Upcoming

Healing words

The unofficial story of medical practice in England 1500–1800

The exhibition will be open from 11 Sept 2024 – 25 July 2025  at the Royal College of Physicians at Regents Park.

Recipe books were highly collaborative, incredibly detailed, and painstakingly handwritten household manuals. Produced mainly within rural communities, they contained recipes for preparing and preserving food, household products, and medical remedies.

Sometimes called ‘receipt’ or ‘commonplace’ books, they challenge 21st-century understanding of the authorship and authority of books. Traditionally attributed to women and the domestic sphere, many of these books have become a testament to women’s experiences across all levels of society, showing their skills at household management. In most cases, however, the authors, owners and users of these books remain unknown.

The books belonged to a wider context of legitimate but unofficial medical information sharing. The educated and wealthy could access medical textbooks and pay for a qualified doctor – everyone else relied upon word of mouth, personal experience, or local apothecaries and healers. Together, these created a network of generations’ worth of knowledge exchange in communities throughout England, which was recorded, shared, practised and refined through the ownership of recipe books.

The books show us how medicine was understood and practiced at community level. They are glimpses into a world in which communities were self-sufficient, and people were intimately connected to one another, the land, the seasons and the cosmos. Their contents contributed to the very survival of families and communities.

Please be aware, this exhibition contains descriptions of cruelty to animals, and medical procedures on children.

A linked public event programme will be run alongside the exhibition.