By Tannaz Motevalli, Sarah Eilers, Laura Hartman, and Erika Mills In the previous blog post “Data Science in Politics of Yellow Fever: Medical Research Before
Category: Rare Books & Journals
Pre-1914 books and serials, pre-1871 journals, and pamphlets and dissertations, and early Western and Islamic manuscripts.
Trapping Mosquitoes at Home
Mosquito control education materials from the early 20th century—from changing the landscape to chemical insecticides.
Scan-on-Demand: Home Health, 1903
The National Library of Medicine’s Scan-on-Demand program provides the public with offsite access to digitized copies of historical medical materials published before 1924.
Commelin’s Worldwide Botanical Web
By Harold J. Cook ~ Originally published in Hidden Treasure: The National Library of Medicine, 2011. Horti Medici Amstelodamensis Rariorum … Plantarum Historia (the title
Of Unica and…Unicorns?—Identifying Unique Holdings at NLM
By Krista Stracka ~ The National Library of Medicine recently digitized a 1501 edition of what is commonly considered the first printed book on distillation.
Fifteenth Century Books: When Doodles Matter
By Laura Hartman ~ It may seem hard to believe that a random scribbling or doodle on an empty page or margin of an old
Closing the Book on “Shadows from the Walls of Death”
This collection of arsenic-laden wallpaper samples required special housing. NLM conservators encapsulated the pages in polyester film, welded shut with support from Smithsonian Libraries…
Spice of History: A Gingerbread Recipe
Recipe books from the 18th century hold a combination of food recipes, herbal remedies, and other such household creations thought to improve health. Powell’s “ginger bread” recipe includes ingredients easily found in today’s grocery store and provides measures still in use today.
How to Become a Nurse and How to Succeed, ca. 1892
By Gabrielle Barr ~ “Don’t talk too long to patients…. Never lean against the table with one’s hands in one’s apron pockets…. Don’t be too
Scope Magazine (1941–1957)
By R. Roger Remington ~ Originally published in Hidden Treasure: The National Library of Medicine, 2011. Targeted at doctors, pharmacists, and other health professionals, Scope was
Revealing Data: Close Reading and Textual Analysis as Historical Methods
Historical medical journals provide unique perspectives on the development of expert understanding of transmission, morbidity, and impact during an epidemic. Examining the ways that medical
Revealing Data: Measuring Mortality during an Epidemic
Historical medical journals provide unique perspectives on the development of expert understanding of transmission, morbidity, and impact during an epidemic. Examining the ways that medical
Revealing Data: Using Term Frequency to Chart Influenza Reporting
Historical medical journals provide unique perspectives on the development of expert understanding of transmission, morbidity, and impact during an epidemic. Examining the ways that medical
Revealing Data: Investigating The Hospital’s file sizes
By Ashley Bowen ~ For researchers interested in the administration of British hospitals in the late 19th and early 20th century, The Hospital is a
Fifteenth Century Books: From the Cradle of Printing in the West
By Laura Hartman ~ Zodiac Man. Critical Days. Secrets of women. Chiromancy. Plague. Poisons. Aristotle. Hippocrates. You can explore these topics and many more common
Revealing Data: The Psychological Clinic Explores IQ in 1911
By Ashley Bowen ~ Alfred Binet’s intelligence tests, originally developed in 1905 for the French public school system, took America by storm. The test promised
Edward Jenner and “the happy immunity”
By Aliya Rahman ~ August is back-to-school month. While many of us are booking last-minute vacations or scrambling to purchase tickets to that almost-sold-out concert,
A Rapid Means of Casualty Evacuation, 1961
Circulating Now welcomes guest blogger Sanders Marble, PhD. Dr. Marble is Senior Historian in the U.S. Army Office of Medical History and a 2018 NLM
“Facts and Inferences”—Digitizing Shadows from the Walls of Death Part 3
NLM has digitized and made publicly available for the first time, one of four known copies of Shadows from the Walls of Death: Facts and
“Facts and Inferences”—Digitizing Shadows from the Walls of Death Part 2
NLM has digitized and made publicly available for the first time, one of four known copies of Shadows from the Walls of Death: Facts and
