6) Highlight of an Archives of History of Medicine

Highlight of the Stanford Medical History Center Archives
By: Patrick Corcoran, MLIS candidate, University of Southern Mississippi

Historical Society Journal  (SHS, 2009)

   The Stanford School of Medicine Medical History Center, SUMC, located in Stanford, California, maintains an extensive and diverse archival collection.  SUMC presents a rich segment of its collection in a digitized, on-line format.
   Twenty separate publications, available here, describe the history and cultural implications of the history of medicine at Stanford, with dates of publication ranging from 1912 to 2009.  This same page gives access to 'thousands of images in a variety of formats', with the use of Flickr as a digital medium.  Next on this page of exploration, within this medical history archives', lists a chart of 'publication, broadcast, commercial license fees' for items, containing quantity, academic/501(c)3/commercial use, whose rates range from $25 to $250. (SUMC, 2014)
   The final four categories of items housed within The Stanford School of Medicine Medical History Center, include: personal papers; rare books; institutional records; and, local history resources.  Hyperlinks within each name represented in the personal papers, give access to location, occupied space, extent and provenance, as well as, a descriptive summary.  In regard to the rare books, the collection contains over 7,600 from the 13th Century to present, including: herbals; illustrated anatomies; guides for midwives; historical medical dictionaries; all-the-while, represented in many languages. (SUMC, 2014)  Institutional records include all the associated hospitals and schools, as well as, a student/professional organization.  Hyperlinks allow for an extensive local history resource list, including historical/genealogical societies, archives, and museums.
   Founded in 1858, as "the first medical school in the vast territory between Iowa and the Pacific" (Wilson, 1998), SUMC predates many other 19th Century institutions of healing, including University of Leeds, England, founded in 1874, yet still touting, both, a strong history of scientific scholarship, and a specialist repository of medical/healing art materials.  It is interesting that the ancient European culture has newer institutions than here in the United States.  The overlap may lie in that these types of specialty archives takes significant funding to collect and maintain.  Anyway, the collection at Leeds is well worth a look at, which contains comparatively exciting collections as at SUMC, and is outlined in an in-depth journal article from the British Society for the History of Science.  P. B. Wood and J. V. Golinski title their collection history/description as "Library and Archive Resources in the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Leeds" (Wood & Golinski, 1981).

Bibliography

SHS-Stanford historical society. (2009). Journal.

 Retrieved from https://ia601004.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?      zip=/25/items/Pizzo_201312/Pizzo_jp2.zip&file=Pizzo_jp2/Pizzo_0000.jp2&scale=8&rotate=0

SUMC-Stanford University Medical History Center. (2014). Explore SUMC's past.
 Retrieved from: http://lane.stanford.edu/med-history/explore.html

Wood, P.B. & Golinski, J.V. (1981). Library and Archive Resources in the History of Science and Medicine at the  University of Leeds. The British Journal for the History of Science, 14(3), Cambridge University Press. Retrieved  from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4025983