New online exhibit-Antebellum Medicine
The
Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School
in Worcester, Massachusetts is pleased to announce the launch of a new
online exhibit featuring two collections relating
to antebellum medicine in central Massachusetts. With funding from the
New England Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine and
in conjunction with the Worcester District Medical Society and the
Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital the collections
of historical medical writings were digitized and are now accessible
online.
The
first collection, the Union Medical Association Papers, contains papers
of a group of physicians who practiced in southern Worcester County and
established the Union Medical Association
in 1834. The collection consists of reports and transcripts of
lectures created by the Association’s members from 1834 to 1858 on
topics that include medical ethics, statistics, medical cases, and new
remedies.
The second collection is part of the unpublished papers of Dr. Samuel B. Woodward, (1787-1850),
physician, educator, and
the first superintendent (1832-1846) of the State Lunatic
Hospital
(now the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital),
the first publicly funded mental health facility in the United States. Woodward was also
the co-founder and first president (1844-1848)
of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions
for the Insane (now the American Psychiatric Association).
The collection contains essays,
addresses, obituaries, letters, and verses created by Woodward from 1806
to 1848 covering various medical, social, financial, educational, and
personal topics.
The collections can be accessed at:
http://library.umassmed.edu/