Lander, Kathleen

Assistant Curator, October 1922-June 1923

Dr Mary Kathleen Forsaith Lander (married name: Kitchin) M.B. M.Sc. (London). Life dates: 21 May 1897 – 5 Feb 1945.

Medical doctor, psychologist and Jungian analyst. Assistant Curator at WHMM from October 1922 until June 1923.

Work at WHMM

Kathleen Lander was a qualified medical doctor who first appeared in WHMM correspondence in June 1922, discussing with CJS Thompson about the museum supplying illustrations for one of her lectures (15 June 1922 WA/HMM/CO/Chr/A.33).

Lander was appointed to the museum as Assistant Curator in October 1922, working with curator C.J.S. Thompson ‘in connection with scientific work’ (see letter of engagement 4 Oct 1922 in WA/HMM/ST/Ear/A.39). She negotiated her contract to include two half-days off for continuing to practice clinical medicine alongside museum work. (“Do you really think that you can expect any qualified person to tie themselves down wholly to museum work for the remuneration offered?” - KL, 25 Aug 1922, WA/HMM/ST/Ear/A.39)

Lander was Assistant Curator for a period of only 8 months, and her staff file does not give much detail of her museum work. Her letter of resignation (8 May 1923, WA/HMM/ST/Ear/A.39) asked that her last day should be 9 June 1923.

After leaving WHMM Lander continued to correspond with Thompson, in 1924 enquiring about hosting a reception from the Medical Women’s International Association at the museum. (The reception never happened in end, due to the group getting an invite to 10 Downing Street.) (undated letter May-June 1924, WA/MM/CO/Chr/A.33, page image 208-210).

Biographical notes

Attended Wimbledon High School and then the London School of Medicine for Women, receiving BSc and MSc degrees in Human Anatomy and Morphology in 1919. In 1921 she qualified as a medical doctor (M.B.) [Reference: British History Online] She was also awarded a Beit Memorial Fellowship for Medical Research in 1921 (see archives SA/BMF/A.2/272 at Wellcome), but apparently resigned it due to ill health.

After leaving WHMM she spent five years as a general practitioner in London, including a period with a child welfare clinic and antenatal clinics. She took up psychological work from 1923, including a post at the Tavistock Clinic and also the Maudsley and Bethlem hospitals. Studied with Carl Jung and became a Jungian analyst.

Headed notepaper c.1923 in her WHMM staff file indicates Dr Lander was at a correspondence address of 33 Camden Road, NW1, shared with a Dr Dorothy Fenwick. Letters indicate that her father was also a physician.

Her later medical work increasingly focused on psychology, and she was one of the founders of the Guild of Pastoral Therapy (now Guild of Pastoral Psychology) (Reference: Conrad Lammers 2016.)

Lander married Derek Harcourt Kitchin, a barrister and journalist, in August 1925. She passed the legal bar under her married name and engaged in journalism on medical and legal topics, often together with her husband. They also translated medical texts together (eg. The Digestive Tract, by Alfred E. Barclay, 1936, 2nd ed)

Kathleen Kitchin died in 1945 at the age of 47. Obituaries appeared in The Times and the British Medical Journal.

WA/HMM archive

​Handwriting samples

  • WA/HMM/CO/Chr/A.33, page image 217, with signature ‘KFL’

  • WA/HMM/CO/Chr/B.11, page image 27, one handwritten letter

  • WA/HMM/ST/Ear/A.39. Many handwritten letters in staff file 1922-23 (not digitised)

Other archives at Wellcome

Publications in Wellcome Collection’s library

Sources

Biographical information

Career information

Obituaries

Tags: museum staff; curatorial staff

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