Thucydides was a fifth-century Greek and eyewitness to the long struggle (431-404 B.C.) for dominance between the warring city-states of Athens and Sparta. De bello Peloponnesiaco, or The History of the Peloponnesian War, his contemporary account of…
Made at the request of librarian James Read Chadwick, the bronzed fist of Holmes was displayed in the original Holmes Hall of the Boston Medical Library’s building following the memorial meeting on October 30, 1894. The sculptor, Truman Howe…
The first edition of Edward Jenner's publication contains his evidence that inoculation with cowpox vaccine matter could be a preventive against smallpox. Pages 32-35 concern Case XVII, an eight-year-old named James Phipps, who was inoculated with…
This colored plate appears in the first edition of Edward Jenner's An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of Variolæ Vaccinæ and depicts the cowpox pustules on the hand of dairymaid Sarah Nelmes. Cowpox matter from these pustules was used…
"Promulgated for the purpose of spreading medical light and information in America," Samuel Stearns' herbal is the first to be printed in the United States and incorporates information from the traditions of American Indians.
Amputation saw found in rectangular wooden amputation kit. Top area of kit contains one large ivory-handled amputation saw with vertical slots in blade and textured handle, fastened to inside lid of box by two metal swinging tabs.
The本草原始 [Ben cao yuan shi] ("Origins of the materia medica") describes medicinal plants and herbal substances with their uses and manner of preparation. Like many Chinese medical texts, this early 17th century work was reprinted in Japan during the…
One letter from many addressed to Dr. Rock by women interested in birth control and other fertility matters. In this letter, the author applauds his work as described in the Good Housekeeping article, and asks where to find more information on the…
For every letter of dissenting views Guttmacher received, he read an equal amount of letters commending his work. This letter, written by a single mother, encourages Planned Parenthood to reach out to poorer communities where birth control was not…
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…
Email from Herbert L. Abrams to Sven Paulin, responding to a letter written for Abrams's 90th birthday. The email discusses Abrams's birthday and the professional mentor-mentee relationship between Abrams and Paulin.
Anatomists throughout history have worked to discover new angles of approach to the human body in order to reach the fullest understanding of its complexities. In this symposium, our four speakers endeavor to do the same, coming from different…
A graduate of Harvard Medical School in 1853, Zabdiel Boylston Adams enlisted in 1861, joining the 7th Massachusetts Volunteers as an assistant surgeon. He was later a captain with the 56th Massachusetts Volunteers. Adams was wounded at Orange…
This is one of the several hundred original drawings produced by H. F. Aitken and eventually published in Warren's handbook. The text accompanying this illustration states, "The side of the skull has been cut away; the brain has been removed leaving…
Even in the first years of its popularity during the early nineteenth century, phrenology was a source of amusement to many and became a target for a number of satiric artists of the day, such as George Cruikshank, the "Phiz" illustrator of Charles…
Established and sponsored by members of the American colony in Paris soon after the outbreak of hostilities, the American Ambulance Hospital was ready for the reception of patients on September 1, 1914, at the Lycee Pasteur in Neuilly, Paris. The…
The postcards, part of a series, may have been used as part of a fund-raising effort for the hospital; the originals along with the passport are preserved in a scrapbook kept by Lyman G. Barton, along with a collection of photographs from his service…
As the directory entries for homeopaths in Boston testify, the number of practitioners was on the decline by the mid-1920s, with only 126 listed. Roughly one in every five of these physicians was female. This is just a small fraction of the over…
The 1906 annual meeting of the American Medical Association was held in early June and provided an occasion for the first public opening of the Quad buildings. Dr. Walter L. Burrage, of the Sub-Committee on Printing and Programmes, edited this guide…
During the course of the AMA meeting, demonstrations, lectures, models, photographs and slides, and other anatomical, pathological and scientific exhibits were all mounted in the amphitheaters, laboratories, and museum galleries of the new buildings.…
Published in the May 5th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, this map for attendees of the meeting graphically demonstrates the distance of the new Medical School campus from the center of Boston.
Commemorative badges and lapel pins were commonly distributed to attendees of the AMA meetings from the 1880s. These items were worn by members at the 1906 meeting in Boston. The badge depicts the goddess Hygeia offering a drinking vessel with a…
The American Roentgen Ray Society was established in 1900 to advance knowledge of practical work with the recently discovered X-ray. It is the first and the oldest society devoted to radiology in the country.
A stenographer present during the…
The American Roentgen Ray Society was established in 1900 to advance knowledge of practical work with the recently discovered X-ray. It is the first and the oldest society devoted to radiology in the country.
Many of the papers and comments concern…
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…
This chest containing sixty typical preparations was made and sold by the firm of Araujo Penna & Filhos, of Rio de Janeiro, the principal vendor of homeopathic substances in South America at the time.
This is a rare early Greek edition of the collected medical and scientific works of Aristotle and contains texts on birth and death, youth and old age, respiration, divination, sleep, and memory.
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.
This work by Austrius from the Leona Baumgartner collection is one of the earliest texts devoted to the diseases of children and draws heavily on the writings of Cornelis Roelans in the 15th century and the 7th century Greek physician, Paul of…
An MGM film originally intended as a documentary on the work of the Department of Legal Medicine was later recast as a fictional drama—Mystery Street (also known as Murder at Harvard.) The plot concerns a police detective (Ricardo Montalban)…
The Medical School's new dean, Robert H. Ebert, here announces the dissolution of the Department of Legal Medicine, stating that the training of medical examiners would be handled better by hospitals, and the appointment of William J. Curran, as…
Intern was developed by two physicians based on their experiences on the house staffs at Duke University and Johns Hopkins. The object of this unusual board game is for the intern to be the first to admit, diagnose, and treat all of his or her…
As part of a commemoration of World AIDS Day in 1997, physician and artist Eric Avery displayed some of his work in the Strauss Gallery of Harvard's Fogg Museum in an exhibit, Art as Medicine/Medicine as Art. 3' by 6' prints of the Lifecycle of HIV…
The Mary Ellen Avery papers, 1929-2002, consist of personal and professional correspondence, teaching materials, professional activities records, grant records, articles and drafts, lectures and speeches, diaries, photographs, and other records from…
This manuscript copy of Avicenna's Canon, written by Mordechai bar Elia in a rabbinical hand, was formerly in the library of Prince Dietrichstein of Nikolsburg.
The Canon medicinae, a compendium of medical knowledge and a guide to clinical teaching, was derived from Galenic and Hippocratic writings and infused by Avicenna with Arabic medical lore. The Canon includes detailed disquisitions on pathology,…
A treatise on Kabbalah, astrology and fortunetelling with elaborate diagrams of the zodiac. Ibn Ezra was an earnest apologist for astrology and translated many astrological treatises from Arabic into Hebrew. Maimonides, using Biblical law as a guide,…
Notation on the verso reads: "MEA near 1980. Florence said - take picture now - Implication: appearances will not improve! She is right. This is my formal portrait - to hang with my predecessors in my office, for better or worse, so be it."
Judah Folkman's research with members of the Zollinger laboratory was the focus of the first academic paper he coauthored in Surgery, entitled, "The Use of Aortic Occlusion in Abdominal Surgery with a Report of Two Human Cases."
Photograph of eagle skeleton [WAM 00151] prepared by and donated by Oliver Wendell Holmes to the Warren Anatomical Museum in 1851. Eagle skeleton is being photographed on the Harvard Medical School quad by artists from the Art Institute of Boston in…