A photograph of the lower lobe of a right lung with the caption, "CAMP DEVENS CASE 223. LOWER LOBE RIGHT LUNG. EXTENSIVE NECROSIS AND / ORGANIZATIONS. BRONCHIECTATIC ABSCESSES. ALVEOLAR AND INTERSTITIAL / EMPHYSEMA. BACTERIOLOGY BACILLUS INFLUENZAE.…
The Oliver Criminological Collection includes a substantial array of pamphlets, trial accounts, and popular ephemera from the sensational Tichborne Claimant case of the 1870s, including this broadside satirical poem defending the claims of Arthur…
This lengthy poem by Holmes—never published during his lifetime—was probably recited at one of the anniversary dinners of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement; Holmes frequently composed and presented his poetic efforts for its…
In this companion pamphlet to his original publication just two years earlier, Waterhouse recounts the popularity of smallpox inoculation following his experiments, as well as the consequent appearance of spurious cowpox matter which caused a…
Benjamin Waterhouse's first pamphlet on the subject of his inoculation work appeared in September, 1800, just a few weeks after the vaccination of the Waterhouse children and servants in the summer. The pamphlet describes his early promotion of…
A small volume of annotated photographs of the interiors and exteriors of the Free Hospital for Women located in Brookline Massachusetts, taken in the late 19th century
Harvard’s first professor of clinical medicine, James Jackson, found that the time spent with his students on the wards at Massachusetts General Hospital detracted from his formal lecturing, and so he published these brief notes of his lectures…
Churchill's Treatise is the first English monograph devoted to the subject of acupuncture; it describes four cases for which the therapy provided relief of pain. In 1828, James Morss Churchill published a companion work, describing the efficacy of…
In addition to the collection housed in the library of the Dental School, there were also books, pamphlets, prints and pictures preserved in the Dental Museum, including this early text on Dentistry. The title-page engraving shows an inferior denture…
This document bestows legal, religious, and commercial privileges on foreign merchants and the Jewish community in the cities of Pisa and Livorno. Section 18, on the right hand page, grants Jews the right to practice medicine, and section 20 grants…
Although Dr. John Warren published a number of pamphlets and articles—including the first article to appear in The New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery—this is his only monograph. It was published near the end of his life and…
In 1981, Harvard researchers David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine with Roger W. Sperry of Caltech for their discoveries relating to information processing in visual systems. This article on the Siamese cat,…
Guttmacher as President of Planned Parenthood received telephone calls from women of diverse backgrounds and family situations seeking abortion assistance before abortion was legalized in the United States in 1973.
"May lost his eyes and right hand while blasting on the Utica & Black River Railroad, August 10th, 1871"
"Mr. May has a wife and six children dependent on him for support. Before being disabled he was always a sober and hardworking man. What sum you…
Abraham Stone (1890-1959) began his career as an urologist in New York City in the 1920s, and later expanded his specialties to include marriage counseling and family planning services. He became active in the family planning movement with his wife,…
These personal accounts from 1822 and 1823 show the salary which Dr. John Collins Warren earned for the professorship of anatomy and surgery at Harvard Medical School and the fee charged for training of individual pupils. The account book also…
Some of the best descriptions and illustrations of acupuncture and moxibustion appear in the work of Englebert Kaempfer who traveled in Japan in the early 1690s.
Despite Harvard’s renowned faculty members and array of courses, the students themselves in the mid-19th century were often poorly trained. Few of the matriculants had formal college degrees upon entering the school, the required course of…
Two years after the opening the Medical School, this account, published by the Harvard Corporation in the Boston magazine, described the progress of the new institution. Anatomical study under John Warren was one of the foundations of the curriculum,…
The use of admission tickets for each course of a medical student’s education was common until the late 19th century. Students paid the lecturer or professor directly and were then issued these passes for an academic session. This particular…
The use of admission tickets for each course of a medical student's education was common until the late 19th century. Students paid the professor or lecturer directly and were then issued these passes for an academic session. Robert Thaxter…
Another specimen of mendicant literature is this pamphlet by carpenter William B. Swett, recounting his explorations in the mountains of New Hampshire. Proceeds from its original printing were devoted to the Boston Deaf-Mute Mission, but Swett's…
Dr. T. Timson, a Fellow of the British Phrenological Society, had a flourishing practice in Leicester in the 1930s. This is an advertisement for his clinic, which incorporated phrenology, massage, chiropractic, and osteopathy.
At the conclusion of service with the British army in France, the personnel of the Harvard Unit were given this printed communication, extending the thanks of Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig as well as the commendation of Hugh Cabot:
In 1929, Robert Latou Dickinson, MD visualized the relationships among organizations in this chart, created for the Committee on Maternal Health (CMH), an organization he established as a medical counterpart to Sanger’s Birth Control League.
In the late 1960s, Fleischner and a small group of radiologists began to organize a thoracic radiology society. When the society was formally created in December 1969, Fleischner's colleagues named it the Fleischner Society, in memory of the…
Originally published by Rowlandson in 1788, this print shows Ague, the snake, wrapped around the patient, while Fever, the furry monster, stands behind him. On the right is a physician writing a prescription.
A quote by Milton on the bottom of the…
Alan Frank Guttmacher (1893-1974) was a trained obstetrician and gynecologist in Baltimore, Md. and New York City who began advocating for easier access to birth control and legalized abortion in the United States after witnessing a woman die due to…
Guttmacher participated in panel discussions and open discourses with religious leaders regarding birth control usage and the legalization of abortion in the United States
Guttmacher heightened Planned Parenthood of America’s international profile by expanding the organization’s mission to include the prevention of global overpopulation and the encouragement of prenatal care for expectant mothers. Here,…
Guttmacher’s schedule included traveling to national and international conferences, lecturing to various audiences including local Planned Parenthood centers, and training medical professionals on the importance of birth control. His journals…
From unlabeled box containing negatives of France, Algeria, portraits, and Kazanjian's facial moulages on display in what is possibly the Harvard Dental School museum.
Alice Hamilton was the first woman appointed to the faculty at Harvard University, and founder of occupational medicine. M.D. University of Michigan, 1893. Studied pathology and bacteriology at the Universities of Leipzig and Munich, Germany,…
Almanacs were used to record the most propitious days and times for purging, bloodletting, and pharmaceutical manufacture according to astrological and astronomical events. This specimen for the city of Erfurt in 1494 includes woodcuts depicting…
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…
From a set of two boxes of lantern slides by Dr. Robert Battey Greenough, covering his service in 1915 with the First Harvard Unit and the American Ambulance in France during World War I.
From a set of two boxes of lantern slides by Dr. Robert Battey Greenough, covering his service in 1915 with the First Harvard Unit and the American Ambulance in France during World War I.
From a set of two boxes of lantern slides by Dr. Robert Battey Greenough, covering his service in 1915 with the First Harvard Unit and the American Ambulance in France during World War I.
From a set of two boxes of lantern slides by Dr. Robert Battey Greenough, covering his service in 1915 with the First Harvard Unit and the American Ambulance in France during World War I.
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…
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…
In addition to being a detailed examination of plants native to the United States with their medicinal uses, American medical botany is the first publication in this country to employ a color printing process for its plates, using an innovative…
From unlabeled box containing pictures of soldiers, wreckage, and battles throughout France, as well as the presidential visit to Alsace and Lorraine and President Wilson in Paris.
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.
These stern regulations for the ordering of the Library were in place soon after its formation. The complete catalogue indicates that of the 29 titles, nearly one-third were current periodicals, attesting to the Trustees' intention to make the…
In 1821, Philadelphia physician John Kearsley Mitchell met and examined Aké, a Chinese youth with a partially-formed parasitic twin protruding from his stomach, and sent back this first-hand report from Canton.
Although the use of extracts from the foxglove in cases of dropsy had been common, William Withering was the first to analyze preparations of the plant scientifically and so isolated digitalis. Withering's An account of the foxglove describes over…