The College’s collection of heritage items is made up of paintings, silver and glassware, commemorative items and medical instruments. 

As with the archival collections the heritage items fall into two main categories.

Firstly items relating directly to the College’s history, such as the collection of portraits and statues of former College Presidents, and the furniture, glass and silverware collected by the College over time, including the College Mace.

Secondly, the college has a collection of items relating to the history and practice of medicine in Ireland. These include surgical and amputation kits and the contents of a dispensary from the first half of the twentieth century. Several of the archival collections donated to the College contained objects, and these have been transferred to the Heritage Items collections for safe keeping. An example would be the tray carved by Constance Markievicz which forms part of the Saint Ultan’s Hospital Collection.

Catalogues
At present their is no e-catalogue of the Heritage Collections, although there are a number of printed lists held in the Heritage Centre. If you are interested in more information on the Heritage Collections or in view any of the items, please contact us.

Contact
For enquires relating to the heritage items, or to make an appointment to visit, please email heritagecentre@rcpi.ie or phone +353 (0) 1 6698817.

The Heritage Center is open Monday to Friday from 9:30 am to 1:00pm and 2:00pm to 4:00 pm, by appointment only.

Before coming to visit the Heritage Centre please take the time to read our Access Guidelines and Rules for Researchers.

Collection Development
The heritage centre is actively seeking to extend and develop its collections of heritage items relating to the history of medicine in Ireland and welcomes donations. Our collections development policy and donations can be discussed in confidence with the Heritage Centre staff, please email heritagecentre@rcpi.ie or phone +353 (0) 1 6698817.