In this lively virtual talk rare books librarian Katie Birkwood and assistant archivist Felix Lancashire explore some fascinating and potentially challenging collections at the Royal College of Physicians highlighting the long, rich and inspiring history of LGBTQ+ lives.

LGBTQ+ stories can be traced back at least 350 years in the RCP collections and cover the experiences of LGBTQ+ people, including physicians, as well as the views of a society that medicalised them.

What contributions did physicians make to the Wolfenden Report? Which RCP licentiate lived with his male partner and was a leading figure in the Pan-Africanist movement? Who was Dorothy Hare’s ‘inseparable’ companion? And when did two medical students from Cambridge embark on an ‘unbroken marriage of souls’?

This event was part of LGBT+ History Month 2024.

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