Fonds P141 - Herbert Stanley Birkett Fonds

9 m of textual records
approximately 100 photographs
approximately 30 artifacts

Accession 903. Old accession number 861/66-72 is also associated with material found in this collection (as written on folder 11). The collection was accumulated by Dr. H. S. Birkett, then passed to his daughter Winifred L. Birkett, and bequeathed to the Osler Library and McGill Faculty of Medicine upon her death in 1993. The collection arrived at the Osler Library in two parts: (1) upon the death of Winifred L. Birkett, and (2) during renovations at RVH when a storage room full of the late Dr. H. S. Birkett’s “medical books, medical photos and medical memorabilia” was discovered and transferred to the Osler Library in 1995. The second lot included items of furniture that were sold to antiques dealer Francis Lord (of Milord Inc., 1810 Notre Dame Ouest, Montreal QC H3J 1MS) ca. 1995-96 due to lack of library space at the time. Francis Lord had purchased other items from the estate in 1993-94. Detailed correspondence about the acquisitions from the Estate of Winifred L. Birkett can be found in the Osler Library accession records.

The collection consists of documents pertaining to Dr. H. S. Birkett's medical activities, including 117 bound volumes of patient records (1889-1942), medical notebooks (1893-1896), bound RVH reports (1894-1938), RVH charts (1901-1920) and registers (1899-1917). There are also various letters addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Birkett, a manuscript, newspaper clippings, various degrees and medical association certificates, as well as photographs of H. S. Birkett's personal life and professional life at McGill and elsewhere. The collection also includes various artifacts collected by H. S. B, including military and medical memorabilia collected by H. S. Birkett.