The Anglo-Russian Hospital, Petrograd. Photograph album by and scrapbook by W.A. Propert, 1915-1917.

1 album (38 leaves)

Fol. 1r : Colour process print of a watercolour: Dmitri palace (?) or entrance to church, a procession of people below the tympanum

Fol. 1v : 3 items: 2 photographic prints, 1 process print. 1L: Photograph: a soldier holding hat, and sword; 1R: Photograph: a young soldier in great coat decorated with medals. 2C: Process print: "Petrograd", showing street scene of palace, bridge and boat

Fol. 2r : 3 process prints. Top: caption: "The Dmitri Palace, Petrograd, now used as the Anglo-Russian Hospital", front of palace. Middle: "Anglo-Russian Hospital Ward. Beds endowed by the City of Newcastle-upon-Tyne", nurses standing by patients in beds. Bottom: "Patients in the Anglo-Russian Hospital learning to read", soldiers gathered around tables holding books

Fol. 2v : 3 photographic prints. Top: nurse attending a patient in bed with his leg in traction, three doctors looking over chart. Middle: nurses attending to bandaged patients. Bottom: soldiers, nurses and patients congregated in palace hospital ward beneath chandelier

Fol. 3r : 4 photographic prints. Top left: hospital staff (and possibly patients) assembled on the Great Staircase, incl.. Lady Sybil Grey ? / Matron Miss Irvine Robertson? (to be confirmed from Harmer). Top right: 5 men in occupational therapy? – One man sits at a Singer sewing machine, another behind holds a crutch. Middle: two nurses and a patient look out the window. Bottom: nurses and patients in the ward. In the foreground, two young patients/soldiers wearing overcoats, one with an arm in a sling.

Fol. 3v : 7 photographic prints. Top: 3 nurses (one holding bowl towards doctor) and a doctor attend to/operate on patient on a bed. Tiled floor same as in M.Harmer, The forgotten hospital, p. 140. Second row left: Two nurses stand on balcony in front of a square. Second row middle: The same square. Second row right: Two women and a man stand in front of a building with a tall chimney. Third row left: 3 horses with 7 (possibly 8) figures pulled on carts/sledges through snow. Third row right: side view, horse and cart pulling people, with driver. Bottom: group portrait of twenty staff assembled before fireplace and under clock (10.20pm?).

Fol. 4r : 4 photographic prints, 2 process prints. Top left: contact print. Young soldier in uniform, lost thumb from left hand. Top right: Contact print. Two young patients/soldiers, dressed in overcoats with belts and hats, one with arm in sling, nurse standing behind them. Second row left: same two young patients/soldiers, not in uniform: one in overcoat, other in white outfit. Second row right: Contact print. 3 nurses standing by bottom of bed. Centre: Process print. Caption: "Staff and patients, Anglo-Russian Hospital, Petrograd". Assembled on the Great Staircase. A British Red Cross Society (BRCS) photograph. In the centre are the Matron Miss Irvine Robertson, Dr Fleming and Lady Sybil Grey; behind the last is William Douglas Harmer. (Harmer. loc. cit., p. 51). Bottom: Process print. "[Gr]ace before meals in the Anglo-Russian Hospital, Petrograd". Side view of patients standing by tables and benches

Fol. 4v : 7 photographic prints. Exterior views of chapels incl. upshot of Our Saviours Cathedral, Moscow. Bottom right: street scene showing river and bridge, with cathedrals/palace? in distance.

Fol. 5r : 3 photographic prints, 4 contact prints. 1L: Contact print of loose print on fol.6v/7r. Rooftop shot, cityscape featuring bell domes/onion domes of surrounding cathedrals, including Ivan the Great Bell-Tower complex, Moscow Bottom left: two orthodox priests. Bottom right: Four men, Orthodox priests?

Fol. 5v : 2 process prints. Top: external view of Dormition Cathedral, Moscow. South façade, viewed from Cathedral Square. Groups of people standing on pavement beneath. Bottom: view from cathedral square, Moscow, featuring Archangel's cathedral and Ivan the Great Bell Tower

Fol. 6r : 1 process print: interior view of church with chandelier; religious murals adorn the pillars

Fol. 6v : 1 process print: exterior view of large buildings

Between fol. 6v and fol. 7r: loose photographic print.Rooftop view of Moscow featuring bell domes/onion domes of surrounding cathedrals, including Ivan the Great Bell-Tower complex

Fol. 7r : 2 process prints. Top: Ivanovskaya Square, Moscow. Tsar cannon and cannon balls. Men and soldiers standing beneath lamp, with car. Bottom: Ivanovskaya Square, Moscow. People (some of the same men as above, plus car, and 5 women) standing at base of Tsar bell

Fol. 7v : 3 photographic, 3 contact prints. All feature woodland / field hospital scenes. To left: contact print: field hospital tent. Top right: photograph. Soldiers wearing aprons and nurses attending to patient? In wooden cart filled with hay. Middle left: Photograph. 3 soldiers standing around cauldron/receptacle (cooking or boiling water?). Middle right: contact print. Soldier in uniform standing in hole in ground, smoking. Bottom left: contact print: white tent field hospital, with doctor and soldiers. Bottom right: Photograph. Soldiers in aprons and nurse carrying patient on stretcher

Fol. 8r : 3 photographic, 3 contact prints. All feature woodland / field hospital scenes. Top left: Photograph. Two nurses, one sitting on bench, and a soldier outside field hospital tent. Top right: Contact print. Back of men having a wash? In tub, surrounded by trees and clothes drying on lines. Middle left: Contact print. Smartly dressed woman (summer dress? Heels and hat) posing on Red Cross car. Middle right: Soldiers and nurses waiting in field, field hospital in background. Bottom left: Wooden cart waited for in previous print arrives. Bottom right: contact print. 4 men in deckchairs play cards around a table

Fol. 8v : 2 contact prints, 2 photographic prints. All feature woodland / field hospital scenes. Top: a soldier in uniform with red crosses on shoulders stands next to some kind of cloth. Bottom: 2 soldiers in uniform, one holding horse reins, with horse's head visible behind them. Middle right: soldiers wait around back of ambulance in which patients feet are visible.

Fol. 9r : 3 photographic prints, 3 contact prints. Top left: Photograph. 2 men in uniform sit outside field hospital tent on bench. Top right: contact print. A group of uniformed men walking outside. Middle left: small photographic print taken from one car (with windscreen visible), of road and approaching car – possibly ambulance. Middle right: 5 uniformed soldiers standing before piece of artillery (cannon). Bottom left: 4 nurses seated (relaxing, reading and sewing), with another nurse and soldier standing behind, inside field hospital tent. Bottom right: Soldier, on guard holding gun, standing before barrier of netting

Fol. 9v : 3 photographic prints. Top: 2 groups of soldiers, including a military band, holding instruments such as cymbals, drums and brass, others lined up holding guns. Middle: landscape scene of field hospital tents, red cross on flag. Bottom: a soldier standing in corner of a trench lined with wattles

Fol. 10r : 3 photographic prints. Same group of soldiers in 9v. Top: a band playing instruments, back of red cross ambulance. Middle: a man planing wood at abench. Bottom: same location and soldier as 9v bottom, showing more of the landscape

Fol. 10v : 3 photographic prints. All field hospital scenes.Top: soldiers and nurses standing and seated in the back of a red cross ambulance, next to a track. Bottom left a steel structure – radio pylon? Bottom right: soldiers and patients seated and standing at the back of a red cross ambulance

Fol. 11r : 3 photographic prints. All field hospital scenes. Top: horses pulling patients in wooden cart beds along a track, accompanied by soldiers, with field hospital tents in the distance. Middle: field hospital tents and ambulance scene. Russian text on ambulance. Bottom: four soldiers and a nurse, standing in front of field hospital tents

Fol. 11v : 9 photographic prints. Top: exterior view of brick building of an institution. Second row left: contact print. 3 members of staff in uniform. Second row centre: contact print. 3 staff carrying patient on a stretcher. Second row right: contact print. Staff and patients on the ward. Third row left: contact print. 3 female, 2 male members of staff standing in a line on the ward. Third row centre: contact print. Soldiers standing on the street. Third row right: contact print. 3 staff on the wards. Fourth row left: 4 male members of staff, one at a table with pen in hand. Fourth row right: staff and soldiers standing, with patients lying in their beds

Fol. 12r : 5 photographic prints. Top: field hospital scene featuring tents, with staff seated on deckchairs in a circle outside; brick building shown in 11v in the background. Middle left: contact print. Side view of a tram approaching, with passengers standing on the roof. Middle centre: horses and red cross carts lined up outside building. Middle right: street scene with buildings, smoke or steam rising in to sky Bottom: same scene as at top, from different angle and closer to figures

Fol. 12v : 3 photographic prints. Top left: portrait of a soldier in uniform, from the side. Top right: portrait of two soldiers (one the same soldier as in top left) in red cross uniform. Bottom a bearded soldier in red cross uniform. All "heroic" portraits (viewed from below)

Fol. 13r : Loose items, not pasted into the album: 10 photographic prints and 7 process prints.

Fols. 13v-22r : blank

Fols. 22v-23r : Periodical article: 'The Anglo-Russian hospital: an impression' by "J.B." (presumably John Buchan), possibly from the Illustrated London News

Fol. 23v-24r : blank

Fol. 24v : 3 loose process prints, cut from periodicals, with captions: 1. "The Oospensky Cathedral, where the Tsars were crowned". 2-3 'The Tchudee monastery, which existed in the time of "The False Dimitri"'

Fol. 25r : Process print, cut from newspaper. A Russian Revolutionary street scene: a wide boulevard with people fleeing gunfire, others dead or injured

Fol. 25v : 2 official Red Cross passes via Red Cross, 1916 for Walter Propert, doctor in the Anglo-Russian Section

Fol. 26r : 2 official railway permits, 1916, for Dr. Walter Propert, travelling from Kiev to Moscow

Fol. 26v : Three programmes for performances at the Mariinsky Theatre, 1916: two operas by Mikhael Glinka (A life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila) and a ballet with music by Cesare Pugni, The little humpbacked horse, or The Tsar maiden (Konyok Gorbunok)

Fol. 27r : Two tickets for performances at the Mariinsky Theatre, 1916. Colour process print of stage set, showing a Russian market place

Fol. 27v : Three programmes and a ticket for performances at the Mariinsky Theatre, 1916: Egyptian Night (ballet with music by Anton Stepanovich Arensky and choreography by M. Fokine); Don Quixote (ballet with music by Ludwig Minkus); and The tale of Tsar Saltan (opera with music by Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov ).

Fol. 28r : Colour process print: design by Boris Israëlevich Anisfeld for ballet Islamey with music by Balakirev

Fol. 28v : Programmes for performances at the Mosaic Theatre, 1916: The Golden Cockerel (opera with music by Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov); kinematographic shows (cinema), and performances of Rusalka (opera with music by opera by Alexander Dargomyzhsky) and Trilby (play)

Fol. 29r : 2 colour process prints of stage sets

Fol. 29v : 2 programmes for performances at the Theatre of Musical Drama, season 1916-1917: The snow maiden (opera with music by Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov) and The slippers (Cherevichki, opera with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)

Fol. 30r : blank

Fol. 30v : Illustrated programme and ticket for a performance at A. Fokine's Trinity Theatre, Petrograd: Сегодня (Segodnya, "Today"), "Les cinq sens", and other works. Programme for a performance at Moscow Arts Theatre of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich (tragedy by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy)

Fol. 31r : four banknotes and one loose 10 rouble note drawn on Russian State Treasury, 1918; three postage stamps

Fol. 31v : Two colour process prints: stage and costume designs

Fol. 32r : colour process print: costume designs (for Ivan the Terrible?)

Fols.32v-40r : blank

Compiled by Walter Archibald Propert (1867-1946), physician and subsequently author of books on the Ballets Russes

Michael Harmer, The forgotten hospital, Chichester 1982

Wellcome Collection 2000633i

English