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The Tichborne case in a nutshell
The Oliver Criminological Collection includes a substantial array of pamphlets, trial accounts, and popular ephemera from the sensational Tichborne Claimant case of the 1870s.
Orton, a butcher in Wagga Wagga, Australia, claimed to be Sir Roger…
The Thumb Screw
Description of an iron wristband worn by a slave.
The three pillars: thought, worship and practice for the Jewish woman
"This book is a brief exposition of those aspects of Jewish life which have special significance for the woman … it focuses the attention only on those fundamentals with which every modern Jewish woman should be familiar." – Preface.…
The Thomsonian Manual
The Thomsonian botanical movement, like homeopathic medicine, developed its own culture of authorized druggists and agents and published books and a number of short-lived periodicals, including this one from Boston.
The Surgical Treatment of Facial Injuries
Among Dr. Kazanjians important contributions to the literature of plastic surgery is the textbook, The Surgical Treatment of Facial Injuries. Co-authored with Dr. John M. Converse, this textbook is considered a classic work in the field. This diagram…
The Story of U.S. Army Base Hospital No. 5 by a Member of the Unit.
Harvey Cushing published this historical account of Base Hospital No. 5 soon after the war's end, as it was "one of the Units of the American Expeditionary Force to be sent overseas; it was the first to suffer casualties at the hands of the enemy;…
The Story of the Iron Lung comic
"The Story of the Iron Lung" was one story published in The Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact, Vol. 7, No. 13, a Catholic comic book published by George A. Pflaum of Dayton, Ohio which provided inspirational stories to Catholic parochial school…
The speech of the right honourable William Pitt, on a motion for the abolition of the slave trade, in the House of Commons, on Monday the second of April, 1792. Pages 002-005.
Speech of William Pitt on the abolition of the slave trade.
The Solomon M. Hyams Collection in Holmes Hall, the old Boston Medical Library, 8 The Fenway, Boston
The Soiling of Old Glory, 1976
The Soiling of Old Glory is a Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph taken by Stanley Forman during the Boston busing crisis in 1976. The photograph depicts Joseph Rakes, assaulting a black man, lawyer and civil rights activist Ted Landsmark, with a…
The Sexual Behavior of Primates
In response to the 1929 NCHM survey, Harvard Medical School’s Dean David Edsall reported, “The men are taught something of the methods of contraception and sterilization during their regular course work, but there is no specific class in…
The Second International Exhibition of Eugenics
Harry Hamilton Laughlin was chairman of the Committee on Exhibits associated with the Second International Congress and organized this display at the American Museum of Natural History in the fall of 1921. A gift of $2,500 from Mrs. E. H. Harriman…
The seaman's medical advocate
Arthy, a naval surgeon, outlines the heavy losses to the British navy due to yellow fever, suggesting ways to limit the exposure of seamen, and calling for more and better educated naval surgeons to treat them.
The Sanatory Institutions of the Hebrews
Abraham de Sola was born in London and became rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation in Montreal in 1846 at the age of 22. In 1849, when a religious furor arose over the use of obstetrical anesthesia, he was asked to interpret Genesis 3:16,…
The principles and practice of medicine
Drawn from the fifth and sixth English editions, this translation of Osler’s textbook by medical missionary Dr. Philip B. Cousland (1861-1930) is the first issue of the first Chinese edition; copies of a second (1921) and third (1925) edition…
The principles and practice of medicine
In the first edition of his monumental textbook, Sir William Osler advocates the use of acupuncture for sciatica and, as here, lumbago "in acute cases, the most efficient treatment…. I can corroborate fully the statements of [Sydney] Ringer,…
The physician's pulse-watch
English physician Sir John Floyer invented a watch to measure the rate of the pulse and here translates some relevant portions of the Specimen medicinae Sinicae("The Chinese art of Feeling the Pulse is describ'd; and the Imitation of their Practice…
The Peter Bent Brigham Hospital
Part of a collection of photographic negatives for images taken by Richard U. Light (1902-1994) of senior medical and surgical staff of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, from 1930 to 1935, during the period of his surgical…
The Pellet
During the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Hospital Fair, this newsletter of anecdotes and poetry, The Pellet, was printed and sold each day. The Fair itself raised $72,000 and prompted the formation of the homeopathic medical school at Boston University.
The past, present and future treatment of homœopathy
H. I. Bowditch was the sole dissenting voice in the vote to expel homeopaths from the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1871. "By the sympathies excited among the laity, by our worse than foolish persecutions, we have built up their sectarian schools…
The Parkman Murder : Trial of Prof. John W. Webster for the Murder of Dr. George Parkman
While few early photographs exist of the Harvard Medical School building on North Grove Street, considerable information about the structure and its interior can be found, ironically, in the published transcripts of the 1850 murder trial of John W.…
The one-arm soldier
"Co. D, 3d Mass. Cavalry, disabled at Winchester, Virginia"First line: Strangers, when the fight was fiercest
The North Grove Street Building
In 1847, Harvard Medical School erected a new building, on North Grove Street, adjoining Massachusetts General Hospital, on land donated by Dr. George Parkman—whose body would all too soon be found buried beneath it. The school building itself…
The New England Female Medical College building on Springfield Street
Engraving of the New England Female Medical College building on Springfield Street, Boston.
The natural method of cureing the diseases of the body, and the disorders of the mind depending on the body
This copy of the second edition of George Cheyne’s work on disease is a rare and notable survivor of the disastrous Harvard fire of 1762. On the night of January 24th, during a storm of snow and high wind, Harvard Hall, containing the…
The Museum of the Harvard Dental School
George Howard Monks, the professor of oral surgery in the Dental School, presented an overview of the Dental Museum and its holdings to the Boston Medical History Club in March, 1925. The paper was then printed in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and…
The moat from Capelan's storage lawn
From box titled "Dr. Cushing's Lantern Slides. Base Hospital No. 5." All lantern slides manufactured by Weeke's Manufacturing Co., 181 Tremont St., Boston, Mass.
The Mirror
From 1912 until 1943, the Dental School had its own yearbook, The Mirror, analogous to the Medical School's yearbook, The Aesculapiad. The 1925 edition describes the Dental Museum and its holdings and includes photographs of the interior and the…
The Medical School of Harvard University, Class of 1906
The Aesculapiad, the yearbook for Harvard Medical School, first appeared in 1924, but it had this unique precursor in 1906, in conjunction with the opening of the new buildings. The yearbook contains photographs of the faculty and the 68 graduating…
The Medical Repository of Original Essays and Intelligence Relative to Physic, Surgery, Chemistry and Natural History
The early 19th century saw the rise of the medical journal as an outlet to disseminate news of discoveries, book reviews, and matters of interest to physicians. It also heralded the beginning of the proliferation of medical publishing. As part of its…
The medical pocket-book
This encyclopedia of popular medical practice lists common diseases and treatments. The pages are interleaved with manuscript notes by an unnamed reader who contrasts John Elliot’s recommendations with information culled from an English…
The Medical Committee for Human Rights Pamphlet, undated
A pamphlet created by the Medical Committee for Human Rights, undated. Courtesy of the Civil Rights Movement Veterans, crmvets.org.
The Massachusetts Register and United States Calendar for the Year of Our Lord 1807
This edition of a directory of local institutions, societies, and charitable organizations contains the earliest entry for the Boston Medical Library and a list of its officers and Trustees.
The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy
The Soncino family was originally from Speyer, one of the German towns in which printing had an early impact. After a decree of expulsion in 1435, the family moved to the Italian town that lent the family its name. Soncino printed the first Hebrew…
The Lehner siblings
Grete was the youngest child in the Lehner family. Her father was a profitable manufacturer and her mother was the "perfect hostess."
The lame man's appeal
At head of title: To the public. Geoge W. Crawford, having become crippled, and not willing to become a burden to the public, after suffering acutely for over ten years, takes this means of gaining a livelihood, and most respectfully craves your…
The Kallikak family : a study in the heredity of feeble-mindedness
Henry Herbert Goddard’s study, The Kallikak family, tracks 480 descendants of Martin Kallikak, known as the “Old Horror,” the illegitimate son of a feeble-minded girl. Among the descendants were alcoholics, prostitutes, epileptics,…
The Influence of the Brain on the Form of the Head
This English translation of Franz Joseph Gall’s Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau was one of the Boston Phrenological Society’s first publication projects. In this passage, Gall describes how he isolated the faculties of attachment and…
The Indian's invitation
"Francis J. Burns, the author of the following lines, was born at Lyons, N.Y., February 19th, 1856. He became nearly blind from inflammation when one year old. He has been a pupil for three years, in the Institution for the Blind at Batavia, and is…
The Indian's invitation
"Francis J. Burns, the author of the following poem, became almost blind from inflammation. His health being very poor, and having a large family [to] support, he takes this means of trying to make an honest livelihood. Also, he is trying to raise…
The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser
This local newspaper was one of the first to report the formation of the Harvard Medical School following the plan devised by Dr. John Warren for the Harvard Corporation. The article announces the appointment of the first three faculty members and…
The Illustrated Self-Instructor in Phrenology and Physiology
The Fowler brothers used The Illustrated Self-Instructor as both a popular handbook to phrenology and an advertising tool—the opening pages of each volume were used to record character assessments, such as this one for G. A. Hook, given by O.…
The Holmes stereoscope, with the inventions and improvements
added by Joseph L. Bates
Advertisement for the stereoscope designed by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) and Joseph L. Bates
The History of Physick from the Time of Galen to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century
Physician John Freind planned this extensive early work on medical history—the first in the English language—while imprisoned for treason in the Tower of London. The volume appears to have been presented to the first Boston Medical…
The history of Japan, giving an account of the ancient and present state and government of that empire
A later translation into English of the work of Englebert Kaempfer, who traveled in Japan in the early 1690's, as part of an historical survey of Japan
The herball, or generall historie of plantes
Herbals are the original foundation for botanical medicine. The somewhat erratic English botanist John Gerard here provides descriptions of over 1,500 plants, accompanied by detailed engravings, and then outlines the "vertues" or medicinal uses of…
The health-lift reduced to a science
The Reactionary Lifter was sold by the Health-Lift Company of New York as a muscle exercise and strength-building device, suitable for men and women. A testimonial letter by Holmes appears in this marketing brochure: “My three months’…
The haven of rest
At head of title: Please help the blind. Please buy a hymn from a blind man, who was made so by brain fever, and is thrown upon his own resources for a living.
First line: My soul, in sad exile, was out on life
The Harvard Medical School, 1782-1906
Although Thomas Francis Harrington published a three-volume history of the Medical School in 1905, the dedication of the new buildings prompted the appearance of this shorter commemorative work, with a history of the individual departments and a…
The Harvard Dental School Museum
The only surviving photographs of the interior of the Dental Museum are found in issues of The Mirror, the yearbook of the Dental School, and Richard Locke Hapgood's published History of the Harvard Dental School (1930). This photograph is from the…
The Harvard Dental School and Dental and Oral Hospital
This photograph depicts the exterior of the Dental School building on North Grove Street during the period when the Museum was housed on its second floor. Ironically, the remains of George Parkman were discovered in the basement of this building in…
The guardian angel
First edition of Holmes' novel, The Guardian Angel. After Holmes’ death, his friend and fellow novelist William Dean Howells (1837-1920) said of Holmes' work, “His novels all belonged to an order of romance which was as distinctly his own…
The Gout
Gillray powerfully illustrates the pain and suffering caused by gout, a common ailment of his time.
The General State of Medical and Chirurgical Practice, Ancient and Modern, Exhibited
More of an extended advertisement than a history of medicine, James Graham's The General State of Medical and Chirurgical Practice details his quack regimens of "diet, aetherial and medico-electrical baths, and simple medicines" and includes numerous…
The Free Hospital for Women
The hospital was the focal point of Rock’s early career and provided him with the needed participants to conduct his various research trials. His infertility studies here would later provide crucial information concerning the effects of hormones on…
The First Operation Under Ether
An 8' x 10' painting by Robert Hinckley depicting the first operation under ether which took place on October 19, 1846 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. William Morton demonstrated the anesthetic properties of ether during a surgery…
The Facts of Medicine program number 36, Overweight (video, program transcript, and film still)
David Davis Rutstein (1909-1986), S.B., 1930, Harvard College, M.D.; 1934, Harvard Medical School, Boston, joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School in 1947 as Professor of Preventive Medicine and was head of the Department of Preventive Medicine…
The Eugenics Review
The official organ for the Eugenics Society in England, The eugenics review first appeared in 1909 and was published continuously until this, its final volume under that title. In 1969, the publication was reformulated as the Journal of biosocial…
The Enlarged Foundation
Just as his great-grandfather had been instrumental in establishing the Harvard Medical School in the eighteenth century, so Dr. J. Collins Warren provided the impetus for the construction of the buildings of the Quad at the beginning of the…
The Educated Woman
Dr. Bibring constructed outlines of each Radcliffe seminar discussion that she directed. She also noted the group dynamic of the seminar by sketching the seating arrangement for each meeting.
The dissecting room
This lithographic print is based on an original watercolor by Thomas Rowlandson now in the collection of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. It is believed to depict William Hunter (1718-1783) leading students in anatomical dissections in his…
The Cow-Pock, or, the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation!
As the first professional caricaturist in England, James Gillray is usually remembered for his political and royal satires, but this engraving, poking fun at the work of Edward Jenner, shows the dire consequences of injecting cowpox matter into…
The contagiousness of puerperal fever
Following his presentation on puerperal fever to the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, Holmes first published his findings in this journal in April 1843. The article was also reprinted in pamphlet form. The passage displayed here contains…
The complete herbalist, or the people their own physicians by the use of nature's remedies
In addition to publishing this popular botanic medical text, O. Phelps Brown made and marketed proprietary medicines, such as the "Magic Assimilant" (boneset, chamomile blossoms, smartweed, vervain, and whiskey) for fits and indigestion. He also…
The collegian, no. I
The first published poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes were printed in the six issues of a monthly Harvard undergraduate student magazine, The collegian, from February through July, 1830. Some of his poems then appeared in Illustrations of the…
The Central Board of Health: Cholera Consultation
In the early nineteenth century cholera epidemics were common. The disease struck its victims rapidly and spread fear amongst the populace. Medical science was ineffective against cholera until John Snow's discovery of its contagion through…
The celebration of Oliver Wendell Holmes's seventieth birthday
The famous "Atlantic Breakfast," given by the publishers of The Atlantic monthly on December 3, to honor Holmes at 70 and his contributions to the success of the magazine, was covered in local newspapers. Guests at the event included literary figures…
The book of knowledge, treating of the wisdom of the ancients in four parts
Editions of The book of knowledge, a popular astrological and medical work, begin to appear in the 1530s and were printed regularly in England and America into the early 19th century. Although described on the title-page as “a Jew, Doctor in…
The Blue Devils!
This print is part of a set that illustrates the discomforts and pain of illness. Note the use of the little demons to explain the cause of pain and illness.
The blind woman's appeal
At head of title: The blind.
The blind man's poetry
"We are blind, and having wife and children, and two sisters also blind, who depend upon us for support, we hope you will buy this poetry ... Give us a quarter or a dime, as you can afford."
First line of poem: Kind friends, I
The blind man's hope
At head of title: To the public. The bearer having lost his eyesight in the pursuit of his business, and having a family depending on him for support, and not wishing to become a burden to the public, takes this means of gaining a livelihood for…
The blind man's condition
At head of title: To the public! The bearer having lost his eyesight takes this method of gaining a livelihood.
First line: Mid sorrow and sadness.
The blind man's appeal
First line: What is my name, from whence I came.
"Stranger, I know not who you be, nor whether charitably inclined, but in the name of humanity I appeal to your charity. Buy this ballad of me, and remember,
The blind man's appeal
First line: Shrouded in darkness.
The blind man
First line: The beauties of nature were once dear to me.
The blind girl's appeal
First line: Oh ye whose eyes are open to.
The Bibring Seminar
The article highlights the previous seven years of the seminar, with a focus on Dr. Bibring’s personal experience and the issues that are confronted during the group sessions.
The Battle of the Pills
This cartoon was published in the Boston Evening Times during the height of the controversy over the expulsion of the homeopaths from the Massachusetts Medical Society.
The Barton Bandage.
Illustration of the Barton bandage used in plastic surgery operations.
The autocrat of the breakfast-table
Beyond the sphere of poetry, the literary reputation of Oliver Wendell Holmes rests largely on the loosely connected series of essays, poems, and aphorisms which forms The autocrat of the breakfast-table. The essays were originally printed in issues…