RANZCO Museum Update
What is this? Explore the website to find out.The museum exhibit at the 2012 Melbourne Congress attracted a lot of attention, with interested Fellows offering valuable material as well as participating in video interviews on their professional experiences. These interviews will shortly be available on the Museum website.
I am particularly grateful to the Residents from the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (RVEEH)and Royal Melbourne Hospital who gave much of their time and effort preparing posters and setting up displays for the conference exhibit.
New Addition to the Team
Ms Caroline Ondracek, who for some years worked at the RVEEH Library and assisted Dr Jim Martin with the Museum, has returned from overseas and is doing some valuable work helping prepare exhibits and cataloguing items.
Current Exhibit at RVEEH
The Hospital celebrates its 150th anniversary of foundation and an exhibit has been opened featuring the work of Drs Ron Lowe, Bill Gillies and Geoffrey Sutherland, who contributed so much to glaucoma research and the evolution of microsurgical instrumentation. There is also a display on the origins of the Hospital. This is situated in the Outpatients Department and we are seeking a permanent area for Museum displays at the Hospital.
New Acquisitions
Dr Jim Peters from Cairns has donated the original Kelman Phacoemulsifier and Dr Al McKay donated a magnificent trial set complete with an assortment of prosthetic eyes. Dr Alan Isaacs in Melbourne has donated a Friedman Field Analyser in pristine condition, as well as early medication bottles and an apparatus for preparing novocaine anaesthetic. Prof Hugh Taylor has kindly donated books written by Archie Anderson.
Dr David Kaufman
RANZCO Museum Curator
September 2012 News Update
This month we’ve had generous donations from Prof Hugh Taylor, Dr Nitin Verma, Dr Mark Loane and Dr David Workman in the form of books and artefacts.
The History of The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital
In 1863 Dr Andrew Sexton Gray, an Irish immigrant to Melbourne, established what is now The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. As the city grew and prospered in the excitement of the gold rush, Dr Gray established his first clinic with a five pound, one bed house on Albert Street, East Melbourne, treating diseases of the eye and ear among unprivileged Melbournians. Just three years later, with financial backing, Dr Gray went on to establish the Melbourne Institution for Diseases of the Eye and Ear − a charitable institution run by a committee of management. During this time, the hospital was also treating rural Victorians and patients from interstate as specialist care was not available elsewhere. The reputation of the hospital and its staff was such that the wealthy and those among Melbourne's elite were often caught trying to masquerade as paupers to be accepted as patients.
Read more: The History of The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital