Orkney Women Doctors Project (1894 to 1948)

Photos by Dr Garvie (Photo: Jenny Hall) Saturday 15 March was the opening of  “Finding Dr Garvie” , the exhibition based on the creative collaboration between North Ronaldsay islanders, the wider Orkney community, and Fiona Sanderson. This project arose from the island photographs of Dr Garvie, who was doctor on North Ronaldsay for 16 years, almost a century ago. A selection of these photographs are also on show, along with three of the nine albums of photographs that are now held by the Orkney Library and Archive. These albums include Garvie’s handwritten notes and captions. An enthusiastic and interested audience were present for an entertaining and informative talk by Fiona.  Memories were stirred for those attending from the island and more stories shared. You can read more about the Exhibition here Fiona Sanderson at the exhibition she curated The photos also document life on North Ronaldsay in the 1930s and 40s.  Although one photo of a cow being lifted onto the fer...

  An interesting article in The Herald by journalist Sandra Dick, about Dr Beatrice Garvie and Fiona Sanderson's research into her life and that of North Ronaldsay. Please click on link: The island GP whose evocative images captured Orkney life The Exhibition continues at the Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, until 26th April.

One of the ways we hope to tell the story of our Orkney women doctors is through small exhibitions within Orkney and possibly beyond.  Fiona suggested embroidering a quilt, as a ‘thinking piece’, to bring the names of all the women doctors together with a map to pinpoint where they worked across Orkney. It will show links and similarities between them as well as differences.  It provides us, as a group, with a connection to them, through the creation of the quilt, as we speak about their lives on the islands while we plan and sew. Some of the women doctors were skilled sewers, most would have had to make or mend their own clothes. We hope the quilt will provide a tactile artefact that will raise questions and spark discussions among those viewing. Christine was fortunate to find our quilt at a local vintage sale. It was originally from a box bed in the parish of Birsay, from around the 1930s. To begin with Fiona embroidered an outline of the Orkney Mainland and surrounding isl...

This was a question I’d been pondering, after researching the life of a woman doctor who worked on North Ronaldsay, between 1930 and 1946. Beatrice Garvie was her name. I knew about her from the North Ronaldsay Archive, which displays many of her superb photographs of island life, and in which I had been delighted to find her pictures of my own family. Thomson family at South Ness, Jenny Sanderson, nee Thomson, seated left, with baby on lap. This is Ray Sanderson, Fiona's Father.  Reference D156/0239 Orkney Library and Archive. Over the last few years, I have worked with islanders who still hold her in living memory, to document the people in the more than 500 photographs, and, where possible, to note the events and places that are in them too. These photographs are held by the Orkney Archive. At the same time, I was looking into other Archives, to see what I could find about Dr Garvie. The more I found, the more I realised what an incredible life she had led. She was one of the ea...