Book Acquisition Funds

Bookplate of Norman E. Himes, affixed in items acquired through the Himes Fund

While the generosity of collectors and donors of books plays an important role in the growth of the library’s holdings, both Harvard and the Boston Medical Library also have endowed funds with which to purchase items to enhance the collections. Some of these, like the Solomon M. Hyams Fund for medical Judaica, are designated for specific subjects; others are more general in scope, but commemorate the benefactors of the past and their interest in the rare book collections.

Many notable names are associated with the acquisition funds, including Drs. Carl W. Walter, Mark D. Altschule, Franc D. Ingraham, and John H. Talbott. The newest acquisition fund was established in 2011 by William Vernon Jackson, Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas in Austin and a 1952 graduate of Harvard University. The William V. Jackson Book Fund is to be used to support the activities of the Countway’s Center for the History of Medicine in the advancement of knowledge relating to Latin American medicine.