Building the Rare Book Collection at the Countway Library of Medicine

Rare early Greek edition, published in 1577, of the collected medical and scientific works of Aristotle, containing texts on birth and death, youth and old age, respiration, divination, sleep, and memory. Gift of Richard Van Praagh, M.D., to the Library of Harvard Medical School, 2011.

The Countway Library is built from gifts—gifts large and small, made over many years. It was the generosity of Sanda Countway in 1958 which provided over three million dollars for a building and allowed Harvard Medical School and the Boston Medical Library to ally their collections, forming the largest academic biomedical library in the country. But aside from stone and mortar, the collections of the Countway reflect a tradition of generosity spanning nearly two hundred years. Drs. James Jackson, John Collins Warren, and other members of Harvard's early faculty began to donate books to form a medical library for the students in 1816. In 1889, just a few years after the formation of the Boston Medical Library, Oliver Wendell Holmes contributed his personal collection of over 900 rare medical works, laying the cornerstone for a remarkable historical collection.

Such generosity is not just a thing of the past, though, and extraordinary gifts continue to complement the already vast array of books, manuscripts, prints, photographs, artwork, artifacts, instruments, and specimens preserved in the collections of the library, archives, and museum here at the Center for the History of Medicine. Owners and Donors honors just a few of the individual men and women—Drs. Leona Baumgartner, J. J. Longacre, John Rathbone Oliver, and Richard Van Praagh, and the Kennedy and Ohl families—who have contributed collections or even single items to enhance the rare book collections here at the Countway over the years. The exhibit also highlights a few of the library’s special collections—some familiar, such as the anatomical library of Friedrich Tiedemann, and some almost unknown, such as the witchcraft books of Christian Deetjen or the Boston Medical Library’s collection of the works of Sir William Osler—as well as some of the funds and gifts which continue to allow for new acquisitions, making the rare book holdings of the Countway among the greatest in the world.