Special Collections

Services

Collections

Archibald Church
History of Medicine
Collection

A.D. Black
History of Dentistry
Collection

G.V. Black Collection

Archival Highlights

Exhibits

Albinus, Bernard Siegfried, Tabulae sceiti et musculorum. 1747

SERVICES

The Galter Library is open to Northwestern University faculty and staff members, students, and alumni; however, the Special Collections Department is open to scholars who wish to use the Library's historical materials. Please contact us prior to coming to the Library for information on how to access the collection. We can be reached at 312-503-1913 or 312-503-8109, by e-mail, or by U.S. mail: 303 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611.

Reference and research services are available in person and by telephone, fax, electronic mail or postal service. Services are available 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, preferably by appointment.

Some services such as photocopying, photography, and research require a fee; please contact the Librarian for details.

COLLECTIONS

Special Collections consists of three primary collections

The Archibald Church History of Medicine Collection, totaling 5,000 volumes

The A. D. Black History of Dentistry Collection, containing 1,390 volumes

G.V. Black Collection, 43 manuscripts, 100 letters and photographs

The Kretschmer collection on urology

Special Collections also includes

Approximately 4,000 medical and dental portraits, caricatures, and engravings
A small manuscript collection representing physicians such as J.B. Murphy, William Osler, and Benjamin Rush
Various artifacts, such as medical & dental instruments and microscopes
Manuscript material from the Northwestern University Medical School and Dental Schools

Particular strengths include works by

William Harvey, Ambrose Pare, Thomas Browne, John Hunter, and selected figures in Chicago medicine and dentistry

Works before 1800 include

Incunabula: four works of Saints Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus and Pietro d'Argellata.
Sixteenth Century: 200 items, including original editions of Ambrose Pare and AndreasVesalius
Seventeenth Century: 830 works including first editions of William Harvey, Ambrose Pare, John Mayow and Clopton Havers
Eighteenth Century: 2,200 works by authors including Giovanni Battista Morgagni, Percival Pott, and Antonio Valsalva

Archival Highlights

Special Collections serves as a valuable resource for information on faculty members and graduates of the Medical and Dental Schools and its predecessors, the Chicago Medical College and University Dental College, American College of Dental Surgery & Northwestern College of Dental Surgery, as well as the Women's Medical College. Among its holdings are class photographs, yearbooks, and selected administrative correspondence, including that of Nathan Smith Davis, founder of the American Medical Association and the Chicago Medical College and G. V. Black, founder of the Dental School.