GCSE History – Medicine in Britain

Engaging GCSE History students in primary source material on the history of medicine.

In Education Outreach, we provide school and college students with the opportunity to engage with materials held in the University’s Special Collections and Archives through workshops, project-based learning and online resources. A key strength of our collections, and an area of demand in schools and colleges, is the history of medicine. The history of medicine is a popular topic taught in UK secondary schools as part of GCSE History. It appears on the specifications of all the major exam boards, so has been part of our work in engaging with schools locally through projects, as well as a driver for our Health and the People website.

While the different exam boards cover slightly different periods of history, from c.500 all the way through to the present day, our major strength is the renaissance period. From key figures like Paré and Vesalius, to crucial developments like antiseptics and surgical instruments, we hold a range of items and rare books that students can’t access in their lessons at school. We therefore want to provide the unique opportunity for students to interact with the history they may have only ever seen in revision guides before, whether that’s by handling items in our on-campus workshops or engaging in activities on our Health and the People website.

Website

We are currently refreshing our Health and the People website, working to align it more closely with the GCSE History exam board specifications and giving it a new look and feel. Through digital source-based learning activities and videos, the new site will guide students through the history of medicine using not only our collections, but items from Surgeon’sHall Museum, Edinburgh, who are partnering with us in this collaborative project to help us cover all of the key milestones in the history of medicine in Britain, supported by a variety of primary sources. We are also working with a student Graphic Design Intern from the University, who will help bring key people, places and things alive through eye-catching illustrations. The new website will be launching in Summer 2026, so watch this space…

Workshops

Our Health and the People workshop is delivered jointly by Newcastle University Library and the Great North Museum: Hancock. Students have the chance to visit the University Library to engage with our original books and items. They are also able visit the Great North Museum: Hancock to explore the museum and take part in an object handling session focused on ancient and medieval medicine.

We also offer a range of other archives-based workshops, learning resources and project-based learning opportunities for Key Stages 3-5, as well as CPD and events for teachers and educators.

Find out more about what we do

An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the (...)

Case studies of research into smallpox vaccine.

Armamentarium Chirurgicum XLIII

Page 16. Illustration depicts surgical instruments used in 17th century surgery.

Collections relative to the cholera at Gateshead, (...)

Scrapbook of ephemera and manuscript transcriptions and observations relating to an outbreak of (...)

Mellificium Chirurgiae: OR, THE MARROW OF (...)

Much enlarged. To which is now added ANATOMY, Illustrated with twelve Brass Cuts , And also the (...)

Notebook of Operations undertaken by Frederick (...)

Beginning in 1915, this handwritten book lists details of individual wounded soldiers and the types (...)

The Anatomical Exercises of Dr William Harvey (...)

Research of Dr William Harvey on human anatomy, particularly of the heart and blood.

The Fabric of the Human Body

Renaissance anatomical book.