Royal Women's Hospital Archives, Melbourne

Royal Women's Hospital Archives, Melbourne

• Previously known as Tracy Maund Historical Collection, Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne

The Royal Women’s Hospital specialises in areas such as antenatal care, maternal and neonatal infection control, gynaecological disease diagnosis and treatment, family planning, newborn intensive care and infertility management.
Its beginnings were as a ‘charity’ hospital, serving the needs of women unable to afford private medical care. Known as the Lying-in Hospital, it opened in 1856, the second hospital in Melbourne (the first being Melbourne Hospital). It was first located in a leased terrace house in Albert Street, Eastern Hill (East Melbourne), close to where the Victorian Parliament now stands.
The hospital’s establishment was led by a committee of women, led by Mrs Frances Perry, the wife of the then Anglican bishop of Melbourne, and two doctors, Dr Richard Tracy and Dr John Maund.
In 1884, its title was simplified to the Women’s Hospital and the ‘Royal’ title was conferred on the hospital by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 6 September 1954.
After moves to and in Carlton in the nineteenth century, the hospital moved to its present site in Parkville in 2008.
For further information about the history of the hospital see: https://www.thewomens.org.au/about/our-history/history-overview/

Officer in charge: Archivist

The records in the Women's archival collection include scanned and reproduced records of patients who were treated at the hospital more than 100 years ago.
Information about women’s health through the 19th and 20th centuries can be drawn from, for example:
. Midwifery books, 1856-1858
. Honorary physician case books, 1878-1910
. Labour ward case books and registers,1888-1982
(See https://www.thewomens.org.au/about/our-history/patient-records/)
Note that most 19th and early 20th century patient records are not indexed and still exist only in their original bound volumes, which makes it very difficult to find a specific patient’s record unless specific admission dates are known.
Birth records are comparatively easy to find, if birth dates are known.

Background information about hospital staff, board members and benefactors is available at: https://www.thewomens.org.au/about/our-history/biographies/
A biographical compendium of people associated with the hospital is available as a PDF on the website at: https://thewomens.r.worldssl.net/assets/images/Biographical-Compendium-December-2023-web.pdf

Open by appointment only.

Revised 28 February 2024

• Medicine and Health (Thematic area)