To mark mental health awareness week (11-17 May), BMA library and archive have explored mental health in the late 19th and early 20th century. What we have uncovered includes committees, members and activities that demonstrate the Association’s role in developing mental health law, treatment and advocacy in the UK.
Content warning
This blog includes references to and images of historical records concerning mental health prior to the 1940s. Some of the records contain outdated and sensitive language and themes reflective of the period covered.
Mental Health in the Late 19th Century
The 19th century marked a transformative time for mental health care, both in practice and in public perception. Earlier approaches included methods of custody, confinement, restraint and punishment, with care for individuals typically falling to families, workhouses or prisons.
In the late 1800s there was a shift towards a moral treatment system which aimed to treat people with mental health conditions as rational beings deserving of humane care. This was coupled with legislative change in 1845 that placed responsibility for the care of people with mental health conditions onto local authorities, requiring the provision of purpose-built institutions.
Key mental health reformers of the 19th century include Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), Samuel Tuke (1784-1857) and John Conolly (1794-1866), whose work helped move mental health care towards more compassionate and structured practices. John Conolly was a member of the British Medical Association.
British Medical Association Committee of Council, Physiology and Psychology Section
Evidence of the BMA’s early involvement in the field of mental health can be found in a Committee of Council minute book, 1868-1875. The Committee of Council managed BMA affairs between annual meetings of the Council. Included in the minutes are references to sections of the committee including medicine, surgery, physiology, psychology, midwifery, publications. Each section included an appointed president, vice presidents and officers. The Physiology and Psychology section brought together influential 19th century figures in mental health including:
Daniel Hack Tuke (1827-1895)
leading figure in mental health care and a descendant of the Quaker family who founded the York Retreat, a pioneering place opened in 1796 for the treatment of people with mental health needs. Tuke initially trained as a solicitor before turning to medicine. After studying at York Hospital, St Bartholomew’s and Heidelberg (M.D. 1853), he established himself in London as a specialist in mental disease. By 1875 he was lecturing at Charing Cross Hospital, later serving as a governor of Bethlem Hospital and becoming President of the Medico-Psychological Association in 1881.
Henry Maudsley (1835-1918)
prominent psychiatrist who founded the Maudsley Hospital. After graduating M.D. in 1857, he spent time working in both the West Riding Asylum in Wakefield and the Essex County Asylum. In 1865 he became a physician at the West London Hospital. In his later years, he donated funds to London County Council to establish a new mental hospital treating early mental disorder in outpatients as well as inpatients. The hospital opened in 1923 after Maudsley’s death.
Reforming 19th Century Mental Health Law
By the end of the 19th century, mental health law in England and Wales was shaped by the Lunacy Acts of 1845 and 1890. The 1845 Act established the Lunacy Commission and required local authorities to maintain institutions for those with mental illness. The 1890 Act consolidated the earlier law, reinforcing local authority responsibilities and tightening procedures for patient admission and detention.
In 1924 The Royal Commission on Lunacy and Mental Disorder was set up by the government to review the existing laws and systems for the care and treatment of people with mental illness in England and Wales, examining how mental health services were operating under the current Lunacy Act 1890.
In response to the Royal Commission on Lunacy and Mental Disorder, the British Medical Association appointed a special committee (1924-1930) to consider possible modifications to the lunacy laws.
The key recommendations of the committee included:
Terminology reform: any future act be called mental disorders act and the words lunatic and pauper should be replaced with words such as mental abnormality, mental deficiency, mental disorder and mental ailment
Promoting voluntary treatment: expanding provisions for patients to receive care without compulsory legal processes
Flexibility in care settings: supporting a range of treatment environments, including hospitals, licensed houses, and charitable homes
These recommendations directly influenced the Mental Treatment Act of 1930, that allowed voluntary outpatient treatment for mental illness, replacing the use of existing terminology and marked a significant shift in patient rights and mental healthcare.
Investigating Psychoanalysis
Between 1926-1929, the BMA Council appointed a Psychoanalysis Committee to investigate and report on the growing field of psychoanalysis related therapies.
The committee investigated other methods of psychotherapy, psychoanalytical theory and practice and misconceptions and criticisms concerning psychoanalysis.
In their investigation the committee concluded that the claims of its advocates and the criticisms of those who oppose it must as in other disputed issues, be tested by time, by experience and by discussion.
Report of the Psycho-Analysis Committee, ref H/120/1/4
Mental Health Committee
In 1938 the BMA Council appointed a Mental Health Committee. The aim of the committee was to enquire into and report upon the present medical equipment and provision for dealing with mental health, with reference to the problems of treatment of the psychoneurotic and allied disorders.
In its first years the committee covered topics such as psychoneurosis arising from industrial injuries, the instruction of medical students in psychology and psychological medicine and model scheme for the treatment of mental illness proposed by the committee.
The conclusions of the committee in a 1941 report include:
- The incidence of mental illness in the population is much greater than can be met by the present facilities for treatment
- The number of doctors trained in psychological medicine should be increased
- Education around mental health should be improved at various life stages
- There is a demand for appropriate accommodation for both in patient and outpatients
- That more facilities should be afforded to train all nurses and especially mental nurses in psychological conditions.
Psychological Medicine Group
In 1937 the BMA established a Psychological Medicine Group.
The aim of the group was to bring into closer contact with the general body of medicine the needs of those engaged in the practice of psychological medicine. The group committee consisted of elected members subject to the council of the association.
In later years this committee covered mental health and therapy during the Second World War, the introduction of new drugs for treatment of mental health conditions and the move towards community led mental health care.
All records sourced in this blog can be found in the BMA archive. To investigate this history further or consult additional records relating to the BMA and mental health please send an enquiry to bmaarchive@bma.org.uk. To find out more about current BMA initiatives relating to Mental Health head over to the BMA website.
To find out more on historic mental health, institutions and treatment
British Medical Association Collection held at Wellcome Collection. Ref SA/BMA
The National Archive research guide on asylums, psychiatric hospitals and mental health
(Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman member of the BMA, in 1873)
International Women’s Day (IWD), celebrated each year on 8 March, has its roots in early 20th-century labour organising and suffrage movements, grounded in the aim for equality and recognition for women’s contributions across all areas of society. Each year, IWD offers an opportunity to recognise the achievements of women while also reflecting on the challenges women still face today. Within the context of healthcare, this means celebrating both the women who practice medicine, whether this is you, your co-workers, or your boss; as well as the women patients you support.
To mark IWD 2026, BMA Library are proud to launch two new curated collections. These collections bring together resources across two themes:
- Women in Medicine
- Women’s Health
Together, these collections aim to support learning, spark reflection, and contribute to expanding knowledge for delivering more informed, equitable care.
As previously explored in our International Women’s Day 2024 blog post, women members have greatly shaped the trajectory of the BMA. Medicine has changed dramatically over the past century. Women now make up over half of the medical workforce, across many specialties. However, representation alone does not equal equity.
Women doctors continue to face:
– Workplace discrimination
– Disproportionate caring responsibilities in their various forms
– Higher rates of burnout
At the same time, the profession is evolving. Flexible training pathways, growing awareness of workplace culture, and stronger networks of peer support, for women, led by women, are helping to reshape the medical field into one that is ultimately, more equal.
Our Women in Medicine collection attempts to reflect this changing reality. Often, in any library, users seek out literature that reflects them; content and resources that empower and represent them. We want our collections to strengthen and reflect the experiences of all our members. By preserving and sharing our material on Women in Medicine, we hope to support current and future generations of women doctors navigating the profession.
Women’s Health: Addressing Historic Gaps in Research
Women’s health has historically been understudied and underrepresented in research. Many female-specific conditions under-researched and under-funded, resulting in an effect on clinical practice. This ties into trends in many other research industries historically.
Thankfully it is not all doom and gloom. There is now growing recognition across research, policy, and clinical communities that sex-specific data and gender-sensitive care are essential for safe and effective medicine. Our new Women’s Health collection aims to contribute to this shift by highlighting key areas where there have historically been knowledge gaps.
While the scope of women’s health is vast, the collection, to begin, focuses on three areas of research:
Endometriosis
A chronic and often debilitating condition that can take years to diagnose, in international healthcare contexts. Increased awareness and research are improving pathways to earlier recognition and management. Some examples of our titles include
1. Endometriosis-related infertility: A Comprehensive Manual by Simone Ferrere
2. Endometriosis: Science and Practice by Linda Giudice
3. Journal of endometriosis and uterine disorders
Menopause
Despite affecting half the population, menopause care has historically been inconsistent. Recent years have seen much growth in research, clinical guidance and public awareness. Some examples of our titles include:
1. Managing the Menopause by Nicolas Panay, Paula Briggs, and Gabor Kovacs
2. Management of Menopause: A Guide for Practitioners by Ruchika Gar
3. Storying the Menopause: An Evocative Auto/ethnography by Shanta Everington
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)
While this is not a women-specific condition, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome disproportionately affects women and historically has faced challenges around recognition, stigma, and research funding. Examples of our titles include:
1. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: Diagnosis and Treatment by Lorenzo Lorusso and Giovanni Ricevuti
2. ME/CFS – the Severely and Very Severely Affected by Lucinda Bateman, Kenny Leo De Meirleir, and Kenneth Friedman
3. Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome by Lillebeth Larun, Kjetil G Brurberg, Jan Odgaard-Jensen, and Jonathan R Price
Shaped by Our Members
Even after IWD 2026, this collection will remain a living resource on our library platform. We actively welcome suggestions for new materials or topic areas.
In fact, the original idea for a Women in Medicine collection came from one of our members, who got in touch with us by email: bma-library@bma.org.uk. Member feedback shapes our priorities. We aim to represent and reflect all our members.
If you would like to see more curated collections in an area of your interest, get in touch.
Across the wider BMA, we are committed to an open and inclusive culture for all members. Our Equality, diversity and inclusion team have a lot of resources for women members of the BMA. We believe it is vital to amplify all voices. See further resources here.
Doody’s Core Titles are widely recognised as the benchmark in authoritative medical literature, meticulously curated to ensure practitioners and students alike have access to the very best in clinical knowledge.
The library is pleased to share with you selected titles from Doody’s Core 2025 Collection available free to BMA members. Whether you’re revising for exams, researching new clinical approaches, or simply expanding your medical horizons, these celebrated works are indispensable.
Adler’s Physiology of the Eye by Levin, Leonard A.
Brown’s Atlas of Regional Anesthesia by Farag, Ehab; Mounir-Soliman, Loran.
Campbell-Walsh-Wein Urology by Dmochowski, Roger R., editor.; Kavoussi, Louis R., editor.; Peters, Craig (Craig Andrew), editor.; Cooper, Christopher S., editor.; Porten, Sima, editor.; Gomelsky, Alex, editor.; Sweet, Robert M., editor.; Rai, Arun, editor.
Fenichel’s Clinical Pediatric Neurology: A Signs and Symptoms Approach by James, Kaitlin C.; Piña-Garza, J. Eric (Jesus Eric).
Firestein & Kelley’s Textbook of Rheumatology by Firestein, Gary S.
Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology by Hall, John E. (John Edward); Hall, Michael E. (Michael Edward).
Hematopathology by Jaffe, Elaine Sarkin.
Klaus and Fanaroff’s Care of the High-Risk Neonate by Fanaroff, Avroy A.; Fanaroff, Jonathan M.
Netter’s Essential Physiology by Mulroney, Susan E., editor.
Robbins, Cotran & Kumar Pathologic Basis of Disease by Kumar, Vinay, 1944- editor.; Abbas, Abul K., editor.; Aster, Jon C., editor.; Debnath, Jayanta, editor.; Das, Abhijit, editor.; Cotran, Ramzi S., 1932-2000.; Robbins, Stanley L. (Stanley Leonard), 1915-2003.
Williams Textbook of Endocrinology by Melmed, Shlomo, editor.; Auchus, Richard J., editor.; Goldfine, Allison B., editor.; Rosen, Clifford J., editor.; Kopp, Peter A. (Peter Andreas), editor.; Williams, Robert Hardin.
To search for more titles, please visit the library catalogue.
We have recently changed the background system that provides access to our e-resources. We are now using OpenAthens.
You shouldn’t notice any difference when you log in. You will still see the same BMA login page and still enter the same username and password:
You may notice a more seamless experience such as when you search the online catalogue for a particular journal that is hosted on ClinicalKey, you will find that you will go straight through to the full text of the article. Also, if you are a regular user of ClinicalKey Student you will no longer need to keep logging into this platform. These and many other improvements are all thanks to OpenAthens.
The way BMA members access our e-resources hasn’t changed, via our online catalogue and the BMA website, these are still our recommended routes to resources as this will ensure you are seeing everything held in the BMA Library collection.
Via the catalogue you can search by article title or book/chapter title to quickly find and access a particular piece of content that you are looking for.
But you can now access platforms, that we have subscriptions with, directly. To login directly, to BMA subscribed content, on publishers sites, look for the OpenAthens login option on the platform’s website and search for The British Medical Association on the list of Institutions.
Access to the other online resources the BMA provides to members – for example the BMJ; Rota Checker; and Specialty Explorer – are handled separately and still require BMA members to access them via the usual route – logging in with their BMA website username and password. Please DON’T select the OpenAthens login option on the websites of any of these resources as this will not work.
If you have any comments or feedback about us using OpenAthens for providing access to our e-resources, please get in touch with us by sending an email to: bma-library@bma.org.uk
We offer access to both the Embase and Medline databases on the Ovid platform.
Embase is a comprehensive, biomedical literature database, produced by the leading STEM publisher Elsevier, with a strong focus on pharmacology and medical devices.
Medline is the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) primary bibliographic database for biomedical and life sciences literature, containing citations and abstracts from peer-reviewed journal articles.
Both databases index articles from thousands of peer reviewed medical journals.
On the Ovid platform it is possible to search each of these databases individually or simultaneously.
On the Ovid platform there are two very useful resources to assist with searching Embase and Medline.
There is the Help link near the top right hand corner of the screen which when clicked opens a pop up window listing numerous topics with helpful advice and guidance on each.
There is also the Ovid Search Builder (the button for accessing this is directly to the left of the Help link) which is a tool for helping the user to quickly and easily, step-by-step, construct a search strategy.
As well as the help available on the Ovid platform itself, there is a wealth of helpful information about searching Embase, Medline and various other online resources that are available to BMA members on our Research Resources page.
If you encounter any technical issues with accessing the Ovid platform please do get in touch with us by sending an email to bma-library@bma.org.uk and we will investigate the matter for you and work to get it resolved as soon as possible.
For certain aspects of the Ovid platform, such as the saved searches facility, you will need to contact the Support Team at Ovid for assistance. Their email address is: support@ovid.com.
If you have any comments or feedback about this blog post please do get in touch with us by sending an email to: bma-library@bma.org.uk
We have a growing collection of e-books on the UKMLA (Medical Licencing Assessment) exam.
These can all now be quickly and easily accessed via our newest curated collection.
If you have any comments or queries about this new curated collection, please email: bma-library@bma.org.uk
2025 marks the 100th anniversary of BMA House. In 1925, the British Medical Association moved from 429 The Strand to its new home in Tavistock Square.
The official opening ceremony of BMA House was on 13 July 1925. We have put together an online exhibition featuring an timeline spanning the 100 years of BMA House. Keep on reading this blog for some behind the scenes additions.
The BMA archives contain a vast amount of material where the building and its architecture are either the main subject, or the backdrop of the BMA’s everyday life and special events.
Here are a few photographs of rooms in BMA House, taken in the late 1920s. At this point, two architects had successively created parts of the building, Edwin Lutyens and Cyril Wontner-Smith.
To help us better understand the history and evolution of the building, we also have in the archive several plans and elevations from the various architects who have worked on BMA House over the years
Here you can compare two plans of the ground floor, from 1924 and 1952. 1924 shown upside down to keep the same orientation.
We also have further information regarding the War Memorial fountain, which is not on the 1952 plan, as it was created two years later, in 1954.
The fountain in the courtyard, created by James Woodford (sculptor) and S. Rowland Pierce (architect) as a World War II memorial, was originally chosen from several projects entered in a competition. You can see a copy of their proposition, ‘Exhibit 3’ (BMA Archive Ref. C/18/4/7/1), as part of the exhibition online and in the Hastings room.
Ever wondered what the sculptures represent?
In November 1954, an article published in the BMJ on the dedication ceremony of the War Memorial fountain gave the sculptor’s explanation of the symbolism of these figures. Have a look and see if you can identify them:
You can see the fountain and sculptures in detail during the London Open Gardens weekend in June
If you have viewed the exhibition, you will have seen how the Great Hall served several purposes over the years. Here is an extra one that didn’t make the final exhibition, the badminton court of the 1970s-80s, in between events of course. The badminton net is removed, but you can see the lines on the ground:
If you are interested in learning more, or visiting the archive, please get in contact with BMAArchive@bma.org.uk.
We have recently added three new curated collections to our online catalogue:
Non-Clinical Professional Skills E-books
Health Services Management E-Books
All three of these new curated collections, as with all of our others, are intended to make it quicker and easier to browse and access the titles that are available in our e-resource collections on particular topics. Please note that the collections do not cover all of our holdings. If there is specific title that you wish to access we recommend entering it into to the search box on the home page of our online catalogue.
All of our e-resources are accessible to all current BMA members regardless of what stage they are in their medical career.
If you have any comments or feedback about any of these three new curated e-collections please email us: bma-library@bma.org.uk
BMA library and archive blog 