Letter from Oliver Wendell Holmes to John Samuel Whiting

Letter from Oliver Wendell Holmes to John Samuel Whiting

Correspondence

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894 (author)

Whiting, John Samuel

Holmes’ extensive medical library grew by not only his own purchases but also many gifts from friends, admirers, and colleagues. In this letter to physician John Samuel Whiting (1828-1896), Holmes expresses his thanks for the copy of an early anatomy text, James Keill’s The anatomy of the human body abridg’d. Holmes writes, “I have the ‘Manuall’ of Alexander Read, published in 1638—just one hundred years earlier than this, which I am much pleased to add to my collection. I have two anatomical works which go back more than another century—to 1520. It is very interesting to examine these books in series—to see what anatomy has come to in three centuries and a half…. I thank you very cordially for adding another stepping-stone to my path backward through the centuries.”

Letter from Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) to John Samuel Whiting, thanking him for a book

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894

1879 May 13

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Papers of Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1843-1888 (inclusive). H MS c9.1

text

1 manuscript letter (2 pages)

English

text

DigID0002154

DigID0002155

Gift of Mrs. T. G. Frothingham to the Harvard Medical School Library, 1946