RCP fellows have long been in correspondence with some of the leading lights of science and culture. The archive includes letters written by 19th century luminaries Charles Darwin and Charles Dodgson.

Oral history interviews with physicians reveal changing approaches to doctor–patient communication and relationships throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries.

The use of electricity to revive people close to death has a longer history than you might imagine. A late-18th century book by the physician James Curry was one of the first to describe its use.

A treatment using very high temperature dry air, developed by Lewis A Tallerman and others, was used to treat rheumatic and other conditions around the turn of the 20th century in the UK and the USA.

As part of a new intercollegiate travelling exhibition due for launch later this year, women from London’s medical colleges and faculties will write about inspirational medical women of the past. This edition looks at Dame Sheila Sherlock (1918–2001), the driving force behind the foundation of the specialty of hepatology.

RCP fellow Henry Head used the symptoms of shingles, also known as herpes zoster, to investigate the relationship between the nervous system and pain.

Munk’s Roll, first compiled by physician William Munk (1816–1898) and still maintained today, is a series of obituaries or biographies of fellows of the RCP.

The RCP’s archive and museum collections span more than 800 years of medical and social history, and the catalogues can now be searched online.

RCP fellows’ interests in pharmacology over several centuries are reflected in the contents of the RCP library.

The RCP has a long history of commissioning portraits of its presidents. For today’s sitters, it’s likely to be the first time that they have sat for a painted portrait. It is an opportunity to shape how they are viewed in the future.