Dr Richard Bright: The Man Behind the Discovery of Bright’s Disease
Join Yuki Russell and Frank Meeres to hear more about Dr Richard Bright, a British physician whose use of bedside observation and chemical research enabled him to diagnose Bright’s disease. In 2017 a 5-year project began, funded initially by the Wellcome Trust, and then the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust and private supporters, in which staff worked to conserve nearly 600 of his letters and 13 notebooks held in the Norfolk Record Office. These letters had not only been far too fragile to open, but any movement of the box they were in was likely to cause further damage. Yuki will explain the processes involved in enabling members of the public to see the content of these letters for the first time in 150 years, before Frank explores the content of the letters and what it tells us about the man himself.