History of Medicine Collection
Welcome
The Duke University History of Medicine Collections acquire, preserve, interpret, and make available for research and instruction, materials documenting the history of medicine, biomedical science, health and disease in the global context of the Western medical tradition. The collections seek to bring historical perspectives to bear on contemporary health issues and to facilitate an interdisciplinary understanding of the history of medicine.
Discover the history of medicine through our rich and unique collections, which include over 20,000 monographs and 4,000 manuscripts, as well as photographs, illustrations, medical instruments, stamps, medals, and a variety of medical artifacts. We also offer a setting for classes, provide research consultations, host a speaker series and other special events, exhibit items from the collections, and issue a regular newsletter and special publications.
Recent Acquistions
The History of Medicine Collections have acquired a collection documenting the state of the medical arts at the birth of our nation. The papers of Dr. Philip Turner (1740-1815), Surgeon General for the Eastern Department of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, contain correspondence, medical returns, printed materials, records from northeastern field and city hospitals, and ledgers documenting Turner’s career as a surgeon in private practice, in the Continental Army, and in the United States Army. This important collection is now available to the public for the first time.
The Four Seasons
The Four Seasons is an interactive online presentation of seventeenth-century copperplate engravings illustrating human anatomy and the stages of human life.
News
Events
Please visit the Perkins Library Gallery for an exhibition titled What Does Your Doctor Know? Exploring the History of Physician Education from Early Greek Theory to the Practice of Duke Medicine. The exhibition will be on display from April 17 through July 31, 2012. A companion exibition is on display on the lower level of the Medical Center Library at Duke.
919-660-5870
(Perkins Circulation Desk)
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