4) Highlight of a History of Medicine Library

Cushing/Whitney Medical Historical Library
By: Patrick Corcoran, MLIS candidate, University of Southern Mississippi

Handsome Reading Room Located on the Campus of Yale University

(Harvey, n.d., Services)

   The Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library Medical Historical Library, part of Yale Library, is an exquisite example of a specialty repository dedicated to the history of medicine.  The implications of this concept are evolutionary, because it shows the importance of history of health sciences, as we continue to learn healing methods from our past.  Founded in 1941, this collection was the amalgamation of three separate donations. "Special strengths are the works of Hippocrates, Galen, Vesalius, Boyle, Harvey, and S. Weir Mitchell, and works on anesthesia, and smallpox inoculation and vaccination. The Library owns over 300 medical incunabula" (Harvey, n.d., Library).  Incunabula are handwritten books produced before Europe's 16th Century.
   Part of this specialty library is the Cushing Center, which celebrates the achievements of Harvey Cushing, "pioneer and father of neurosurgery" (Harvey, n.d., History).  Cushing, a prolific writer and analyst, created the first brain tumor registry in the world, by collecting brains and slide specimens.  These brains are still an integral part of the collection, in that it now belongs to a historical study which has been surpassed by other collections elsewhere, yet remains the first of its kind.  More anatomic collections have been added, some of which can be viewed digitally, but the following is a video that explains the Cushing Brain Collection in more detail.

Dr. Dennis Spencer, Department of Neurosurgery Chairman, Discusses the Provenance of the Brain Collection                                                                              (Cushing's Brains, n.d.)

Bibliography

             Cushing's Brains. (n.d.). [video]. Retrived from https://youtu.be/U8qpubuSiHw

Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library Medical Historical Library. (n.d.). History.  

     Retrieved from http://library.medicine.yale.edu/cc/history 

Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library Medical Historical Library. (n.d.). Library.    

     Retrieved from http://library.medicine.yale.edu/historical/us/library 

Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library Medical Historical Library. (n.d.). Services.  

     Retrieved from http://library.medicine.yale.edu/historical/do