About the Center
The Stanford Medical History Center collects and maintains
materials related to the history of health care, medical research,
and medical education at Stanford and beyond, including:
- unpublished documents and records
- historical photographs, diagrams, and other visual
materials
- rare medical books from the 13th century and later
- historical medical instruments and other artifacts
- oral histories
- digital media
These materials are available for purposes of scholarship,
genealogy, faculty and student recruitment and development, alumni
relations, public relations, and curriculum development.
We also offer electronic databases and standard reference
tools in the history of medicine and guidance in developing
effective strategies for discovering primary source materials and
secondary literature.
Although the rarity and fragility of our materials prevents
their circulation, we provide an on-site digital imaging station
for visiting researchers to reproduce materials from our
collections. We also handle permissions for publication and
broadcast.
Opportunities
for Giving
We need your help in capturing and protecting the legacy of
Stanford Medicine for future generations.
The Stanford Medical History Center has a rich collection of
over 7,000 rare medical books. We welcome support in continuing to
build this collection, thus enabling us to best serve everyone
interested in researching the history of medicine.
We are also always looking for support in having
conservation work done on some of the rare books, historical
images and other items in our collections.
Offering Your
Historic Materials
We are always grateful to those who consider donating their
collection of personal papers to us. We are interested in
unpublished or other rare materials related to health care,
medical education, and medical research at Stanford and beyond. We
are especially interested in unpublished written documents (such
as correspondence, administrative records, and research materials)
and images. Generally, we are not looking to collect journal
reprints or other published materials unless those materials were
published before 1900 or are otherwise very rare.
We do not offer to appraise the monetary value of rare books or
other materials. Persons seeking appraisal services are encouraged
to consult the listings of
appraisers provided by the Antiquarian
Booksellers' Association of America.
