John Dollar photograph and bill-head

The collection is composed of an imposing photograph of John A. W. Dollar, circa 1904-1905, in his presidential robes - President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons - and a bill with engraved bill-head of the Dollar veterinary practice on New Bond Street, London, with a fine engraved bill-head, a rare survival.

The portrait was taken by the firm Elliott and Fry, 55 Baker Street, London W, and is numbered in pencil as No.206440D.

The bill with engraved bill-head is dated in ink, 1901. It is the account between January 1901 and December 1901 with J. E. Taylor esq., Kensington Palace Gardens, London, and includes interesting information about veterinary costs in the early months of the 20th century - e.g. a 'nailing' presumably for a horse-shoe costing one shilling (January 16), four shoes for six shillings (April 1), and attendance, advice and a bottle of lotion for eight shillings and sixpence (June 13).

John Archibald Watt Dollar, born in 1866, was a member of the equine veterinary practice T. A. Dollar and Sons, Veterinary Surgeons, New Bond Street, London. His father, the founder of the practice, was Thomas Aitken Dollar (1833-1909). The elder Dollar studied at the then Edinburgh Veterinary College and was awarded the Highland and Agricultural Society's certificate in 1851. In 1880, he was Vice-President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. By the time Dollar died on 26 September 1909, the veterinary practice was the largest in London with a presence (veterinary forges) in Baker Street, in Westminster, in Blackfriars, in Lambeth, in Belgrave Square, in Chelsea, and in Paddington. The practice also had paddocks at Wells House Farm, East Acton

During the 1880s, John Archibald Watt Dollar and his older brother William Watt Dollar (1860-1938) joined their father's veterinary business, though the younger Dollar spent much of his time travelling abroad and visiting veterinary colleges. John was credited with introducing the first equine operating table to Britain - the table had been designed by himself. He published too and his works include: a translation ofMoeller's operative veterinary surgery(1894), then with Albert Wheatley and othersA handbook of horse-shoeing with introductory chapters on the anatomy and physiology of the horse's foot(1898), then with Gustave Moussu,Diseases of cattle, sheep, goats and swine(1905), and with Heinrich Moeller, theRegional Veterinary Surgery and Operative Technique (incorporating Prof. Dr. H. Moeller's 'Veterinary Surgery'.)(1912), andDollar's Veterinary surgery : general, operative, and regionalwhich went to a 4th edition in 1950.

John A. W. Dollar was Warden of the Worshipful Company of Farriers from 1900 to 1903, and was President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, circa 1904-1905. On the death of their father in 1909, the two brothers continued to work together at the practice which moved to Baker Street in 1919. They retired in 1926 however, and the practice was sold to a Mr. Tay. John Archibald Watt Dollar died in 1947.

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