Specific Special Collections - HPS319H1 - History of Medicine II: 17th-20th century (Fall 2019)

Doctors & Scientific Medicine

The Discovery and Early Development of Insulin
This site documents the initial period of the discovery and development of insulin, 1920-1925, here at the University of Toronto. It presents over seven thousand page images reproducing original documents ranging from laboratory notebooks and charts, correspondence, writings, and published papers to photographs, awards, clippings, scrapbooks, printed ephemera and artifacts. Drawing mainly on the Banting, Best and related collections housed at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and the Archives and Records Management Services at the University of Toronto, it also includes significant holdings from the Aventis Pasteur (formerly Connaught) Archives, and the personal collection of Dr. Henry Best.
James Lind Library - History of Fair Tests
To illustrate the development of fair tests of treatments, the James Lind Library contains images of key passages from over 1000 manuscripts, books, journal articles and other relevant material supplied mainly by the Sibbald Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The JLL Bulletin contains over 200 original articles about the history of fair tests.
Profiles in Science
This site celebrates twentieth-century leaders in biomedical research and public health. It makes the archival collections of prominent scientists, physicians, and others who have advanced the scientific enterprise available to the public through modern digital technology.
Walter Freeman's Lobotomies: Oral Histories
Wolfhard Baumgartel was a staff physician at the Athens State Hospital in Ohio in the 1950s, where he observed Dr. Walter Freeman perform a series of lobotomies. Patricia Moen was lobotomized by Walter Freeman in 1962 at the age of 36. Their oral histories about their experiences are presented.
Changing The Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians
An exhibit from the National Institutes of Health.
The Hourglass Project Physicians’ Reflections on Fifty Years of Patient Care: 1954-2004
30 short essays written by graduates of the 1954 Medical School Class of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry about how changes in medicine have affected their relationship with patients and patient care.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Digital Archive
Selected original correspondence, laboratory notes, photographs, manuscripts, reprints, lectures, and videos from the James D. Watson Collection, Hermann J. Muller Collection, Barbara McClintock Collection, Meetings and Courses Photographic and Video Collection, Davenport/Watson/Carnegie Reprint Collections, and the Oral History Video Collection.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement
Materials from the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor, which was the centre of American eugenics research from 1910-1940. Features numerous reports, articles, charts, pedigrees, and photographs.
The Eugenics Society archive
Includes annual reports, minute books and collections of press cuttings from the Society's earliest years. There are also a number of posters, pamphlets and other ephemera relating to its propaganda activities that provide striking visual illustrations of contemporary attitudes to the family, race and breeding.
William Osler Letter Index
Sir William Osler (1849-1919) is one of the most renowned and respected physicians in medical history.

This site provides an index of the thousands of letters to and from Sir William Osler and other material collected by Dr. Harvey Cushing (1869-1939) for his 1925 biography The Life of William Osler. It also provides information on other Osler letters found in various archival fonds held by the Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University.
University of Toronto Archives and Records Management (UTARMS)
The University of Toronto Archives is responsible for the appraisal, acquisition, preservation and use of University records of permanent value and the private records of individuals and organizations associated with the University.

Anatomy & The Body

Anatomia 1522 to 1867 - Anatomical Plates from the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
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. There are ninety-five individual titles represented, ranging in date from 1522 to 1867.
Historical Anatomies on the Web
istorical Anatomies on the Web is a digital project designed to give Internet users 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.

Disease & Epidemiology

Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics
Created by the Harvard University Library’s Open Collections Program with vital support from Arcadia, the collection provides general background information on diseases and epidemics worldwide, and is organized around significant “episodes” of contagious disease.

These materials include digitized copies of books, serials, pamphlets, incunabula, and manuscripts—a total of more than 500,000 pages—many of which contain visual materials, such as plates, engravings, maps, charts, broadsides, and other illustrations. The collection also includes two unique sets of visual materials from the Center for the History of Medicine at Harvard’s Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.
Cholera Online
Contains English-language monographs dating from 1817 to 1900 addressing the cholera pandemics of that period.
Philip S Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection
In 1937, Mayo Clinic physician Philip S. Hench began a life-long project to document the story of the yellow fever discovery. His monumental collection of manuscripts, printed materials, photographs, artifacts, and research is the source of this digital archive.
Surviving & Thriving: AIDS, Politics, and Culture
An exploration of the rise of AIDS in the early 1980’s and the evolving response to the epidemic over the 30 years that followed.
In Quarantine: Life and Death on Grosse Ile, 1832-1937 / En quarantaine : la vie et la mort à la Grosse-Île, 1832-1937
Through a variety of documents preserved and digitized by Library and Archives Canada (LAC), such as lists of births and deaths at sea, hospital registers, journals, letters, photographs and maps, In Quarantine: Life and Death on Grosse Île, 1832-1937 tells the story not only of the quarantine station, but also of the individuals who experienced life on the island.
John Snow
Prepared by the School of Public Health at UCLA on John Snow, the pioneer epidemiologist and anaesthetist.
Pox and the City
A Digital Role-Playing Game for the History of Medicine. Can Dr. Robertson (your avatar) solve mysteries, gain trust and funds, and stop the dreaded outbreaks of smallpox? The player is asked to make some decisions along the way that will influence the ultimate outcome—for instance, are you playing primarily as a philanthropist or an entrepreneur? Will you choose to marry, or will you focus all your energy on the work? In other words, the game asks you not only to read clues and come up with diagnosis and cure, but also to choose a perspective from which to view your practice.

Hospitals & Asylums

Cornell: NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center Archives Image Collection
The image database includes photographs of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center buildings, people, departments, and events. Early images of the original Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Hospital buildings are included. Also here are class pictures of the medical college and nursing school.
NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Digital Publications
Reports and announcements from the New York Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College, Lying-In Hospital, Cornell University-New York Hospital School of Nursing, and more.
CAMH Archives
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Archives (located in Toronto) preserves, and makes available for study, material concerning the history and development of psychiatry and other related services in Canada.

Medicine and the Colonial World

Medical History of British India
There are a number of digitised reports relating to disease and public health in India in the 19th and 20th centuries drawn from the collection of the National Library of Scotland
Livingstone Online
Livingstone Online is an ongoing project that provides access to the manuscripts of the missionary, doctor and African explorer David Livingstone (1813-1873).

Drugs, Patent Medicines, & Prescriptions

Popular Medicine in America, 1800-1900
This unique collection showcases the development of 'popular' medicine in America during the nineteenth century, through an extensive range of material that was aimed at the general public rather than medical professionals. Explore an array of printed sources, including rare books, pamphlets, trade cards, and visually-rich advertising ephemera.
Pick Your Poison: Intoxicating Pleasures & Medical Prescriptions
Explores the factors that have shaped the changing definitions of some of our most potent drugs, from medical miracle to social menace.
Time, Tide, and Tonics: the Patent Medicine Almanac in America
A short exhibit of historical medical almanacs, which includes many scans, from the collection of the National Library of Medicine.
Drug Trade
A virtual exhibit of pharmacy jars and herbals by the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford University.
Patent Medicine Collection
Print collection of pamphlets issued by British, American and Canadian patent medicine companies from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Medical Instruments & Artifacts

Guide to the History of Medicine artifacts collection, 1550-1980s
Collection of historical medical instruments and artifacts, art objects, realia, and other three-dimensional objects related to the history of medicine, primarily originating from Europe and the United States, but including some artifacts from China and Japan. Ranging in age from the late 16th to the late 20th centuries, objects include medical kits and pharmaceutical items (often in the original cases and bags); equipment used in amputation, obstetrics, opthalmology, surgery, urology, neurology, early electrical therapies, and in research and diagnostic settings; instructional objects such as anatomical models and figurines; and other objects such as apothecary jars, cupping glasses, infant feeders, a bas-relief memento mori, and fetish figures. There are many models of microscopes and stethoscopes, dating from the 17th to the 20th century. Forms part of the History of Medicine Collections at Duke University.
Edgar R. McGuire Historical Medical Instrument Collection
The Edgar R. McGuire Historical Medical Instrument Collection was established in 1985 by Mrs. Annette Cravens in memory of her father, chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Buffalo from 1914 until his death in 1931.

The collection, containing more than 150 instruments or sets of instruments chosen for their illustration of past medical and dental procedures, includes microscopes, surgical instruments, anatomical models, a leech jar and bleeding cups, and dental instruments.
Science and machines - Scientific and technological development since 1800 - Medicine
A virtual exhibition from the European Library, an online portal that gives access to European collections. Includes numerous medical works.
University of Toronto Scientific Instrument Collection (UTSIC)
The University of Toronto Scientific Instruments Collection is an effort to gather, safeguard, research, catalogue, and interpret, the material heritage of research at the University of Toronto. The project takes a broad and inclusive approach. It is based at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST).

Research Guides

HPS319H1 - History of Medicine II: 17th-20th century (Fall 2019)

Doctors & Scientific Medicine

Anatomy & The Body

Disease & Epidemiology

Hospitals & Asylums

Medicine and the Colonial World

Drugs, Patent Medicines, & Prescriptions

Medical Instruments & Artifacts

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