The holdings of the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library range from ancient papyri to
records of modern advertising. There are over 10,000 manuscript collections containing more
than 20 million individual manuscript items. Only a portion of these collections and items
are discoverable on this site. Others may be found in the library catalog.
ALS discussing minerals, coins and astronomy. He mentions the Royal Society, Sir Hans Sloane, Robert Hooke and Edmund Halley, among others. Some letters bear explanatory manuscript notes, probably in Palmer's hand.
ALS. This body of correspondence, almost exclusively letters to Forwood and written immediately before and during the early part of the Civil War, relates to questions of race, e.g. "the Negro problem", intermarriage and consanguinity. The mechanics of editing and publishing a medical journal also form a topic of discussion. Principal correspondents are Samuel Worcester Butler and Washington Chew Van Bibber. Other correspondents are Sylvester David Willard, John H. Van Evrie, J.P. Evans, Joseph Leidy, S.M. Bemiss, James A. Bayard, and Samuel A. Cartwright.
In his letter to Mason Fitch Cogswell, Post writes of the controversy among New York medical professionals over the establishment of a dispensary and a college of surgeons; refers to an attack upon William Dunlap; and comments upon Cogswell's ambitions to write an anatomy. A portrait of Post is attached.
ALS from Keen to Brinton, written on the back of an ALS from R.J. Levis to Keen. Both men write regarding efforts to collect surgical casts and make them available to Brinton and the Army Medical Museum.
ALS. A copy of his letter to Miss "Fanny" Clifton, written hours before his departure to the Mediterranean for Naval service, in which he passionately bids her farewell.
ALS. In this letter written two months before his death on Nov. 20, 1854, Turk writes of attending "the Lectures" in Philadelphia, recounts youthful escapades and speaks of his family.
ANS. Requests that bearer be given a copy of his work on mineral waters, as well as his book on the liver. Note is attached to short biographical sketch.
Miscellaneous documents found in Hyde's daybooks, 1851-1861, which are part of the library's bound manuscript collection. Documents include foolscap bearing sums owed and names of clients. Of particular interest are three drafts of a petition, 1861, Conn., to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, that the Crittenden measures, introduced by Kentucky legislator John Jordan Crittenden, be adopted by all states in order to peacefully preserve the Union. Of related interest is a page bearing biblical passages regarding slaves.
Document, signed. Certificate to practice medicine, issued by the Connecticut State Medical Society to William Hyde, signed by Jeremiah West, James Potter, Simon Wolcott, and Avery Downer.
William Helfand is a scholar of pharmaceutical history and art, and collector of ephemera and art related to medicine. The William H. Helfand Collection of Medical Prints and Posters consists of 34 prints and posters realted to the history of medicine and pharmacology, dating from 1695 to 1991, with the bulk of the prints dating from 19th century. Paris, France is the provenance for many of the posters, but several hail from England and the United States. The posters are represented in two formats: lithographs and engravings, some of which are hand colored. Ranging in size from 5"x8" to 19"x23", the prints include caricatures, political satire, comics and advertisements, dealing with a range of subjects from quacks, alchemy, charlatans and cheats, to pastoral and hospital scenes. George Cruikshank and Honoré Daumier are represented amongst the artists. Acquired as part of the History of Medicine Collections at Duke University.
The William H. Helfand Collection of Medical Prints and Posters consists of 34 prints and posters realted to the history of medicine and pharmacology, dating from 1695 to 1991, with the bulk of the prints dating from 19th century. Paris, France is the provenance for many of the posters, but several hail from England and the United States. The posters are represented in two formats: lithographs and engravings, some of which are hand colored. Ranging in size from 5"x8" to 19"x23", the prints include caricatures, political satire, comics and advertisements, dealing with a range of subjects from quacks, alchemy, charlatans and cheats to pastoral and hospital scenes. George Cruikshank and Honoré Daumier are represented amongst the artists. Acquired as part of the History of Medicine Collections at Duke University.
A group of letters spanning Welch's career, chiefly written to him, but including one early 1887 letter returning a revised manuscript to Dr. Canfield. One notable letter introducing Welch, then at Johns Hopdkins, to Congressman Robert Bremner, is signed by Woodrow Wilson from the White House in 1913. Includes many pieces of correspondence to and from Wilburt C. Davison of the Duke University School of Medicine, including a 1933 telegram to Welch on the occasion of the 2nd anniversary.
ALS. Invites Faraday on request of the Committee of the Manchester Royal Institution to give a course of lectures on chemistry. Informs him, however, that the Institution may not be able to supply all of the desired laboratory equipment.
Holograph inscription, signed. Broadbent's compliments to Dr. H. Barton Jacobs, on the fly-leaf of a copy of the third edition of Broadbent's book on heart disease, presented to Jacobs. Attached is a note in Jacobs' hand.
ALS. Details efforts to increase the size of the army and to improve the efficiency of the military organization in preparation for a war with Great Britain. He also transcribes a copy of a letter received from Alexander Smyth, on recruiting measures.
ALS, TLS and TL. MacNider writes to Dr. W.P. Kavanagh regarding a terminal case of myocardial infarction. Included is a typescript, unsigned, of a letter to MacNider from Kavanagh.
Letters (ALS), including instructions for the third edition of Buchan's "Domestic Medicine". In the same letter he also relates anecdotes of incidents in which people made use of the book's medical advice. A letter to Cadell and Davies (booksellers and publishers) concerns his Medical advice to mothers and his Treatise on venereal disease. This letter was removed from the Thomas Cadell collection. A holograph note, in an anonymous hand, provides biographical information.
Material includes a letter (ALS), reprints, holograph notes. All material relates to the letter, from Commodore Thomas Macdonough to B.W. Crowninshield, Secretary of the Navy, recommending William Beaumont for service in the Navy.
6 letters (ALS). Writes to direct the handling of botanical and zoological specimens collected during a scientific expedition to India and America, made by Behn and Danish scientists on the warship "Galathea". Two letters give an account of the controversy connected to his appointment to the Leopold-Charles' Academy in Dresden.
ALS. In 1856 Peters writes on specimens and drawings of sea mollusks. In 1876 he writes of the work of German physician and zoologist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg.
ALS. Writes regarding an upcoming lecture, to be given by Dallinger. He proposes to speak on "Contrasts in nature: the infinitely great and the infinitely small."
Papers relate to the British naval hospital at Gibraltar and include weekly reports on the state of the hospital at Port Mahon, signed by John Gray, surgeon; list of gratuitous medicines, signed by Gray; account of lemons issued, signed by Gray; returns of the sick and wounded, signed by J. Gardiner, surgeon; reports on the state of the naval hospital at Gibraltar, signed by John Weir and Edward Vaughan; lists of hospital expenditures, and correspondence. Correspondents include St. Vincent, Captain Duckworth, Weir, Vaughan, R. Blair, W. Gibbons, J. Johnston, and Gilbert Blane, Henry Semple, from the French surgeons on the Luise Cherie, and printed material.
Material includes 9 TLS and 2 ALS. Most letters are addressed to Victor Robinson, as editor of the journal "Medical life." One letter is addressed to William J. Robinson, editor of "The critic and guide." Correspondents include Otto Juettner, his wife Estelle, Henry E. Sigerist, Arturo Castiglioni, G. C. Grippen, J. R. de la Torre-Bueno, Sarah I. Morris and Alfred A. Knopf. Grippen requests a review of Sir Marc Armand Ruffer's book, "Studies in the palaeopathology of Egypt." Torre-Bueno requests a review of E. B. Krumbhaar's English translation of Castiglioni's work, "A history of medicine." Juettner submits his work, "Daniel Drake and his followers" for review. Material also includes a bookplate and Christmas card of Castiglioni as well as a newsprint article regarding and the program of a farewell dinner for Sigerist.
Autograph letters and documents, signed. Includes letters to his father and brother from England, on British politics towards the United States and on the Continent; to Dr. Pollock informing him that he is unable to find a copy of his (Mott's) eulogy on Dr. John Revere; letters of recommendation; and receipts.
ALS. Personal and professional correspondence includes letters from R.N.D. Desgenettes, Jeffries Wyman, John Jeffries, John Collins Warren, James Thacher, Thomas M. Potter, George Hayward, John Witt Randall, Enoch Hale, John White Webster, Jerome van Crowninshield Smith, John D. Fisher, James Jackson and J.B. Whitridge. Papers also include a letter from Parsons to his brother-in-law, Oliver Wendell Holmes.
ALS. Concurs with Rolleston's opinion that publication of Teale's and Allbutt's paper on the surgical treatment of tuberculous glands is unnecessary at the present time.
ALS and holograph document, signed. Document is a receipt for a rent payment by William Jenks to Jennison. ALS to Jenks relates to a pamphlet to be given to the Massachusetts Historial Society.
Certificates of attendance at lecture courses at the University of Edinburgh and class certificates of merit. Signed by Daniel Rutherford Haldane, practice of medicine; W.R. Sanders, pathology and anatomy; Thomas Laycock, clinical lectures on medicine; Thomas Grainger Stewart, practice of physic; Alexander R. Simpson, midwifery; James Spencer, surgery; and Robert Christison, materia medica.
ALS. Sewell writes to Rev. David Benedict, on fundraising efforts for the College, and to Tristam Burges, regarding the health of Burges' daughter and referring to various medical publications.
Holograph document, signed. Diploma granted by Edinburgh University, signed by Alexander Monro, William Cullen, and Alexander Monro, Jr., among others.
ALS. Writes that, in his opinion, yellow fever is not contagious, but rather "an epidemical fever, arising from some general cause". He draws upon observations of cases in Philadelphia and in the West Indies.
Note, in an unknown hand, presents a gift from Pettigrew to the Countess of Blessington. Also in file is a 1933 newsprint article, "The frailities of Lady Blessington."
Documents, signed, relating to Thomas Hughes, his maternal grandmother, Joyce Morgan, his mother, Anne Hughes Samuel, her second husband, William Samuel, and the disposal of family property and goods. There is also a page of printed material, Miscellaneous articles sold by Thomas Hughes, dispensing chemist.
ALS which briefly refers to the Aborigines Protection Society, which Hodgkin founded in 1838. A holograph note in an unknown hand gives biographical details.
Letters (ALS) to Thomas Cadell, Sr. (1742-1802), Thomas, Jr., and William Davies (d. 1820), publishers and booksellers, from James Makittrick Adair, regarding his essay on regimen; from John Aikin; from George Armstrong, regarding his Essay on the diseases most fatal to infants; from Alexander Peter Buchan, regarding a book on sea-bathing; from Thomas Cogan, regarding his Theological disquisitions; from Quintin Craufurd; from James Currie; from William Hey, regarding his Practical observations in surgery, and from Benjamin Rumford, regarding the second edition of his Seventh essay. A letter written by William Buchan was removed from this collection and placed with the William Buchan collection.
Letter (ALS) acknowledges the receipt of $4.12 as balance of the proceeds arising from the delivery of lectures. Expresses gratitude for the opportunity to speak before a New York audience.
The letter from Theodore Child to Samuel Putnam Avery refers to acquisition of Grolier-bound volume now in the Trent Collection at Duke University Medical Center Library: Benedetti's Anatomice, 1527.
