Institute of the History of Medicine

The Historical Collection

Some Electronic Resources in History of Science, Medicine and Technology

(September 2003)

Prepared by Christine Ruggere, Curator, Historical Collection

The array of electronic resources, especially those associated with the Internet, is constantly changing. It is also virtually impossible to be completely up-to-date. If you have problems gaining access to anything listed here, please contact Christine Ruggere. Categories of resources listed below:

Contents

History of Science, Medicine & Technology Gateways

History of Science, Medicine & Technology Indices

General History Indices

Iconographic Indices

Library Catalogues

Archives & Manuscripts

History of Science, Medicine & Technology Gateways

ECHO: Exploring and collecting history online - Science & Technology

Echo- Science & Technology's stated purpose is "Cataloguing, Annotating, and Reviewing Sites on the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine." It contains:

Listing of sites categorized by scientific field - Astronomy, Medicine, etc.

Additional sources of information, research tools, and documents. Includes bibliographies, electronic texts and other WWW indexes.

On-line exhibitions, including text and images.

Lists of organizations and institutions relating to the history of science, technology and medicine. Includes museums, university departments, archives and libraries, etc.

Sites providing biographical data, including collective biographies and biographical databases as well as individual biographical sites.

HUMBUL HUMANITIES WEB, HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

Includes an tutorial on Internet information skills for historians and philosophers of science Internet Resources for History of Science.

MedHist

The guide to history of medicine resources on the Internet, MedHist offers free access to a searchable catalogue of Internet sites and resources covering the history of medicine. Developed by the staff of the Wellcome Library.

Sheridan Libraries Guides to Research by Subject: History of Science and Technology

History of the Health Sciences World Wide Web Links

American Institute of Physics Web Sites for the History of Science

History of Science/Science Studies Reference Sources

From the University of California, San Diego

History of Science, Medicine & Technology Indices

Wellcome Library Online Catalogue

The Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine is one of the world's greatest collections of books, manuscripts, pictures and films around the meaning and history of medicine, from the earliest times to the present day. The Wellcome online catalogue contains records for almost all published material held in the Library, including books, journals, reports, pamphlets, theses and patents, from all time periods and in many languages. It also includes records for over 160,000 images including prints, drawings, photographs and paintings and broad descriptions of archival collections. It is the online version of the quarterly bibliography Current Work in the History of Medicine (1954-), and provides a small-overlap with and a continuation of the Subject Catalogue of the History of Medicine and Related Subjects (indexes secondary sources ca. 1900 &endash; 1978), published by the WIHM in 1980. The Wellcome Library published catalogues must be used for complete access to their holdings of early printed books and manuscripts. The Wellcome Library online catalogue has the broadest coverage of secondary sources and is a good place to start any searches. It includes much more non-U.S.A. and non-English language material than HISTLINE and includes monographs as well as entries for individual journal articles.

MEDLINE/PubMed

Index Medicus, a comprehensive index to the world's periodical medical literature, has been published in a number of different forms, quarterly and annually since 1879. Since 1966, it is available online as MEDLINE/PubMed. Some citations from ca. 1953-1965 are available in OLDMEDLINE but this is extremely incomplete. For research for material pre-1966, the printed volumes must be searched and even then, some years are less comprehensive than others, so subject specific bibiographies should be used instead, if available. The History of Medicine subset of PubMed includes citations to journal articles in the history of the health and biomedical sciences dating back to 1966. You must chose the “History of Medicine” under “Subsets” on the “Limits” search screen. Please read the instructions for searching history of medicine topics in PubMed at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/histmed/histmed.html#search_tip.

RLIN History of Science, Technology and Medicine Database (JHU Internet account use only)

The RLIN "History of Science, Technology and Medicine" database contains citations to journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations in the history of science, technology, medicine and allied historical fields. The file partially integrates four published bibliographies

Isis Current Bibliography of the History of Science (HSS) (ONLY 1975-)

Current Bibliography in the History of Medicine Technology (ONLY 1975-)

Bibliograpfia Italiana di Storia della Scienza (1982-)

Current Work in the History of Medicine (ONLY 1991- )

Updated quarterly, HSTM covers 1975 to the present, with more than 243,500 records. . As noted above, HSTM only includes the complete published version of Bibliografia Italiana di Storia della Scienza; all the other published bibliographies are only partially included. In order to do a thorough search (including pre-1975 references), it is necessary to consult the published versions of the following:

Isis Cumulative Bibliography of the History of Science, 1913-1965, 6 vols.; 1965-1974, 2 vols.

The individual annual bibliographies bound with the journal, Isis.

Technology and Culture, "Current Bibliography in the History of Technology," 1962- Part of the journal, vol. 5, 1964- .

Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. Subject Catalogue of the History of Medicine and Related Sciences. 18 vols. (ca. 1900 -1978).Some of these references are included in the Wellcome Library Online Catalogue listed above, along with material from 1978 to date.

The Literature, Arts, & Medicine Database

This "is an annotated bibliography of prose, poetry, film, video and art which is being developed as a dynamic, accessible, comprehensive resource in medical humanities, for use in health/pre-health and liberal arts settings." The three databases: art, film/video, and literature can be searched individually or simultaneously.

General History Indices

America: History & Life (JHU internet account use only)

America: History & Life indexes articles, collections, dissertations and book & media reviews concerned with the United States. The database covers the years from 1982 to the present; for older articles use the print version. It is available through the Sheridan Libraries' homepage, under FIND IT — Research Tools: Articles and More.

Historical Abstracts (JHU internet account use only)

Historical Abstracts indexes books, articles, collections and dissertations concerned with regions outside of the United States, as well as publications on topics like history of medicine and science. The database covers the years from 1982 to the present; for older articles use the print version. It is available through the Sheridan Libraries' homepage, under FIND IT — Research Tools: Articles and More.

The United States Historical Census Data Browser

This site is made available with the cooperation and consent of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The data presented here describe the people and the economy of the US for each state and county from 1790 to 1970.

Iconographic Indices

Wellcome Library Medical Photographic Library

The Wellcome Trust Medical Photographic Library is the world's leading source of images on the history of medicine, modern biomedical science and clinical medicine. See description of the Wellcome Library above.

Images from the History of Medicine

Indexed database of nearly 60,000 images in the prints and photograph collection of the History of Medicine Division (HMD) of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). The 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. Keyword and browse searching available by subject, title and or author.

The Index of Medieval Medical Images (IMMI) and the Graphic IMMI

The mission of the IMMI project was to describe and index the contents of all medieval manuscript images with medical components presently held in North American collections. The Graphic IMMI aims to take the project to the next step by adding the images to the cataloging/indexing record.

Royal Society of Chemistry Images Collection

About 8,000 images including original prints, individual photographs, glass lantern slides, photomicrographs and illustrations from books, dating from the present-day back to the sixteenth century.

American Institute of Physics. Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

An indexed database of some 25,000 historical photographs, slides, lithographs, engravings, and other visual materials.

The Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement

Along with a series of essays on the social and scientific origins of eugenics, the laws against miscegenation that eugenicists promoted, and the methods and flaws of eugenicists' research, this site has a searchable archive of more than 1,200 images of photographs, letters, and reports, primarily from the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor, New York, which was the center of American Eugenics research from 1910-1940 and from the American Philosophical Society Library, the Rockefeller University Archive Center, and the Truman State University Archives.

Library Catalogues

Wellcome Library Online Catalogue

See description above under History of Science, Medicine & Technology Indices.

RLIN (Eureka) (JHU internet account use only)

The online catalog of the Research Libraries Group, including bibliographical records for over 22 million books, periodicals, sound recordings, computer files, etc. owned by many major research libraries in the U.S. and abroad. Also acts as the online supplement to the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, but does not include material from the published volumes. A very good source for pre-1800 imprints. RLIN (Eureka) is available through the Sheridan Libraries' homepage, under FIND IT — Research Tools: Articles and More.

WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch) (JHU internet account use only)

WorldCat is the name for the OCLC online catalogue that contains books and other materials in libraries worldwide. It is a file in FirstSearch. It has excellent searching capabilities that allow a variety of combinations and limitations. Use this to search for difficult material instead of Horizon. Once you have found an author and/or title, then go to Horizon to look for a Hopkins location.

AGRICOLA

(AGRICultural OnLine Access) is a machine-readable database of bibliographic records created by the National Agricultural Library and its cooperators. Production of these records in electronic form began in 1970, but the database covers materials dating from the16th century to the present. The records describe publications and resources encompassing all aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines, including plant and animal sciences, forestry, entomology, soil and water resources, agricultural economics, agricultural engineering agricultural products, alternative farming practices, and food and nutrition. Auxiliary subjects that support NAL's Information Center activities, such as agricultural trade and marketing, rural information, and animal welfare, are also included. The AGRICOLA database is organized into two bibliographic data sets, which must be searched separately. One is the Online Public Access Catalog known as "Books, etc.," that contains citations for books, audiovisual materials, serial publications, and other NAL and cooperator holdings. The other is the Journal Article Citation Index known as "Articles, etc." It includes citations, many with abstracts, for journal articles (see List of Journals Indexed), book chapters, reports, and reprints, selected primarily from the materials cataloged in Books, etc. Both data sets are updated daily with newly cataloged and indexed materials.

LOCATORPLUS

The National Library of Medicine's on-line catalog of books, journals (titles only, for individual article citations see MEDLINE/PubMed above) and audiovisuals. For subject searches of pre-1930 material, the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office is still more efficient and comprehensive.

The Library of Congress Online Catalog

It doesn't begin to list everything that LC owns, so be careful. OCLC is probably more comprehensive.

Archives & Manuscripts

Ready, 'Net, Go! Archival Internet Resources

This service is an archival "meta index," or index of archival indexes. That is, from here we refer you to the major indexes, lists, and databases of archival resources. From them you can link to every archives and archival resource in the metaverse.

Archives USA (JHU internet account use only)

This database indexes collections of private papers and archival materials throughout the United States. It incorporates (all of?) the contents of National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC), National Inventory of Documentary Sources (NIDS) and Directory of Archives and Manuscript Depositories in the United States (DAMRUS). (Reach it through the Sheridan Libraries' homepage, under FIND IT — Research Tools: Articles and More).

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)

Free access to NUCMUC records entered since 1986; the ca. 500,000 archives and manuscript records in the EUREKA (RLIN) database (see above). For material from earlier NUCMUC published volumes, 1959-1986, see Archives USA.

Archival Research Catalog (ARC)

The Archival Research Catalog (ARC) is the online catalog of NARA's nationwide holdings in the Washington, DC area, Regional Archives and Presidential Libraries. ARC allows you to perform a keyword, digitized image and location search. ARC's advanced functionalities also allow you to search by organization, person, or topic.

Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States

This web version of the Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States is based on a paper version with the same title compiled by Robert B. Matchette et al in 1995. This version incorporates descriptive information about federal records acquired by the National Archives after the 1995 paper edition went to press, and it is regularly updated to reflect new acquisitions of federal records.

Science, Technology & Medicine Archives in the DC-MD-VA Area

Compiled by Stephen G. Brush, September 1994.

The Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement

See description under ICONOGRAPHIC INDICES above.

Library of the Institute of the History of Medicine
Useful Reference Sources
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