Books and records.
The Maitland Hospital Collection includes a diverse range of books, records and other paper based items.
A small selection of the books and records from the Maitland Hospital Collection on display in the exhibition A Conspicuous Object - The Maitland Hospital, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, October 2021.
The collection of books and records falls into the following broad categories.
Note: In late 2022 a number of the books and records were digitised and PDF copies of their contents made available through the Collections Maitland website.
Administrative records
The administrative records include hospital board and other hospital committees’ minute books, financial records, salaries and wages books, patient records, medical equipment hire records, nurses’ register, nurses’ duty book, an x-ray register. The earliest item dates from 1859, the most recent from 2014.
Minute Books, Maitland Hospital, 1890 to 1923 (incomplete)
(Maitland Hospital Collection 75)
(PDF copies of the contents of the Minute Books are available from Collections Maitland.)
These seven minute books (all with handwritten entries) are part of a collection of minute books dating from 1859 to 1981. The majority are minute books of the management committee of the hospital. There are also minute books of, for example, the finance and house committees, and there are a couple of 1890s minute books for the Pierce Memorial Nurses’ Home.
For more details on the oldest minute book that covers the period 1859 to 1872, visit A drunk resident apothecary.
The minute books are of high historical and research significance as they provide insights into the issues confronting the hospital and the variety of healthcare services it has provided. They also document, among other things, people associated with the hospital, changes in its services and staff, connections with the local community, political relationships and infighting, and debates and decisions about buildings and facilities.
Salaries and wages book, 1948 to 1952
Front cover and a sample page.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 96)
Handwritten entries provide the names of employees, their position, when they joined the staff, and their rate of pay.
Staff record cards in wooden box, 1930s to 1950s
(Maitland Hospital Collection 317)
Wooden box tightly packed with cards. Each card provides following details about each staff member: name, date of birth, address, dependents, religion, telephone, date commenced work, when discontinued, holidays, occupation, remarks.
In early 2022 the staff record box and cards were put on display in one of the vitrines in the new Maitland Hospital.
The salary and wages book and the staff records box and cards are representative of other staff records held in the Maitland Hospital Collection. A number of the items are available in digitised form on the Collections Maitland website.
Significance
As a group, the administrative records are rare in that they are the only – or only known surviving – examples of their kind that document the history of the Maitland Hospital. They are also representative of similar records created by other public hospitals and, as such, provide insights into the broader development of public hospitals and healthcare especially in regional New South Wales.
Most of the administrative records are complete in themselves, although there are a number of incomplete sets. As well, some have water damage, some have suffered from wear and tear, and a small number are more seriously damaged. This does not diminish the significance of the records as a whole. Rather it requires considered conservation attention to those individual items regarded as particularly at risk.
As a group, the administrative records have high interpretive potential through their ability to document aspects of the history of the hospital and the people associated with it, and as tangible examples of the different ways of keeping records over time – from the heavy leather bound book recording the hospital board’s handwritten minutes of the 1860s to smaller minute books with typed minutes, staff index cards, and printed salary records.
Books and booklets
Patrick D. Trevor-Roper, Lecture Notes on Opthalmology, Oxford, 1960.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 293)
The typed label on the front of the book reads: ‘Casualty Library. ‘This book is not to be removed from the casualty department. Dr . Gray.’
This book is one of a small number of medical, midwifery, nursing and pharmacological texts held in the Maitland Hospital Collection. Their dates range from 1918 to the 1970s. Some have a ‘Maitland Hospital’ stamp suggesting that, at some stage, they were part of a hospital reference collection.
Left: Maitland Hospital 107th Annual Report, 1949 (Maitland Hospital Collection 283)
Right: The Maitland Hospital Staff Handbook, July 1991 (Maitland Hospital Collection 276)
These two booklets are among a small selection of publications that include, for example, annual reports, printed regulations, a visitors’ directory, and the booklet produced for the hospital’s centenary in 1942.
Documents
Hospital Secretary Thomas Hughes’ reference letter for wardsman George Digby, 1905.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 15)
The letter is currently in a frame and is accompanied by a postcard with a picture of benefactor Elizabeth St Vincent Heyes surrounded by images of the hospital wards.
The letter and postcard (both in need of conservation) are among a small eclectic group of documents in the Maitland Hospital Collection. Other items include ephemera, postcards, correspondence, research notes, certificates, and medical equipment information sheets.
Photographs
A small selection of photographs from the Maitland Hospital Collection.
The photographs in the Maitland Hospital Collection range from rare prints to photographic copies of well-known images. Some are by professional photographers; some are snapshots. Some are captioned; many are not. Some are framed; many were loose and have been rehoused in archival albums.
The date range is from around 1910 to the present.
The subject matter covers different buildings across the hospital site including buildings under construction; the hospital grounds and interiors; staff; patients; board members; hospital equipment; notable personalities; and hospital social and community events.
Plans and drawings
Government architect’s office site plan showing the 1970s developments that included the Robert Brown Wing of the hospital, 13 April 1976.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 406)
The 1976 site plan is one of many architectural plans and drawings that have been kept in storage at the Maitland Hospital. The plans include originals as well as copies, and they date from the 1930s to the late 1970s. Digitised copies of some of the plans are available on the Collections Maitland website.
The collection provides insights into the expansion, development and repurposing of buildings and facilities on the hospital site over about 70 years. Detailed plans show which services were provided in which buildings and, at times, in which spaces or rooms in buildings. Particular gems include a sketch of the rose garden probably from the 1930s when there was a sustained plan ‘to render the hospital beautiful’.
Press clippings
Scrapbook with press clippings, 1938-1940
(Maitland Hospital Collection 164)
One of four scrapbooks with press clippings about the hospital covering the period 1934 to 1947. There are other scrapbooks covering later periods.
View Clipping the press for more details about the scrapbooks and their contents.
First entered: 21 Oct 2022
Updated: 28 Dec 2022