History of Medicine

The Indiana State Archives and Records Administration has a rich and extensive collection of county and state government records relating to the regulation of medical practice and education in nineteenth-century Indiana. These records not only document the history of medical licensing in Indiana, but also chronicle the history of medical education in the state; the tensions between traditional healers and "irregulars" such as homeopaths and eclectics; and the practice of midwifery in Indiana. The project website includes an online exhibit, finding aid to History of Medicine materials held by the Indiana State Archives, and a bibliography of 19th century Indiana medicine.

The Indiana Medical History Quarterly was published by the Medical History Section of the Indiana Historical Society from 1974 to 1983. Articles covered a wide variety of topics regarding medicine in Indiana.

The Indiana State Board of Health Monthly Bulletin collection dates from 1899-1991. The Bulletin was sent to all health officers and deputies in the state, as well as to individual subscribers. The Bulletin was used to communicate public health instructions, rules and general information to Indiana health officials. This collection provides a historic portrayal of Indiana public health issues and vital statistics in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

An index of contributors of the Transactions of the the Indiana State Medical Society. (later known as the Journal of the Indiana State Medical Association) between 1849 and 1907. Compiled by G.W.H. Kemper, M.D. in 1915.

Digitized versions of the official journal of the Indiana State Medical Association available in the Internet Archive.

Digitized versions of the official journal of the Indiana State Medical Association available in the Internet Archive.

This historical collection provides a unique picture of the health and well-being of Indiana residents through the prism of public health. The photographs, advertisements, and illustrations portray Hoosier public health and medical history with resources from the 19th and 20th centuries. This work was performed under a subcontract with the University of Illinois at Chicago and made possible by a grant from the National Library of Medicine.

Consists of 59 interviews conducted by the Indiana University Center for the Study of History and Memory with doctors who have practiced medicine in the state of Indiana from approximately the nineteen thirties until the nineteen seventies, eighties, and nineties. The doctors share personal anecdotes about their medical practices in both rural and urban areas, their perspectives on the many changes medicine has undergone in the twentieth century, and the greatest satisfaction they received from their profession. [Indiana University log-in required to access digitized audio recordings]

The Aesculapian Medical Society was established in 1903 by African American physicians, dentists, and pharmacists in Indianapolis that were refused admission to the Marion County Medical Society. The society shared professional information and established group cohesion and recognition, while members pushed for the admittance of African American doctors and patients into local hospitals, meeting with success in 1953.

M.A. Thesis by Norma B. Erickson, Department of History, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, 2016.

Post from the "Invisible Indianapolis" blog, written by Paul R. Mullins, Professor of Anthropology at IUPUI. Invisible Indianapolis examines history and material culture in a series of seemingly “invisible” Indianapolis neighborhoods.

Digital collection consisting of research articles, laws, primary sources, and other resources documenting the history of eugenics in Indiana from the 1880s to 2007. The collection was curated to commemorate the 1907 Indiana law allowing for the involuntary sterilization of "confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles and rapists." Although it was eventually found to be unconstitutional, this law is widely regarded as the first eugenics sterilization legislation passed in the world.

Edited volume (Dorothy Ritter Russo, Editor-in-Chief) prepared under the direction of Charles N. Combs, MD and Edgar F. Kiser, MD.

Book by Anna Agnew about her time as a patient at Central State Hospital in the 19th century.

Index to the collection of Central State Hospital records held by the Indiana State Archives and Records Administration. Also includes links to virtual exhibits about the hospital and the general treatment of insanity in the 19th century.

Indiana Memory is a collaborative effort to provide access to the wealth of primary sources in Indiana libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions. It is a gateway to Indiana's history and culture found in digitized books, manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, maps, and other media, including those documenting the history of medicine in Indiana.

Hoosier State Chronicles is operated by the Indiana State Library and funded by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act. It provides free, online access to high quality digital images of Indiana's historic newspapers by digitizing our collection, and assisting other organizations in making their collections digitally available. A great resource for locating contemporary perspectives on epidemics, sanitation, and other public health concerns.

Visitors can explore the teaching amphitheater; laboratories for bacteriology, clinical chemistry, histology, and photography; the library, reception room, and records room; as well as the autopsy room and anatomical museum which houses preserved specimens--mostly brains, organized by pathology.

Full-text digitized annual reports available through HathiTrust.

Includes a history of the Air Force Medical Service (AFMS), biographies of former leadership, bibliography of books and articles about the AFMS, and links to historical documents and photographs.

The Office of Medical History is part of the OTSG/MEDCOM History Program and is responsible for assembling and publishing reference materials, original works, previously unpublished works, reprints, special studies, web publications, AMEDD newspaper/professional publications, and print series. The website includes AMEDD biographies, organizational histories, lists of medal of honor recipients, and links to books, documents, historical artwork/images, and medical memoirs related to U.S. Army medical history.

Consists of publications, public records, manuscripts, personal papers, hospital plans, Navy Hygiene Museum records, biographical files, subject files, facility files, films, videos, photographs, prints, drawings, and artifacts.

In honor of the Medical Service Corps' 73rd birthday, André Sobocinski, Navy Medicine's historian, shares details about the origins of the Corps, the plankowners, and the importance of this diverse group to Navy Medicine's mission.

National Library of Medicine digital collection featuring digitized procedural manuals, unit histories, published personal narratives, accounts of relief work, and other texts on military medicine from the World War I era (1914-1918)

National Library of Medicine digital collection featuring digitized procedural manuals and other texts on military medicine from the World War II era (1939-1949)

National Library of Medicine digital collection featuring digitized public health films from the World War II era (1941-1945).

Includes curated, topical bibliographies of primary sources and searchable databases developed to provide access to digitized and transcribed documents pertaining to Civil War medicine.

Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton," an interactive annotated world bibliography of printed and digital works in the history of medicine and the life sciences from circa 2000 BCE to 2015. Compiled by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman.

IndexCat is a database containing the bibliographic citations of all five printed series of the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office; with direct access to the National Library of Medicine online catalog. It contains material dated from the 1400s through 1950, although the bulk of the material focuses on the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Curated by the History of the Health Sciences Caucus of the Medical Library Association, this site contains links to online resources about the history of disease, bibliographies/chronologies/histories, academic journals, archives and museums, and important works and individuals in history of the health sciences.

The National Library of Medicine's online syllabus archive collects college and university syllabi in the history of medicine, public health, the biomedical sciences, nursing, and related areas. It aims to offer a selection of current approaches to teaching in these subjects, from prehistory to the present, and in all parts of the globe.

The Medical Heritage Library, a digital curation collaborative among some of the world’s leading medical libraries, promotes free and open access to quality historical resources in medicine. The MHL’s growing collection of digitized medical rare books, pamphlets, journals, and films number in the tens of thousands, with representative works from each of the past six centuries, all of which are available through the Internet Archive.

The National Library of Medicine's free online repository of biomedical resources including books, manuscripts, still images, videos, and maps. The content in Digital Collections is freely available worldwide and, unless otherwise indicated, in the public domain. Digital Collections provides unique access to NLM's rich historical resources, as well as select modern resources.

History of Medicine Finding Aids is the central access point for collection finding aids to locate materials in the Archives and Modern Manuscripts, Prints and Photographs, and Historical Audiovisuals collections at the National Library of Medicine.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world's largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health, collects, preserves, and makes available to the public information about health, medicine, and the biomedical sciences. To continue fulfilling this mission, NLM is collecting and archiving related Web content, which also serves to document the histories of health and medicine.

Medicine on Screen is a curated portal to the National Library of Medicine's historical audiovisual collections. This site showcases unique, rare, and important medical films enriched with contextual information, scholarly essays, and related resources.

The Library's digital collections cover a wide variety of topics, including asylums, food, sex and sexual health, genetics, public health, and war. Materials include published books, pamphlets, archives, posters, photographs, and film and sound recordings.

A digital library project that makes freely available original works demonstrating the evolution of American medicine from colonial frontier outposts of the 17th century to research hospitals of the 20th century.

The DPLA makes millions of digital items from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the country available to all in a one-stop discovery experience. The DPLA includes primary and secondary resources on a variety of topics including the history of medicine.

Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963, or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the NEH and the Library of Congress. A great resource for locating contemporary perspectives on epidemics, sanitation, and other public health concerns.

The Medical Heritage Library's collaborative project "Expanding the Medical Heritage Library: Preserving and Providing Online Access to Historical Medical Periodicals" digitized over 3,000 volumes of medical journals, primarily dating from 1797-1923. These volumes comprise 336 journal titles, of which many are complete or nearly complete runs.

The State Medical Journals Collection encompasses state medical journals collectively held and digitized by members of the Medical Heritage Library and documents the transformation of American medicine in the twentieth century at both the local and national level. Journals found in the collection have been provided free of charge by individual journal publishers agreeing to open access to journal content currently under copyright. When digitization is complete, the collection will include 97 titles dating from 1900-2000, comprising over 2,700,000 pages in over 3,800 volumes.

A digital project by the National Library of Medicine to provide access to high quality images from important anatomical atlases in the Library's collection. The project offers selected images from NLM's atlas collection, not the entire books, with an emphasis on images and not texts. Atlases and images are selected primarily for their historical and artistic significance, with priority placed upon the earliest and/or the best edition of a work in NLM's possession.

The Literature, Arts and Medicine Database (LitMed) is a collection of literature, fine art, visual art and performing art annotations created as a dynamic, comprehensive resource for scholars, educators, students, patients, and others interested in medical humanities. It was created by faculty of the New York University School of Medicine in 1993. The annotations are written by an invited editorial board of scholars from all over North America.

Digital Scriptorium (DS) is a growing consortium of American institutions with collections of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, including those pertaining to the history of medicine. The website gathers scattered rare materials, including dispersed manuscript leaves from dismembered books, into a national digital platform for cross-collection teaching and scholarly research.

Searchable index of the deceased physician card file from the American Medical Association (AMA), which are physician biographic records of decedent records from 1864 to 1968. Requires free Family Search account.

The collections at the Drexel University College of Medicine Legacy Center reflect the history of one of its predecessor institutions, the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania--the first medical school in the world for women--as well as history of women in medicine internationally. Approaching broad historical topics through individual women’s experiences, students will understand and use primary sources to make their own well-informed interpretations of American history -- interpretations that include women’s perspectives.

Includes links to finding aids and selected digitized materials from archival collections that contain primary source materials about or related to Elizabeth Blackwell (the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States) or the Geneva Medical College.

Information from the Lloyd Library & Museum about the Eclectic Medicine Institute of Cincinnati Ohio (1845-1942). Eclectic medicine was a branch of American medicine which made use of noninvasive therapies and healing practices popular in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Lawrence Gartner, M.D., FAAP and Carol Gartner, Ph.D. Pediatric History Center is dedicated to preserving and cataloguing materials representing the history of pediatrics and children's health care. It also serves as the repository of the Archives of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The website includes links to transcripts of oral history interviews with selected pediatricians and other leaders in the advancement of children's health care; images of artifacts related to the history and evolution of infant nutrition, child care, and pediatric medicine; and links to finding aid descriptions for archival collections held by the center.

This 2004 report introduces scholars interested in the history of psychiatry to the materials available at the History of Medicine Division and the National Library of Medicine.

Reference guide assembled by the Science Reference Section of the Science, Technology and Business Division of the Library of Congress. Includes publications about the contributions of African Americans to medicine and other sciences in the United States.

What are the roots of racism in health and medicine? The Medical Heritage Library has begun the work of surfacing historical texts in its collection that show racism, health disparities, experimentation, and the other ways that medicine and race intertwine over time. Please be aware that some of these texts can be offensive in today’s context, using language, depicting images, and promoting ideas that are extremely problematic.

"Race Deconstructed: Science and the Making of Difference" is an online version of a physical exhibit presented at the Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in 2020. The exhibition explores the changing concept of race using examples drawn from across Western science between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. Race as a concept has been used to promote tribalism, white supremacy, and “otherness,” bolstered by scientific claims that provided a justification for discrimination. By exploring the medical and scientific theories of race from the past, Race Deconstructed seeks to shed light on how the science of race continues to shape our society even in the present day.

The Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology (WLM) presents an interactive timeline of the history of anesthesia and the profession of anesthesiology through important milestone people, places, dates and developments.

This collection features approximately 4500 full page plates and other significant illustrations of human anatomy selected from the Jason A. Hannah and Academy of Medicine collections in the history of medicine at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. Each illustration has been fully indexed using medical subject headings (MeSH), and techniques of illustration, artists, and engravers have been identified whenever possible.

This online digital exhibit curated by the University of Michigan Library provides a visual narrative of the emergence and antecedents of reproductive justice. Given that women's lives have never been reducible to one dimension of their reproductive health, this exhibit traces a longer history of reproductive justice, illustrating many experiences, debates, and policies related to pregnancy, birth, contraception, and raising children. The exhibit also explores the question of who has produced and controlled knowledge about women's reproductive health and decisions.

This is a wide collection of information -- archive guides, primary sources, digitized materials –- selected to assist lay people and undergraduate students, as well as established scholars and graduate students. Most sources to date focus on the period from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the formation of the People's Republic of China. I

This collection curated by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum explores the challenges faced by medical providers with the rise of the Nazi regime and the onset of the Holocaust. Oral histories, photographs, diaries, and other primary sources illustrate the experiences of doctors, nurses, and others providing medical care in a variety of contexts from 1933 to 1945.

Website dedicated to preserving the history of railway surgeons and hospitals, and educating the public about their work and contributions to medicine.

The New York Academy of Medicine and New York Public Radio have digitized and cataloged 40 radio broadcasts produced by NYAM and originally broadcast over WNYC radio in the 1950s. The New York Academy of Medicine and WNYC-FM began their radio relationship in 1946 with the launch of "The Laity Lectures" — later to become "Lectures to the Laity" — a popular series of Academy lectures and talks on culture and medicine that had started in 1935. By mid-1950, this series was joined by "For Doctors Only," which aimed to bring “the best of the meetings, conferences, and roundtable discussions held at the academy” to the medical profession.

Digital collection containing records created and/or collected by the Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC). These records were selected for digitization from the advisory boards and the “AAMC Collection” in the Mary H. Littlemeyer Archives.

The Truth Tobacco Industry Documents archive (formerly known as the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library) was created in 2002 by the University of California, San Francisco Library. The archive was built to house and provide permanent access to tobacco industry internal corporate documents produced during litigation between US States and the seven major tobacco industry organizations and other sources. These internal documents give a view into the workings of one of the largest and most influential industries in the United States.

A collaborative effort between the University of California, San Francisco and Johns Hopkins University. The archive contains emails, memos, presentations, sales reports, budgets, audit reports, Drug Enforcement Administration briefings, meeting agendas and minutes, expert witness reports, and depositions of drug company executives. The archive serves as a living repository of information that can be u

A selective collection of over 500 websites archived by the National Library of Medicine on the current opioid epidemic in the United States, declared a public health emergency in October 2017. Archived content includes websites and social media documenting a wide range of responses to and perspectives on the epidemic, including voices from of the medical and public health communities, the addiction research, policymakers and policy reformers, law enforcement, and the addicted and their families and communities.

Research guide to historical resources on Chicago medical history developed by the Chicago Collections Consortium.

Developed by NeurosurGen, Inc. (non-profit incorporated August 18th, 2022), the NeurosurGen project provides historical and contempoary data on neurosurgeons in the United States. Specific data collected on each living and deceased neurosurgeon include: Name; Year of birth; Year of death (if applicable); Name of institution where neurosurgical training was obtained; Year of completion of residency; Name of Chair/Chief at time of graduation; Name of Program Director at time of graduation; Name, Place and Year of fellowship(s), and Name of Fellowship; Gender; and Ethnicity.

The Health Advertisements Database from Ebling Sources (HADES) consists of advertisements from health sciences journals covering the disciplines of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, hospital management, laboratory management, and the allied health sciences from 1923 to 2007. From small quarter page ads to full page drug ads, which often include the pharmaceutical indications, these advertisements offer a window into the clinical, social, economic, political, historical, legal, and cultural aspects of health care for several decades. Generally, from the United States, they also include British, French, German, and some non-European publishers.