual evening of medical history talks on the evening of Thursday 13th July and will soon be calling for speakers for this popular event. As always, we're hoping to support any academic presentations with more personal accounts of the hospital buildings that many of you remember so fondly. If you have good memories of particular medical or healthcare buildings in Worcestershire and how their design enabled (or hindered) successful practice, then please do get in touch with Louise. We're particularly keen to show photographs or film of buildings which may not yet be in the public domain.
|
|
|
|
MINECRAFT CREATIONS
We are excited to have been awarded £6700 from Heritage Lottery Fund and further support from The Hive to work with two groups to recreate lost buildings of Worcestershire on computer game Minecraft and also Lego. The first group are young people part of Green Fingers which seeks to engage looked after children in artistic, horticultural and healthy lifestyle activities. We will take them to Worcestershire's archives to find plans to Powick Hospital, a trip to Powick to see the landscape and a trip to The Infirmary and GMMM are planned. Before building the structure to scale we wish to share the history of the building and how residents might end up becoming patients from it's construction 1852. An evening class for young people and parents who wish to add other Worcestershire buildings will be held in the evenings at The Hive. We are lucky to have students from the Games Design degree assisting to help build their skills working with young people and also share new skills for the young people new or experienced with Minecraft. If any readers wish to sign up for the evening classes to learn more about Minecraft, please give Mark a call.
|
|
A VOLUNTEER'S PROGRESS
"That's magic" I hear float in through the office door. For the past month I have been volunteering at The Infirmary and during this time I have undertaken a range of tasks including managing the opinion boards, organising collection loans and working on social media posts. Having worked in a number of office jobs I decided that it was time to see what lay beyond the photocopier and explore other career avenues. Volunteering has been a fantastic way to broaden my horizons and try something new, whilst also helping me answer that age old question of 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' It has been surprising how challenging some seemingly simple tasks can be, who knew trying to set up a projector would test my DIY skills to the limit and that picking topics to add to opinion boards would have me hovering on the deadly plagiarism line. However, what I have been struck by is the positive effect that a museum can have on the local community. The museum engages with school and community groups on a weekly basis but also with me, as volunteering here has enabled me to learn new skills and explore other areas of the world of work. So, so far so good and here's hoping they'll have me back next week!
|
|
|
|
|
WORLD WAR 1 HOSPITAL STORIES
Both venues have been working hard for a Worcester World War 100 funded event on 22nd April at The Boynes Care Home in Upton-upon-Severn. Thanks to Eric who sits on GMM M Committee we contacted Hanley Swan St Gabriel's with St Mary's Church of England Primary School and have been contributing to their semester of learning about the First World War and the impact it had locally. They have met Discover History at the Front and learned what would happen to an injured soldier going through the evacuation chain.
We took them to Hartlebury Castle's exhibition A Happy Convalescence, the upper classes also visited The Infirmary to experience a hospital building and then Louise and I visited the school to share more details about what we know about The Boynes being a Voluntary Aid Detachment hospital. The final learning come s from poet Charley Barnes who also visited the school and talked about poetry, the Great War and asked the pupils to put themselves 100 years earlier at The Boynes. What would they write in an Autograph Book when leaving? Their poems, drawings etc. will be revealed at the Saturday Open Day at The Boynes on 22nd April. All are welcome to attend and enjoy some poetry, tours of the venue, lawn games, share objects and stories from Upton-upon-Severn's past and meet our First World War soldier and patient in the Bell Tent.
|
|
BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK
The George Marshall Medical Museum and The Infirmary were awarded £500 from the British Science Association to engage local Brownies and Guides with five famous scientists and their accomplishments. We had lots of fun playing with pie charts, strawberries and lemongrass.
|
|
|
Each February half-term the heritage attractions in Worcester come together to celebrate the Love Worcester Heritage Festival.
Worcester has a wealth of heritage covering 1000 years of stories. You can see some of the most popular features of these churches, museums and other venues in this short film made by Fruittree Films with funding from Museums Worcestershire and Arts Council England.
|
|
|
COMMUNITY GROUPS
If you are a member of a group interested in local history or a particular topic on history of medicine, and you think members might be interested in a talk or a tour, then please get in touch. Recent presentations we have delivered include Sir Charles Hastings, Victorian Surgery and A Comparison of WRI to Kidderminster Infirmary's Development.
We're aware that many of you have your own expertise in various medical topics, so we would also be interested to find out if any of you are brave enough to give a talk to community groups on our behalf.
|
|
|
New member of staff post
Welcome Luke Fletcher, our newest recruit as Project Officer for the Education Pilot training University students to deliver tours and workshops to schools and community groups. Luke will continue his work at he University's Communications Team where he leads the University of Worcester's oral history project looking back on 70 years of educating.
|
|
|
Upcoming Events
The Infirmary:
Medical Book Group: Next by Michael Crichton
May 11th, 7pm
Museum of Lies: Fact or Fib Tours of Former Worcester
Royal Infirmary
May 19th, 6:30pm, 7:30pm and 8:30pm
Part of the annual Museums at Night Festival for Museums
Free with bookings at bit.ly/TheInfirmaryTickets
First Saturday Summer Tour of 
former Worcester Royal Infirmary
July 1st, 11:00am, 12:00pm, 1:00pm
|
|
George Marshall Medical Museum:
 Spring Clean
Saturday 8th April, 10am-4pm
FREE event
Could you spare a few hours to help us ensure the life of our fabulous collection? Come along and get hands-on at our annual spring clean.
 World War 1 Hospital Histories
Saturday 22nd April, 11:00am - 2:00pm,
The Boynes, Upton-upon-Severn
Free family day with tours, poetry, medical re-enactors and Open Day for The Boynes Care Home
 Buildings Talk - Hospital Histories
July 13th, 6:30pm
Talks on Medical History with focus on hospital buildings.
£3.50 per person, Booking required through Louise at 01905 760738
|
|
|
|
|
