Historical Methodology

History of Medicine

This is a guide to different sources available through Boston College relating to various methodological studies of history including cultural, history of medicine, etc.

Approaching the History of Medicine by Source

Digital Images and Manuscripts

Historical Images In Medicine [Duke University]
In addition to individual images, The Historical Images in Medicine Collection contains four smaller collections of materials. 1) Georg Bartisch’s Ophthalmodouleia Das ist Augendienst; 2) The Bookplate Collection; 3) The Four Seasons; and 4) The Stewart Album.
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The Medical Center Library’s Historical Images in Medicine (HIM) collections encompass over 3,000 photographs, illustrations, engravings, and bookplates from the history of the health and life sciences. Special collections in HIM include Bartisch’s Ophthalmodouleia, the Bookplates, the Four Season and the Stewart Album. In the past the HIM images were only retrievable by our History of Medicine Collections staff, but they are now available via the Internet. The Web versions of the images are not publication quality, nor are they intended for such use. If you see images you would like to incorporate into your publications, please contact the History of Medicine Collections Curator, for information. Grants from The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and The Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation made possible the realization of the Historical Images in Medicine database.
History of Medicine and Medical Humanities
We define “medical humanities” as an interdisciplinary field encompassing the humanities (literature, philosophy, ethics, history, religion), social science (anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, sociology) and the arts (theater, film, multimedia, visual arts), in dialogue with healthcare education and clinical practice. Humanities thinking enriches healthcare education and practice, and medicine broadens our understanding of human being and the human condition.
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The portal will house a series of thematic modules in six areas, created by students, artists, historians, and colleagues. Visit us again to see the work as it evolves:

History of the Health Professions
Hospitals, Institutions, and Medical Education
The Public’s Health
Blood, Leeches, and Quacks
Arts, Literature, and Ethics
Technology and Science
National Library of Medicine: Images from the History of Medicine
Over 70,000 digitized images of historical significance from the archives of the National Library of Medicine (NLM)
Wellcome Library Digital Collections
The Library's digital collections cover a wide variety of topics, including asylums, food, sex and sexual health, genetics, public health and war.
Published books, pamphlets, archives, posters, photographs, and film and sound recordings are completely free to view.
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Digitised materials are released under a variety of Creative Commons non-commercial, attribution and Public Domain licenses.

AIDS/HIV in History

HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It is the virus that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS if not treated. The CDC provides a description and recommendations for prevention on their website.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome at the LOC
The LOC has digitized and provided more than 800 sources on the AIDS crisis, focusing on legislation, periodicals, and books from the 20th and 21st centuries.
AIDS History Project Ephemera Collection
Selections from the AIDS History Project Ephemera Collection, including posters and pamphlets related to the medical and/or social aspects of AIDS and HIV, with a focus on prevention and on addressing misconceptions about the virus and disease. Call number: MSS 2000-31
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Institution: UC San Francisco, Library, Special Collections
AIDS posters
Over 3000 digitised public health posters relating to AIDS, from 99 countries through the Wellcome Library Digital Collections.
HIV/AIDS at the US National Library of Medicine
Facsimiles of more than 1,200 posters, texts, photographs, and more from the 20th and 21st centuries.
National Commission on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Records
Documents produced between 1983-1994 including briefing books, hearing and meeting transcripts, reports, and press clippings document the activities of the National Commission on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Materials cover all but the last year of the Commission's existence. The majority of the collection consists of briefing books, and hearing and meeting transcripts of the National Commission.
Posters from the Herskovits Library: AIDS
These posters represent a sampling (approximately 130) posters about AIDS from Northwesterns' Africana posters housed at the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies.

Cholera in History

Cholera is caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae. For more information, check out the CDC's website.

Cholera and the LOC
The Library of Congress has made more than 3,000 books, periodicals, images, and bills of mortality pertaining to the history and study of tuberculosis online. Focuses on the 19th to the 20st centuries.
Cholera in 19th Century New York
Cholera was among the most virulent infectious diseases to strike nineteenth-century New York. Online curated exhibit with essays and primary sources.
Cholera in the HathiTrust Digital Library
More than 450 full facsimiles (mostly books, some conference proceedings and statistics) of texts relating to Cholera from across the 19th and 20th centuries.
Cholera on Calisphere
More than 60 facsimiles--mostly images--from the late 19th and 20th centuries relating to Cholera in the US and Japan.
Cholera Online, 1817 to 1900 (NIH)
More than 500 reports and publications from the US National Library of Medicine.
Cholera [Wellcome Library]
More than a hundred digitized sources (text and A/V) relating to Cholera in three languages (English, French, and Spanish) from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Filth and Fever (British Library)
Curated digital facsimiles and essays on public health in Britain during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Tuberculosis in History

Tuberculosis and the LOC
The Library of Congress has made more than 4,000 books, periodicals, images, and videos pertaining to the history and study of tuberculosis online. Focuses on the 19th to the 21st centuries.
Tuberculosis in the HathiTrust Digital Library
More than 1,400 full facsimiles of texts (books, serials, and more) relating to TB mostly from the 20th century (some 18th and 19th).

Typhus in History

Typhus at the LOC
The Library of Congress has provided more than 1,000 documents (newspaper articles, books, images, and periodicals) relating to the history of typhus from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Typhus in the HathiTrust Digital Library
More than 60 full facsimiles of texts (mostly books) relating to Typhus from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Plague (Black Death)

The Latin name for bacteria associated with the Black Death is bacterium Yersinia pestis. The CDC provides a description of what The Plague is on their website.

Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics
This online collection offers important historical perspectives on the science and public policy of epidemiology today and contributes to the understanding of the global, social–history, and public–policy implications of diseases.
Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine
the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) collection of Islamic medical manuscripts, "one of the three greatest in the world," "The illustrated, online catalog with over 330 texts, includes essays on the featured texts accompanied by thumbnail images, physical descriptions, provenance, and additional resources. Also on-site are an introduction to Medieval Islam and bibliographies." Scout Report, June 9, 2000.
The Plague Book
"Orders thought Meete ..." was published under the auspices of Elizabeth I during an outbreak of the plague in England and presents a fascinating look at public health, epidemiology, and illness in the late sixteenth century. The book contains instructions for the Queen’s emissaries in identifying towns struck by plague and then directs them in how to proceed with taxation, issues related to quarantine, and the handling of the clothing and bodies of those who died. It concludes with recipes for preparing medicines that would, purportedly, prevent the plague or cure it if already contracted.
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Transcribed at the University of Virginia.
WHO Historical Collection
The Rare Book Collection consists largely of documentation acquired by the OIHP on epidemics included in the International Sanitary Conventions such as: plague, cholera and yellow fever. Materials covering smallpox, malaria and other diseases prevalent at the beginning of the 20th century, are also included. Our oldest book on plague dates from 1507.

The Black Death by Rosemary Horrox
Call Number: Medieval Sources Online
Publication Date: 1994
Focused on 14th century Europe (emphasis on England), includes narrative accounts as well as religious and scientific responses.

La peste noire [The Black Plague] in Gallica
La peste noire
Sur Gallica, découvrez la peste noire, ou mort noire, à travers un choix d’ouvrages sur son histoire, depuis le Moyen Age, et sa propagation, notamment à Marseille à la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Le blog de Gallica a consacré un billet aux grandes épidémies en France.

O'Neill Library

Bapst Library

Burns Library

Educational Resource Center

Law Library

Social Work Library

Theology & Ministry Library

O'Connor Library

Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies

Historical Methodology

History of Medicine

Approaching the History of Medicine by Source

Digital Images and Manuscripts

AIDS/HIV in History

Cholera in History

Tuberculosis in History

Typhus in History

The Plague (Black Death)