HMM Newsletter - No. 13, 1997 ISSN 1036-3041

HMM Annual Report President's report to the 8th Annual General Meeting of HMM held at Prince Henry Hospital, Little Bay, NSW, on Saturday 20 September 1997 At the 1996 AGM, Mrs Janice Bate, the president of the Health and Medicine Museums SIG since its inception in Melbourne in 1990, handed over to a new executive in Sydney, headed by Dr Ian Cope. Megan Hicks was elected as the new honorary secretary, and Alan Bourne honorary treasurer. Janice and the Melbourne committee were thanked for their leadership and dedication in developing the SIG. Meetings have been held in Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart during the year. Over 50 members and friends from different states attended the seminar 'Managing health and medicine museums in the 90s' at Sydney Hospital in October 1996. Dr Phillip Thomson arranged an exhibition in Hobart in conjunction with the celebration of the first administration of anaesthesia in the southern hemisphere in 1847 by Dr William Ross Hugh. The national committee of HMM has as its priorities an increase in membership of the SIG, the continuing production of the HMM Newsletter, the production of guidelines for the standardisation of cataloguing in the health and medicine area, and the encouragement of outreach exhibitions by health and medicine collections. Ian Cope, President, HMM Secretary's report In 1994, when HMM put together a directory of health and medicine collections in Australia, there were 52 collections listed. Since then we have discovered more collections in all states and the list now stands at over 150 h&m museums, collections and archives. We hope to find the resources (both human and financial) to publish a new edition of the directory in the coming year. At the time of the 1997 AGM there were 55 fully paid-up members of HMM, representing every state. We look forward to increasing our contact with people interested in preserving our health and medicine heritage, whether or not they choose to join HMM. HMM has continued its important function of assisting networking between h&m museums. As secretary I am often in the position of helping custodians of collections get in touch with other museums dealing with similar problems to themselves. I also field a variety of enquiries, such as general public wanting to donate items, students seeking information for assignments or theses, and film and video makers looking for props. Megan Hicks, Hon. secretary, HMM NSW activities During 1996-97 the NSW committee met on three occasions. Four outings for members were organised and these were well attended. On 31 October 1996 a seminar on 'Managing health and medicine museums in the 90s' was held at Sydney Hospital, with speakers presenting a series of papers. The Christmas meeting on 7 December 1996 was a joint event for members and friends of both HMM (NSW) and the NSW Society of the History of Medicine. It included a seminar and a tour of the Museum of Human Disease at the Pathology Department of the University of NSW. The theme of the seminar was 'Hospitals and history' and Professor Guenter Risse from the University of California was the principal speaker. On 8 March 1997 there was a visit to the NSW Medical Board and the Society for the Preservation of Artifacts of Surgery and Medicine, and a talk on the history of Gladesville Hospital. A workshop on cataloguing for small health and medicine museums was held at the Powerhouse Museum on 29 June. We were fortunate to have Mr Des Beechey the Senior Registrar at the Powerhouse to conduct the workshop. I am continuing with my efforts to obtain support from the NSW Department of Health for a curator and repository for health and medicine artefacts. Ian Cope, Chairman, HMM (NSW branch) Activities in Victoria Four committee meetings were held this year. These were well attended and discussions were lively. The committee continues to monitor the status of the museum at CSL Ltd (formerly the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories). In June we learnt that 'cataloguing of the collection had been completed by a contractor with MoV funding'. A visit to the Museum of Victoria was organised for HMM members, who were able to observe the documenting and packing of the MoV collection for storage pending the completion of the new Museum of Melbourne site in Carlton Gardens. A member of the MoV's Understanding the Human Mind and Body team will be attending all HMM (Victoria) meetings. Members of the HMM (Victoria) committee had already met with Dr Ian Galloway, the Deputy Director of Museums of Victoria, in December 1996 to discuss MoV's attitude and strategies to include health and medicine in their plans. Hilery Belton, Victorian State Representative, HMM