|
A Guide to Manuscript Sources in the History of Medicine in the American Philosophical Library
By Revised by |
Introduction | Contents | Arrangement | Collections | Subject index
Medicine at the American Philosophical Society Library
In 1769, Medicine and Anatomy was officially designated as one of six categories of membership in the American Philosophical Society, and ever since, the biomedical disciplines have been well represented in Philosophical Hall. Correspondingly, the Society's Library has built a strong core of materials relating to the history of medicine from the 18th century to the present in the form of books, pamphlets, and periodicals, as well as the personal and professional papers of practicing physicians and medical researchers. Today, the Manuscripts Division houses one of the strongest collections in the nation for documenting the history of medicine in the early 20th century.
The A.P.S. collections include materials documenting a wide range of topics, from diagnostics to diabetes, virology to vivisection. The records of the practice of individual physicians are less extensive than for those working in a research setting, though the Library does contain some case books, medical receipt books, and correspondence regarding patients. Nevertheless, several of the most influential physicians in the United States during the 18th and early 19th centuries are represented (e.g. Benjamin Rush, Caspar Wistar, and David Hosack), while others, such as Samuel George Morton, William Darlington, Richard Owen, and Benjamin Smith Barton, are included as much for their interests in natural history as for medicine. The Records of the Pennsylvania Hospital are available on microfilm through the A.P.S., and comprise an exceptionally important archive for studying the growth of health care institutions and health care practices.
The collections are very rich for documenting medical research, education, and administration, particularly in the 20th century. With a focus on the first half of the century, the A.P.S. holdings inevitably document the rise of the hospital, the increased emphasis upon public health, the development of extensive collaborative networks and governmental support, and the increased reliance upon the technologies of modern medicine. Thus, the records of the Rockefeller Institute document early, large-scale epidemiological studies of meninigitis and polimyelitis in New York City; the papers of Thomas Milton Rivers are an excellent resource for studying the massively-large development of the polio vaccine; Mildred Cohn contributed to the development of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology while the career of Thomas F. Anderson was intimately linked with electron microscopy; and Joseph Stokes, Jr., was one of the central administrators at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. In fact, the papers of policy makers, administrators, educators, and reformers such as Simon Flexner, Rufus Ivory Cole, and Henry A. Moe, form one of the most significant components of the collections.
Contents of the Guide
The following index of collections relating to the education, practice, administration, and history of medicine is necessarily highly selective and in some respects, clearly incomplete. The question of what to include -- and exclude -- was complicated by the disciplinary overlap between biomedical specialties, and between the life sciences and other natural sciences. Furthermore, particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries, a medical education provided a starting point for persons interested in the natural or physical sciences. As a result, physicians often embarked on careers in vastly different disciplines, while more recently, biochemists, physiologists, and molecular biologists, among others not trained as physicians, have worked in concert with medical researchers on issues of importance to both.
In this guide, the decision was made to focus narrowly on those collections that pertain most directly to medical practice and administration, omitting a number of potentially relevant collections in allied fields. In some cases, particularly with older collections, we have indexed some non-medical content when that material was deemed of significant importance to the life and work of the physician. In other cases, the decision on whether a researcher's interests or activities fall under the rubric of medicine or biology was very difficult to make, and some researchers (e.g. F.J.W. Roughton) who might profitably have been included have instead been omitted. Researchers interested in medical or biomedical research, in particular, are advised carefully to examine the general guide to the Library holdings.
Certain subject areas have been excluded from this guide because they are thoroughly indexed elsewhere.
- Ethnobotany and the medical traditions of Native Americans are indexed separately in two published guides: Freeman and Smith, A Guide to Manuscripts Relating to the American Indian and Daythal Kendall, A Supplement to a Guide to Manuscripts Relating to the American Indian.
- Academic research in medicine, eugenics, and genetics is discussed in the published and on-line guides of Bentley Glass, A Guide to the Genetics Collections... and Lily Kay, Molecules, Cells, and Life.
The subject terms employed in this guide are derived from the Library of Congress Subject Headings, with some local modifications, and are applied at the collection-level. Individual items, unless of extreme importance, are not included, and for most collections, only the most significant subjects (in volume or content) are represented. For further information, readers may consult the On-line Guide to manuscript collections or the more detailed finding aids available at the Library.
Arrangement of the Guide
This guide is arranged in two parts:
- An alphabetical listing of collections relating to medicine and medical history, with links to the collection abstracts
- A classified listing of subjects discussed within the collections, with links.
The Collections