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Project Background

The Museum comprises of over 1,000 historical objects relating to the history of the hospital. The objects were discovered on moving from the old Derbyshire Royal Infirmary to the new Royal Derby Hospital site in 2007. The pieces have been in storage since the move, with occasional object handling sessions.

 

Recently Air Arts developed a partnership with the library service to get the collection properly catalogued and stored and this has revived interest in the collection. Following a merger with Burton Hospitals in 2019, the time is now right to ensure the collection is properly curated and used to the benefit of all of our patients, staff and visitors as well as the wider communities of Derby and Staffordshire.

Photographs by Dawn Jutton.

We have some wonderful items of great historic significance in the collection; an ivory ceremonial hammer and spirit level used by Queen Victoria to lay the foundation stone of our London Road site in 1891, a proceedings book from 1803 featuring many notable Derby dignitaries of the day including William and Joseph Strutt, Lord Vernon, John Port and Edwards Sitwell, legal documents and title deeds from 1838, two OBE’s, a vast array of military nursing medals, a nurses tippet from the Crimean war, Florence Nightingale’s signature, a visitors book signed by both Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth, stained glass windows from the chapel of the original hospital site, oil paintings, photographs, poison bottles, apothecary jars, ceramics, silver trophies, newspaper clippings, antiquarian books, surgical instruments and much more.

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  • The project will enable us to properly curate and make accessible this incredible collection to anyone who visits our 5 sites. The project will uncover and tell the forgotten stories from this important part of history for both Derby and Burton and nationally through its strong links to Florence Nightingale and the development of hospitals across the country.

  • The project will engage with staff, patients and visitors drawn from a broad social and economic diverse area within Derbyshire and Staffordshire as well as nationally, many of whom may not visit heritage settings or museums in their daily lives and this may therefore be a first step on that road to better wellbeing through the arts and culture.

  • The project will ensure the survival of an important collection through curation, display, exhibition and open events to generate understanding, engagement, and legacy. Audiences will remember and understand the past, reflect on what happened and how things have changed, engage with the issues in their own lives and look at how they impact today.

Audiences will leave the hospitals with a greater understanding and interest in the history of our hospitals, its place in the national history of hospitals and medicine and medical history.

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