Christmas advice from Frank Rowntree

Francis St. D. Rowntree 1928-1996, aka Frank Rowntree, received an OBE in 1986 for his services to public health. During the 1970s, he was the Health Education Officer for Sheffield and in this capacity he was invited into the Walk Right in Studio at BBC Radio Sheffield for a regular weekly health spot where he gave his measured and pithy advice (usually in around 3 minutes) on many of the health issues of the time. Some of the advice may only resonate with the over 40s -such as the clacker craze which resulted in a new kind of illness described as 'clacker wrist'. Also tackled was the mystery of women’s menstrual cycles relating to mood swings and especially driving. He exhorts men to be more sympathetic and think themselves lucky that they do not have this cyclic phenomenon.

All the 106 broadcasts were donated by Rowntree’s family, originate on ¼” audio reels, have been digitised and made available online via the library’s Wellcome Film resource with permission from BBC Radio Sheffield. The audio recordings appear to have been made by Rowntree himself as a record of his broadcast activity with the majority of the recordings dating from 1972 and 1973.

There are a number of festive topics to which Frank Rowntree regularly returned. The first is a health and safety message to parents in the selection of appropriate toys for their children, which Rowntree talks about with campaigning zeal. There are three broadcasts on this topic. Suitability is key, he warns against highly inflammable toys and asks parents after Christmas to dispose of toys if broken or damaged.

Another seasonal topic discussed on air is keeping warm. Rowntree talks about the susceptibility of new babies to the cold. In 1973 Rowntree broadcasts about keeping warm in the light of the prevailing power cuts. He talks about appropriate clothing in winter such as “snuggies” (described as warm winter drawers or knickers). He recommends that a good breakfast is key to keeping you going through the day. Perhaps it is just as well that the practice of using hot bricks to warm up beds has fallen into dis-use…

Lastly, as it is the season of Christmas excess, Rowntree does not want to be a 'dismal Jimmy' and enjoys a drink and all the Christmas fare. In typical fashion, he asks for common sense and moderation.

The Moving Image & Sound Collection sends seasonal wishes to all (in moderation).

Author: Angela Saward

Image: 1970s Christmas, © This image is copyright djwhelan’s photostream and is licensed under this Creative Commons licence.

Behind the Scenes: Moving Image and Sound Collection

April finds us in the Moving Image and Sound Collection (MISC) department - the team behind the cataloguing, curation and public services related to the Wellcome Library's collection of historic and modern audio-visual material. The department is headed by Angela Saward who is supported by Ruth Blue, assistant curator. Covering both analogue and digital material, the collection includes audio-visual material from the late 19th century to the present day. This includes both archival collections (unique, historical titles) as well as contemporary content, to cater for all the needs of the history of medicine researcher.

The work the team does revolves around two main aspects: providing access to the resource for researchers, and curating the collection. Providing access can be done in a variety of ways, including the creation of catalogue records so researchers can find items; providing a viewing space so researchers can come to the Library and watch or listen to content; mounting digital content online for remote usage; and carrying out collections research on the behalf of users where necessary. Usage of the material ranges from scholarly researchers to content researchers for broadcast programs; people with a general interest in certain health topics to artists looking for content they can draw inspiration from, or include in their works.

Some of the most popular titles in the collection are the film titles War Neuroses (see the embedded clip above), Heredity in Man, and Conditioned reflexes and behavior. People may ask for information on or access to specific titles within the collection, or they may ask for titles related to subjects. For example, recently users have asked for films illustrating historical practices in psychoanalysis and sex education up to the 1940s.

The MISC team also maintain the collection, describe, assess, and add to it ("curating"). Up-to-date titles to purchase related to the history of medicine are gleaned from sources like the Radio Times and TRILT, (The Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching, the best source of UK television and radio broadcast data available on the web - available to FE/HE). Archival items are sought out from a range of potential sources, or accessioned as part of larger archival collections newly acquired by or newly catalogued by the Archives and Manuscripts department. One of the big challenges to curating the project, according to Angela, is "the wide range of legacy formats and players for the video content. Unlike film, video formats proliferated between the 1960s and 1980s, many of which are now obsolete." These have to be conserved and, where possible, migrated to current formats. Migration of such formats is prioritised according to how accessible (from a copyright point of view) the material is to the Library's users.

MISC's outlook as a department is largely externally-facing, and Angela supports the industry by sitting on the JISC Film and Sound Think Tank and on the panel for the Wellcome Trust Small Arts and People Award. Internally, MISC has strong connections to the Cataloguing Department and Digital Services. There is also a certain amount of cross-over with Wellcome Collection, who have highlighted a number of Wellcome Film videos on the newly revamped Wellcome Collection website.

Following the success of the Wellcome Film project (in particular the YouTube channel), MISC is now embarking on integrating new digital collections. Digitisation of 30 audio titles is currently in progress, and these will be made freely online as MP3s via the Library Catalogue. Titles include Man versus Virus, Heart Sounds and Murmurs (a 9 reel series), and Lumps in the Skin.

The other digital project is the large audio collection from One & Other - or the Fourth Plinth Project - which ran from July to October 2009 in Trafalgar Square. These are 15-30 minute recordings of interviews from all the participants, obtained by the Wellcome Library in the new year. 2,400 people participated, and each had a different reason for doing so. MISC's big challenge is to capture the essense of these "plinthers" in the catalogue records. A couple examples are now online.

Moving Image and Sound Collection profiled

We have blogged throughout this year about Wellcome Film, our project to digitise over 450 titles from our Moving Image and Sound Collection (MISC). However, an article in the latest edition of Wellcome History, offers a wider profile of MISC.

As the article notes, MISC illustrates the growth of film as a communication tool in the medical sciences and furthermore, is "an essential starting-point for any researcher, educator, student or browser interested in witnessing the evolution of medicine and health over the last 100 years".

The article is on page 20 of the Winter 2009 edition of Wellcome History, which is freely available from the Wellcome Trust's website.