The Historical Collections in HSL Special Collections encompass a wide variety of materials, numbering several thousand items from the 1500s to the present day. Among the collections are many significant works in the history of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, public health, and the allied medical sciences. The history of the health sciences in North Carolina is also strongly represented.
Materials in the Historical Collections include printed works, such as books, pamphlets, journals, broadsides, posters, and ephemera, as well as archival material, such as manuscripts, letters, photographs, student notebooks, drawings, and other documents. In addition, the collections contain medical instruments, artifacts, and other realia.
Just a few noteworthy items among many are letters by Florence Nightingale, Vesalius' 1543 anatomical classic, De Humani Corporis Fabrica [On the Fabric of the Human Body], Edward Jenner's 1798 work on smallpox, An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae . . ., and The Confederate States Medical and Surgical Journal.
To discover other historical materials in Special Collections, please search the UNC Libraries online catalog or contact the Resources Management Services Staff for research assistance.
See the research guide at Special Collections Research Resources for additional information on working with historical materials in the health sciences at UNC and elsewhere.