History of Medicine: Finding Images

This guide is meant to be general a starting point to biographical research in the history of medicine, primarily within North America.  The list below includes electronic and print resources to begin your search.

Electronic Resources

History of Medicine-Specific image Resources

• Images from the History of Medicine  60,000 images in the prints and photograph collection of the History of Medicine Division of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM); collection includes portraits, pictures of institutions, caricatures, genre scenes, and graphic art in a variety of media, illustrating the social and historical aspects of medicine.
• Exhibitions in the History of Medicine by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Topics include: Medieval Manuscripts in the NLM (2001) Classics of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2001) Emotions and Disease (2000) Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine (2000) That Girl There Is Doctor In Medicine" Elizabeth Blackwell, America's First Woman, M.D. (2000) Breath of Life (1999) Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature (1998) Here Today, Here Tomorrow: Varieties of Medical Ephemera (1995) Islamic Culture and the Medical Arts (1994) "If You Knew the Conditions ...;" Health Care to Native Americans (1994) Cesarian Section -- A Brief History (1993) Paracelsus, Five Hundred Years: Three American Exhibits (1993)
• Images From the History of the Public Health Service: A Photographic Exhibit  An online version of the book, Images from the History of the Public Health Service; A Photographic Exhibit by Ramunas Kondratas.  See Print Resources below for more information.
• Internet Public Library: History of Medicine  Contains websites of online History of Medicine collections, many of which contain images.
• Medical Antiques.com "An index of articles, photos, and research about medical antiques. Also discussed are the techniques of collecting the artifacts and sets associated with surgery instruments, leeching, bloodletting, drugs, and other aspects of medical science prior to 1900."

General Image Resources

• American Memory from the Library of Congress
• ARTstor  Image database covering architecture, painting, sculpture, and photography as well as many other forms of visual culture, including medicine.  Access restricted to U of C community.
• National Portrait Gallery (US)  The online database of the Catalog of American Portraits contains information for over 100,000 portraits recorded nationwide.
• National Portrait Gallery (UK)  The online database contains influential characters in British history and includes approximately 34,000 works, 11,500 of which are illustrated.
• New York Public Library Digital Gallery

Print Resources

• American medical imprints, 1820-1910 : a checklist of publications illustrating the history and progress of medical science, medical education, and the healing arts in the United States : a preliminary contribution / Francesco Cordasco ; foreword by James Tait Goodrich.
  Crerar Reference, floor 1 Z6661.U6C79
• Images From the History of the Public Health Service: A Photographic Exhibit / Ramunas Kondratas. [Washington, DC?] : U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, 1994.
  Crerar Stacks RA445.K66 1994
• Photographing medicine : images and power in Britain and America since 1840 / Daniel M. Fox and Christopher Lawrence. New York : Greenwood Press, c1988.
  Crerar Stacks R486.F690 1988
• The physician's art : representations of art and medicine / Julie V. Hansen & Suzanne Porter ; with a foreword by Martin Kemp. Durham, NC : Duke University Medical Center Library : Duke University Museum of Art, 1999.
  Crerar Stacks & Regenstein Stacks N8223.H367 1999