Traditions & Culture of Collecting Articles by and about Collectors, Librarians, and Booksellers

History of Medicine Book Collecting

“I won’t be plucked of my feathers”: Freud and the Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag (1919- 1938)
Exhibition catalogue commemorating the 150th annivesary of Freud's birth. A joint initiative of Kring voor Psychoanalyse van de New Lacanian School, Museum Dr. Guislain and Philippe Helaers.
Sigmund Freud: An Exhibition of Original Editions, Autograph Letters and Portraits from the Library of Haskell F. Norman
Stanford University Libraries, 1991.
Adam Smith on medical education and related matters by Raymond Pearl
The great economist's laissez-faire view of the economics of 18th-century medical education.
The Preposterous Reading of Books, by Giorgio Baglivi
Excerpted from Baglivi's The Practice of Physick (1704).
Johns Hopkins Historical Club: The Symposium of the Gold-Headed Cane
From the Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, Vol. XVII, May, 1906. Includes brief papers by Thomas McCrae, William Osler, Harvey Cushing, and Thomas Futcher.
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and its Connection with Eminent Book Collectors, by John L. Thornton
From the Journal of the History of Medicine, Autumn 1951.
Some Medical Bibliophiles and Their Libraries, by W. J. Bishop
From the Journal of the History of Medicine, Spring 1948.
Libraries of Some Twentieth-Century American Bibliophilic Physicians, by Thomas E. Keyes
From The Library Quarterly.
Libraries of Physicians: A Review of the Literature, by Philip J. Weimerskirch
From AB Bookman's Weekly, April 20, 1987.
A Century of American Medical Libraries, 1830-1930, by Archibald Malloch
From Celebration of the Centennial of the Library of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland, 1830-1930 (1931).
From Hammurabi to Gesell: An Exhibit of Books on the History of Pediatrics, by Henry Schuman
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, October 4-8, 1961. Henry Schuman was probably the first antiquarian bookseller in the United States to specialize in the history of medicine. He was also a pioneering publisher of scholarly books on the history of science.

History of Science Book Collecting

The History and Bibliography of Science in England, the first phase, 1833-45 by A.N.L. Munby
This pioneering study was issued in 1968. In the period that it deals with—the first half of the nineteenth century—the history of science and medicine first became a topic of organized collecting not only in England but also on the continent of Europe.
Scientists’ Libraries: A Handlist of Printed Sources by Ellen B. Wells
References to about 1200 titles concerning the libraries of about 880 scientists, including physicians. The author described this study, which was originally published in 1983, as preliminary. However, to the best of my knowledge, no more comprehensive list has been published.

James Atkinson

James Atkinson and his Medical Bibliography, by John Ruhrah. Atkinson's extensively annotated bibliography, which covers only the letters A through B, remains a unique combination of medical bibliography and humor!

Jean Blondelet

Anatomie Monde Insolite: Europe - Extrême-Orient. Jean Blondelet was probably the greatest, but least known, French collector of rare medical and scientific books in the 20th century. This collaborative catalogue, issued in 1972, appears to be the only work in which he published a few items from his library. After his death, in 2001 Blondelet's collection of Chinese and Japanese books appeared at auction in Paris at Tajan Commissaires-Priseurs: Bibliothèque Sino-Japonaise de Jean Blondelet: Médicine, histoire naturelle, littérature et beaux-arts, manuscrits et livres anciens. A PDF of this catalogue could be downloaded from the Tajan website in August 2009. We have divided the large file of the 1972 publication into five sections:
Section 1: Introduction
Section 2: Europe
Section 3: Tableau, Gravures, Planches Separées
Section 4: Objets
Section 5: Extrême Orient

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach

Berzeichnis der vom weil. Obermedicinalrath Blumenbach nachgelassenen Buecher
Auction catalogue of Blumenbach's library, 1840.
The Blumenbach/Herbst Collection, by Jeremy M. Norman
The introduction to our Catalogue Six (1979), featuring books from the library of J. F. Blumenbach.

Herman Boerhaave

Boerhaave: Author and Editor, by G. A. Lindeboom
From the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 62(2), April 1974.

Robert Child

Robert Child's Chemical Book List of 1641 by William Jerome Wilson
From Journal of Chemical Education, March 1943.

Le Roy Crummer

Le Roy Crummer (1872-1934), by H. R. V. [Henry R. Viets]
Reprinted from the New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 210 (1934): 389-392.

Harvey Cushing

The Letters and Libraries of Irving S. Cutter and Harvey Cushing by John F. Fulton
Harvey Cushing and his Books by John F. Fulton
The Doctor and his Books by Harvey Cushing
A Doctor and his Books: Harvey Cushing and his Library
From the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Vol. 1 (1946). Includes "Recollections of Harvey Cushing and His Book-Collecting" by E. P. Goldschmidt, "The Formation of the Harvey Cushing Collection" by E. Weil, and "Harvey Cushing and His Books" by Geoffrey Jefferson.
Dr. Harvey Cushing and his Editor, by Edward Weeks
From the Bulletin of the Cleveland Medical Library, Volume VI, no. 3 (July, 1959).
Harvey Cushing: An Anecdotal Biography, by Henry R. Viets
From the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 81 (1969).

Bern Dibner

The Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology at 25 Years: Celebrating a Collector’s Vision and Its Legacy

Sidney Edelstein

Sidney M. Edelstein (1912 - 1994)
Chemist, inventor, entrepreneur, collector of the history of chemistry, and historian of bleaching and dyeing, Sidney M. Edelstein founded the Sidney M. Edelstein Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Herbert M. Evans

Exhibition of Epochal Achievements in the History of Science by Herbert M. Evans
Great Firsts of Science by Herbert M. Evans. Prospectus for a pioneering bibliographical project that was never completed.
Herbert McLean Evans 1882-1971 by E. C. Amoroso and G. W. Corner

John F. Fulton

John Fulton—Book Collector, Humanist, and Friend, by Arnold Muirhead
A Projected Bibliographa Physiologica, by John F. Fulton
Read at a symposium on Medical Literature at the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association, Boston, June 29, 1938.
Yale Medical Library: The Formation and Growth of its Historical Library, by John F. Fulton et al.
New Haven, 1962.

Fielding H. Garrison

How to Collect Old Medical Books in Europe by Fielding H. Garrison and Felix Neumann. A period piece, for sure. . . .

William Harvey

William Fitzer, the Publisher of Harvey's De Motu Cordis, 1628, by E. Weil
Read before the Bibliographical Society on November 16, 1943.
The Echo of Harvey's De Motu Cordis (1628), by E. Weil
From the Journal of the History of Medicine, April 1957.
William Harvey 1578-1657: An Exhibition Of Books and Manuscripts Illustrating his Life and Work
London, Royal College of Physicians, 1957.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Homes: His Books by Henry R. Viets
From Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 6. November-December, 1964.

Warren R. Howell

Reminiscences of Warren R. Howell by Jeremy Norman
An Enquiry into the Crerar Library Affair by Jennifer S. Larson

John Hunter

John Hunter's Private Press, by A. T. H. Robb-Smith
From Journal of the History of Medicine, July 1970.

William Hunter

William Hunter, Book Collector, by Jack Baldwin
Catalogue of an exhibition held at Glasgow University in 1983. The Hunterian Library contains some 10,000 printed books and 650 manuscripts and forms one of the finest 18th-century libraries to survive intact. It was assembled by Dr William Hunter (1718-83), anatomist, teacher of medicine, Physician Extraordinary to Queen Charlotte, and collector of coins, medals, paintings, shells, minerals, and anatomical and natural history specimens, as well as of books and manuscripts. Under the terms of Hunter’s will, his library and other collections remained in London for several years after his death—for the use of his nephew, Dr Matthew Baillie (1761-1823)—and finally came to Glasgow University in 1807.

K. Garth Huston, Sr.

Garth Huston as a Friend and Book Collector, by Lawrence Longo, M.D.
Reprinted by permission from A Celebration of Living, the memorial service keepsake for Dr. Huston (1987).
A Bookbinder and his Client, by Bernard Middleton
From The Library of K. Garth Huston, Sr., Jeremy Norman and Company, Catalogue 19 (1989).

Georg Kloss

Doctors Afield: Georg Kloss (1787-1854) by Henry R. Viets
From The New England Journal of Medicine, 257:34-36 (July 4), 1957.

Antonio Magliobechi

Antonio Magliobechi: Bibliomaniac Extraordinaire by William P. Wreden
From The Imprint of the Stanford Libraries Associates, Volume XI, Number 1, April 1985.

Augustus de Morgan

On the Difficulty of Correct Description of Books by Augustus de Morgan, originally published in 1853, with introduction by Henry Guppy. London: The Library Association, 1902. An article motivated to a certain extent by de Morgan's well-meaning desire to defend fellow mathematician Guglielmo Libri against charges of grand scale book theft in the long-running so-called "Libri Affair."

Haskell F. Norman

My Education as a Bibliophile by Haskell F. Norman
from The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science & Medicine
This Catalogue and its Predecessors by Jeremy Norman
from The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science & Medicine
Wisdom and Achievements—A Celebration of Haskell F. Norman (1915–1996) by Jeremy Norman
The Haskell F. Norman Collection of Science & Medicine
Selections exhibited for the International Congress of Bibliophiles, 1985.
Freud, Osler, and the Norman Collection, by Haskell F. Norman
A talk given in Copenhagen circa 1987.
One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine: Notes on the Exhibition, by Haskell F. Norman
From the Gazette of the Grolier Club, new series, No. 46 (1994).

Jeremy Norman

Collecting Rare Medical Books: A Dealer’s Perspective by Jeremy Norman
William Withering and the Purple Foxglove: A Bicentennial Tribute by Jeremy Norman
Darwin’s Century: The Jeremy Norman Collection (introduction) by Jeremy Norman
Darwin's Century: The Jeremy Norman Collection (auction catalogue)
This is a large file and may take some time to download.
Towards Expanding the Canon of Classics of Modern Science and Technology: The Harvey Plotnick Library on the Development of Quantum Physics and the Theory of Relativity by Jeremy Norman
Collecting the Foundations of Molecular Biology—Records of Discovering the Secrets of Life by Jeremy Norman
This is the introduction to the offering of my Archive on the History of Molecular Biology that was sold to the J. Craig Venter Institute in August, 2005. Some of the highlights in this unique collection are identified in the Timeline below.
Discovery of the Secrets of Life Timeline by Jeremy Norman
This is a draft of a project that I began in association with my Archive on the History of Molecular Biology. References in the right column are to original manuscripts and documents in the Archive that are pertinent to the discoveries in the timeline. I think the outline still has practical value for anyone collecting the history of molecular biology because of the lack of a good bibliographical reference for that subject.
Listing of Jeremy Norman’s publications on book collecting in the sciences
A Meeting of Bibliophiles, January 1993 (photograph)

William Osler

Background on the Bibliotheca Osleriana: Osler as a Book Collector by Leonard M. Payne
Reprinted from Oslerian Anniversary. The record of the 300th meeting of The Osler Club of London held jointly with the Royal College of Physicians of London. London: The Osler Club, 1976, 38-47.
Books for the Bibliotheca: A Study of Sir William Osler’s Book Bills by Ellen B. Wells
Reprinted from Osler Library Newsletter, No. 26, October 1977. Montreal: Osler Library, McGill University.
Illustrations of the Book-worm by William Osler
The Gay of Heart by Thomas S. Cullen
Reprinted from Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 84 (1949): 41-45. Chicago: American Medical Association. Concerns Osler's sense of humor and habit of practical joking, both of which are often forgotten.
An Evening among the Books, December 29, 1969
(In commemoration of Sir William Osler, who died December 29, 1919.)
The Preparation of the "Bibliotheca Osleriana", by R. H. Hill
A paper read before the Osler Club, London, on June 20, 1929 (not searchable).

Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc

Peiresc and his Books, by Pierre Gassendi
Boston, 1970.

George A. Plimpton

The History of Elementary Mathematics in the Plimpton Library by G. A. Plimpton
Plimpton's discussion of highlights and favorite items in his library of early mathematical works preserved at Columbia University Library and best-known from Smith's Rara Arithmetica..

Vittorio Putti

Vittorio Putti 1880-1940 by H. R. V. [Henry R. Viets] and R. B. O.
From The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 223 (1940): 955-956.

William Read

William Read and his Books: A Bibliographic Research Pattern in 1861 by Henry R. Viets
From The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 269 (1963): 562-565.

Bernard Rosenthal

Interview with Bernard M. Rosenthal, by Daniel J. Slive
Reprinted from RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage, Vol. 4, no. 1 (Spring 2003).

Pierre Eugène du Simitière

Pierre Eugène du Simitière -- Early American Bibliophile, by Martin Levey
March 1955. In English and French.

William Smellie

Dr. William Smellie and his Library at Lanark, Scotland, by Haldane P. Tait and Archibald T. Wallace
From the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Vol. XXVI.

Edward Clark Streeter

Edward Clark Streeter 1874-1947: A biographical appreciation for his friends and classmates by John F. Fulton
Reprinted with emendations and additions from the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 20 (1947).
A Menu for a Slightly Rabelaisian Dinner

Erik Waller

Jacob Zeitlin

Jake Zeitlin, Impresario of the Printed Word
From AB Bookman's Weekly, October 5, 1987.
Some Rambling Recollections of a Rambling Bookseller
A talk delivered by Jake Zeitlin to the Library Patrons of Occidental College, Los Angeles, California in 1970.
Southern California's Collection Builders
From AB Bookman's Weekly, February 15, 1982.
Jake Zeitlin at 75 - Looking Back, by Ward Ritchie
Excerpted from "The Many Faces of Jake Zeitlin," a limited-edition portfolio issued by Cal State Northridge to commemorate the 75th birthday of Jake Zeitlin.
Some Late Great Bookmen of the San Francisco Bay Area
From The Imprint of the Stanford Libraries Associates, Vol. XI, no. 2 (October 1985).