The society holds its congress biennially in centres around the UK, with the eponymous Poynter Lecture, named after librarian and medical historian F. N. L. Poynter, being held on alternate years in London.
Purpose
The chief purpose of the BSHM is "to form an umbrella organisation to ‘promote, organise or sponsor’ history of medicine activities in Britain and to represent British interests to the International Society for the History of Medicine".[1][2]
The BSHM works with the British Society for the History of Paediatrics and Child Health.[16]
The Bristol Medico-Historical Society held the 2019 biennial BSHM Congress.[17]
Congresses
The first five congresses were organised by the Faculty of History and Medicine and Pharmacy.[14] The BSHM Congresses have since taken place at centres throughout the UK, in the form of a two- or three-day meeting where keynote lectures are delivered and peer-reviewed papers and posters are presented.[15]
The eighth congress was held in Liverpool in 1971, under the presidency of Lord Cohen of Birkenhead, when Alfred White Franklin was the BSHM's treasurer.[14]
In 1997, the Bristol Medico-Historical Society hosted the seventeenth congress in Bristol University, when Beryl Corner presented her paper "Elizabeth Blackwell 1821-1910: The First Woman on the U.K. Medical Register 1850".[19]
Poynter Lectures
The BSHM congresses had taken place on four occasions between 1965 and 1973. The Poynter Lecture, in memory of Noël Poynter, was created with the aspiration that the Wellcome Trust would hold joint sponsorship.[20][21] In addition to being a past president of the BSHM, he was Director of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine from 1964 to 1973. He made a number of important contributions to the study of the history of medicine and his influence was felt throughout the world.[22]
John Blair Trust
John Blair was a consultant surgeon from Perth Royal Infirmary, who taught at St Andrews and Dundee Universities and became a medical historian. The International Society for the History of Medicine congress, held in Glasgow in 1994 agreed that a Trust Fund could be established in 1995. The John Blair Trust (JBT) was thus established that year by the BSHM and the SSHM. It awards bursaries to undergraduate medical students and allied sciences students, with the objective of promoting "the study of the history of medicine".[23]
Selected publications
Congress proceedings
The Evolution of Medical Practice in Britain[24] (1960 conference, London)
Chemistry in the Service of Medicine[25] (1961 conference, London)
The Evolution of Hospitals in Britain[26] (1962 conference, London)
The Evolution of Pharmacy in Britain[27] (1963 conference, Nottingham)
The Evolution of Medical Education in Britain[28] (1964 conference, London)
Medicine and Science in the 1860s[29][30] (1967 conference, Brighton)
Cambridge and its Contribution to Medicine[31] (1969 conference, Cambridge)
Wales and Medicine[32] (1973 conference, Swansea/Cardiff)
Child Care Through the Centuries[33] (1984 conference, Swansea)
The Influence of Scottish Medicine[34] (1986 conference, Edinburgh)
A Pox on the Provinces[35] (1988 conference, Bath)
Medicine in Northumbria[36] (1993 conference, Newcastle)
^Porter, Dorothy (1995). "The Mission of Social History of Medicine: An Historical View". Social History of Medicine. 8 (3): 345–359. doi:10.1093/shm/8.3.345. PMID11609049.
