IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 1538 S2
Held at: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Title: MOIR, Professor John Chassar (1900-1977): ergot papers
Date(s): 1922-1973
Level of description: Series of Special collections of private papers
Extent: 5 boxes; 1 framed item
Name of creator(s): Moir | John Chassar | 1900-1977 | Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
John Chassar Moir was the first Nuffield Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Oxford, a post he held from 1937 to 1967. At University College Hospital, London, he and Dr Harold Ward Dudley had isolated the new drug ergometrine, responsible for the traditional clinical effects of ergot, which was rapidly and universally adopted for the prevention of haemorrhage after childbirth, and he had written a thesis on rotation of the foetus in childbirth for which he gained his MD and a gold medal from Edinburgh University. At Oxford, he built up the Radcliffe Infirmary, studied the use of diagnostic x-rays in obstetrics, and made an outstanding contribution to gynaecological surgery, the repair of vesico-vaginal fistulae. He was for several years the co-editor and for the sixth edition sole editor, of Munro-Kerr's well-known textbook Operative Obstetrics. He became president of the obstetrics and gynaecology section of the Royal Society of Medicine, and in 1974 was made an honorary fellow.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers of John Chassar Moir, 1922-1973, including rough notes and case notes; copies of articles and offprints on ergot, 1935-1964; ms and original tracings and photographs, 1954-1955; correspondence, chiefly relating to ergot, including with H W Dudley, 1930-1973; papers relating to the opening of the new Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' building (Sussex Place), 1960; papers relating editing Munro Kerr's Operative Obstetrics, 1957-1965; papers relating to Moir's presidential address as president of the obstetrics and gynaecology section of the Royal Society of Medicine, entitled 'Men I have known', 1962-1963; photographs including group photographs of members of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and papers relating to the Gynaecological Visiting Society including rules, list of members and photograph of members, 1955.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Boxes 1-2 are arranged, the remainder are in the original order.
Conditions governing access:
The majority of these records are available for research, by prior appointment, and dependent on data protection, confidentiality and conservation considerations. Some material currently awaiting cataloguing is on restricted access. Please contact the College Archivist & Records Manager for more information archives@rcog.org.uk
Conditions governing reproduction:
Published articles in the copyright of the authors. Other papers in the copyright of the estate of Chassar Moir.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
A general index to the files listed in the catalogue of the Archives of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is maintained in the College Archives; refer to the College Archivist.
Box list available in the College Archives.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
No further accruals are expected.
Archival history:
Unknown. It is probable that the records were passed to the College Museum or Library by either Chassar Moir or his widow when other material was presented to the College (see below under related material).
Immediate source of acquisition:
Transferred to the Archives by the Library in September 2001.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
RCOG Archives holds samples of ergot, presented by Professor Chassar Moir's widow and later passed to the Archives from the Museum, (Ref: B10/18/3); folder of photographs of instruments used by Professor J Chassar Moir for closure of vesico-vaginal fistula and a framed ergometric tracing made by Chassar Moir, both of which were passed to the Archives from the Museum at the same time as B10/18/3, are at Ref: PH18/2-3; three films presented to the College by Professor Chassar Moir, covering the discovery of ergometrine, an operation for repair of a fistula and the action of ergometrine on the human uterus respectively (Ref: R5/10-12). Papers relating to the opening of Sussex Place building can be found at (Refs: R5/7 and R6/11)
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Sources: Wellcome Library online catalogue. Further biographical details can be found in the obituaries in the "British Medical Journal" and the "Lancet".
Biographical details of the individuals who have presented material to the College and/or comprise the subject of the records, have been compiled using information in administrative files and, where relevant, consulting Sir John Peel's book The Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 1929-1969, (Whitefriars Press Ltd, 1975). Compiled by Clare Cowling, Archivist, RCOG.
Date(s) of descriptions: September 2000