VPRS 16867 Honor Books

This series consists of two red coloured honor-roll books commissioned by the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH). The first is inscribed Olympic Century Honor Book Royal Children's Hospital. It has an engraved image of the RCH imprinted on the cover. The second has no external markings. Both appear to have been produced around the same time, probably 1963, as there is a publisher's note dated 1963 on the reverse of one of the leading pages the Olympic book.The Olympic Century honor-roll commemorates individuals and organisations that donated money to develop a new RCH ward called the Olympic Century Ward. An appeal to develop the ward commenced in 1956, the year in which the city of Melbourne hosted the Olympic Games. The idea was to get 100 donors to contribute 100 pounds each for ward endowments at the new hospital to be developed in Parkville. It has an inscription on the back page In memory of Robert Albert Walter Greenwood died Alfred Hospital, April 21, 1963.The second book does not appear to relate to the Olympic Century ward. It has various sections commemorating individuals and various groups and organisations that had supported the hospital. Some entries are dated and judging by these dates the book appears to cover contributions made over the period c1920 to c1960. It also includes an honor-roll of nurses who served with the Imperial Forces 1914 - 1918.According to the Archives Department of the RCH the volumes originally had purpose-built wood and glass display cases and were displayed with a spotlight on a pedestal trained on them at the entrance to the Olympic Century Ward. They were installed in 1965. The display cases were disposed of in 1991.Prior to transfer to Public Record Office Victoria, the records in this series were maintained as part of the Royal Children's Hospital Archives. They were part of RCH accession number 2004/002.