Heberden Collection

The collection largely comprises rheumatologist William Copeman's research notes, drafts and papers on the history of rheumatism 1950s-1960s, plus smaller groups of material on the history of rheumatism, and a small amount of papers generated by the Heberden Society, British Association for Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, the Empire Rheumatism Council and the British Society for Rheumatology. Notable groups of material include:

The collection is arranged into five sub sections as follows:
A/ Heberden Society 1714-1983
B/ British Association of Physical Medicine 1943-1958
C/ British Society for Rheumatology 1984-1994
D/ Papers of Sir William Willcox 1926-1972
E/ W.S.C Copeman 1684-1976

The existence of the Heberden Collection is down, in large part, to the distinguished rheumatologist Dr William Sydney Charles Copeman, 1900-1970. He played a key role in the foundation and development of the new Heberden Society as well as in the foundation of the Empire Rheumatism Council. He was awarded the Orator's Medal in 1939, was President of the Heberden Society in 1949-50 and from 1949-1970 he was the Society's Honorary Librarian. After his death in 1970 he was succeeded as Librarian by Professor Eric Bywaters.

In his role as Heberden Librarian Copeman collected together original medical manuscripts, letters and manuscripts relating to William Heberden himself, some papers and memorabilia of the Heberden Society and the Empire Rheumatism Council, files from the committees on which he sat, his own research papers and publications and a strong collection of medico historical books on rheumatism and gout. These manuscripts form the bulk of the Heberden Collection, which were donated to the Wellcome Library in 2012 by the Heberden Library and the British Society for Rheumatology. The book collection is housed at the Royal College of Physicians in the Heberden Room.

Printed material, iconographic material and Moving Image and Sound items also originally formed part of the Heberden Collection. These have been catalogued under their respective formats.

The printed material was transferred into the General Collection as follows:

The Moving Image and Sound Material (MISC) is as follows:

The Iconographic material is as follows:

Other collections that are related to the Heberden Collection but which do not form part of it are as follows: