Opening Up the Body: The Post Mortem Case Books of St George's Hospital (360G-Wellcome-210439_Z_18_Z)

The Opening Up the Body project aims to conserve the Post Mortem Examinations and Case Books of St George’s Hospital, 1841-1946, and to catalogue and digitise those dating from 1841-1917 (see ethics section for details). This will enable access for academic research and public engagement activities. These historical records, which chart the golden age of the post mortem, from its heyday in the 19th century to its subsequent decline in the second half of the 20th century, will be made accessible in partnership with the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) and the Leather Conservation Centre (LCC). Conservation of the leather will be undertaken by the LCC, and digitisation and minor repairs of the text block will be carried out by LMA in their dedicated studios. Two project archivists, based at St George's, University of London, will catalogue the collection under the supervision of the university archivist. The catalogue data and digitised images will be searchable through AtoM (Access to Memory) software and will be available on the St George’s, University of London website. The collection will be promoted through a number of relevant archive and medical humanities networks to increase accessibility to academic researchers and other interested parties.