Bynum, WF

Nutton, V

English

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Medical Historyhttp://journals.cambridge.org/MDHAdditional services for Medical History:Email alerts: Click hereSubscriptions: Click hereCommercial reprints: Click hereTerms of use : Click hereNews, Notes, and QueriesMedical History / Volume 41 / Issue 02 / April 1997, pp 227 - 228DOI: 10.1017/S0025727300062414, Published online: 16 August 2012Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0025727300062414How to cite this article:(1997). News, Notes, and Queries. Medical History, 41, pp 227-228 doi:10.1017/S0025727300062414Request Permissions : Click hereDownloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/MDH, IP address: 144.82.107.167 on 07 Nov 2013News, Notes, and QueriesEric Freeman's retirementThe retirement of Eric Freeman on 7 March,1997, brings to an end an era in the life of theWeilcomeInstitute andLibrary. AfteradegreeinEnglish at King's College London and nationalservice (in the War Office), he came in 1961,straight from Library School at UniversityCollege, as an Assistant Librarian, primarily tosucceed Richard Durling as early printed bookscataloguer. Dr Underwood was still Director,and Dr Poynter Librarian: the Reading Roomwas dominatedby massive wooden stacks fillingthe main floor; and staff trod noisily on darklino. There was no space for the new boy in theoffices oneitherside ofthe staircase, soEric wasassigned to work at a table in the Gallery.Readers were few, andjunior librarians mightbeassigned to assist in the composition of ahistorical lecture by a notable medical man.Thirty-six years later, the Library, carpeted,computerized, and occasionally crowded, standsattheverycentreoftheworldofmedicalhistory.All these developments have been observed,ifnot also directed, by Eric Freeman, first whenSub-Librarian under Eric Gaskell from1964-1973, andthen since 1973 as Librarian. Inhis time, the Library has more than doubled insize. Its holdings have been increased by theaddition of the older books from the MedicalSociety of London and still more by theexpansion of the Modem Medicine Collection.There have been new departments, notably theContemporary Medical Archives Centre, newreading rooms, and even new employers, foruntil 1981 it was the Wellcome Foundation, notthe Trust, who paid the Institute staff.Computerization has changed the face oflibrarycataloguing, and the Wellcome was among thefirst British academic libraries to transfer all itsbook records from cards to computer file, aprocedure which required a massive humaninput as well as immense patience withunreliable nodes in Thomton Heath. Any one ofthese changes would have daunted many aLibrarian, butontop ofall this Eric haspresidedover two moves by the main library, first in1990 out of the Wellcome Building and thenback again in 1992, and several others ofmaterial to and from the Enfield store. In the1970s, there also tookplacethe massivetransferofthe Museumitems to the Science Museum, aswell as the reorganization of the basementstacks when structural work was found to benecessary. That so muchhas been achieved withremarkably little disruption to Library users is afeat in itself, although Eric would be the first toacknowledge the assistance of his long-termdeputy Robin Price and other members of hisstaff, and, more generally, ofhis secretary AnneVan der Spelt.A dedicated book-man-his Friday forays tothe second-hand section of Dillons with ArthurGreenbaum as his minder were, like Kant'swalks, both regular and productive-, hebecame equally valued by the Weilcome Trustfor his administrative expertise. Edwin Clarkeas Director delegated far more to the Librarianthan Poynter had done, and it was no surprisewhen in 1980 Eric served for nine months asacting Head of the Institute after Edwin'sretirement. Under Rupert Hall, Sir WilliamPaton, and Peter Williams, he formed anadministrative troika with Bill Bynum andGordon Wilson (later Steve Emberton), beingoffically Deputy Director. After 1988, thoughstill remaining Librarian, he became theDirector of the Trust's programme in theHistory ofMedicine. In this role he wasboth theTrustees' main adviser on the subject, and,equally important, a member of the Trust'sBoard ofManagement, the body responsible forthe whole day-to-day running of the Trust, itsbuildings andits staff. How much is owed to hisadvocacy he is too modest to tell, butundoubtedly the respect in which he has beenregarded by successive Trustees and Govemorshas promoted the advancement ofthe disciplineboth within and without the walls of theWellcome Building.Other organizations too have gained from hisadvice. He has served on theLibrary Committee227News, Notes and Queriesofthe Royal College ofNursing, and the RoyalSociety's sub-committee on contemporaryscientific archives, to name but two. He has aparticularly soft spot for Canadian libraries,having worked closely with the HannahInstitute in its plans forexpanding the history ofmedicine from 1978 onwards. In 1996 he waschosen to deliver the first Bishop and LefanuMemorial Lecture to the Library AssociationHealth and Libraries Group.Hehas managedtodosomuchlargelythrougheffective delegation, and through the friendlyword of advice rather than the big stick. Hislegendary tact and shrewd eye for first securingwhat is possible before attempting the risky haveenabled him to keep all parts of the Institutetogether despite occasional suggestions that oneor other of them might move to allegedly moreattractive homes. His apparent conservatism hasoften been belied by some extremely radicalideas, whether on the future of libraries andbooks or on proposed developments within theTrust, and by his willingness to listen to others'ideas and to implement them quickly, when hejudged them right. Few can have managed moreimportant changes with so little disturbanceamong all those involved.Nor should his more academic talents beforgotten. Although his diploma thesis, ananalytical bibliography of the works of SirThomas Elyot never appeared in print, andalthough a possible PhD thesis on the MiddleEnglish Guy de Chauliac had to be put aside, helectured for many years on medieval medicineto the Apothecaries Course, where hisexposition of the Seven Corporate Works ofMercy always found admirers. His publishedarticles on medical bibliography are few, hardlyreflecting the range ofhis specialist knowledge,buthis lectures have always been a delight. Thesame can be said for his official farewellspeeches todeparting staff, whichtold atleastasmuch about his own humane sympathies asabout the individual concerned.He has succeeded in keeping his private lifedistinct from work, and few will have known ofhis early appearances in the chorus line ofGilbertandSullivan, orhis engagementwiththedomestic habits ofthe axolotl. A devoted fatherandgrandfather, he is planning tobreakwith thetradition of a lifetime, and move West, awayfrom his native South London, to be closer tohis children. We wish both him and his wifeDiane a long and happy retirement in which hecanfully indulge hispassionforbooks andJohnWayne movies.Vnivian Nutton, W F BynumEdward Jenner's SchoolingIn the July 1996 issue we published a notebySholem Glaser in which he suggested that newevidence showed that Edward Jenner leftCirencester Grammar School when he was 16,laterthanoriginally thought. However, itis nowapparent from the apprenticeship books (IR1/55) in the Public Record Office, Kew, thatJenner was apprenticed to "Geo. Hardwich ofChipping Sodbury. Glou. Apothecary" on 28August 1764, not in August 1765 as has beenassumed.228

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