In the early 20th century, the London Hospital ‘Skin Department’ ran the hospital’s ‘Venereal Diseases I’ (VD I) clinic, dealing with dermatological symptoms of sexually transmitted infections. The Skin Department record series, held by Barts Health NHS Trust Archives (BHA), includes more than 250 images of patients that attended the clinic, including item reference RLHLH/DR/1/4/10.
BHA uses an online catalogue to allow users to find and request material. The catalogue entry for RLHLH/DR/1/4/10 includes the standard archival ISAD-G metadata – reference number, title, level of description, date, and extent.
As the patient depicted would be over 100 years old (and is therefore presumed deceased), there are no Data Protection restrictions on access to this image. However, we do not provide online access to a digital copy of the image (as we do with many of the photos in our collections), due to the sensitive nature of the image. Instead, we provide an enhanced level of detail in the description ensuring intellectual but not visual access through the catalogue. The ‘Open with advisory’ access status flags that this image is of a sensitive nature.
Researchers may order the image for access in the archives, but are not presented with unmediated access through a catalogue search. In this way we seek to safeguard both the image subject and the image user.
Kate Jarman and Ginny Dawe-Woodings