| Description | Poole was born in Edinburgh and graduated MD at the University of St Andrews in 1805. He was editor of the New Edinburgh Review, and published articles in it promoting phrenology in the early 1820s. He was also first editor of the Phrenological Journal and joined the editorial staff of the Encyclopædia Edinensis under James Millar.
From 1820 Poole campaigned for a new infirmary in Edinburgh and in 1825 wrote a pamphlet addressed to Andrew Duncan the elder on the question to which Duncan gave a critical reply in a letter to William Fettes. In 1825 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and later went on to become the honorary librarian 1835-1838. He also undertook extensive research on the College's history which W S Craig used in his published history. He published 'An Essay on Education' in which he advocated education in cases if mental retardation. In the late 1830s he was a pioneer advocate of mental health reform, and in 1838 he became superintendent of the Montrose Asylum under W A F Browne, where he stayed until 1845. He then kept an asylum at Middlefield, Aberdeenshire. He died in Coupar Angus.
[Source: History of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh by W S Craig]
Contents: Correspondence, 1826-1854; photocopies of correspondence held elsewhere, 1826-1845; catalogue of the papers of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 1846; extracts from the papers of the College on its history and development, c1766-1851; extracts relating to medical education, 1825-1851; extracts relating to a new Infirmary in Edinburgh, 1825-1846; extracts relating to the Royal Public Dispensary, 1824-1851; papers of the Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary and Dispensary of Montrose, 1837-1845; personal papers of Richard Poole relating to his practice, 1818-c1851; papers of Richard Poole junior, 1825-1837; papers relating to the care of the Insane and a new asylum in Edinburgh, 1827-1865; and notes on geographical works, 1813-c1842.
POR/9 acquired separately from POR/1-8 (provenance of former unknown, found in store room) |