Notable Medical Books

Contents: About the Collection | Roadmap | Special Thanks | Works Cited | Tech

About the Collection

The Notable Medical Books Repository is intended to showcase all 130 books from J.K. Lilly Jr.’s collection, and to create easier access to and awareness of these titles, encouraging curious browsers to check them out in person.

This digital catalogue was created by Elizabeth Arterberry, a former curatorial assistant at the Lilly Library, where this collection is housed. With the guidance of the Curator of Dermatology, General Medicine, and Science, Erin Chiparo, she photographed the majority of the items in the collection, with the aim of having at least five high-quality pictures per entry for visitors to view, in addition to relevant information and metatdata. This digital repository is intended to bring attention to the books in a fun and effective way, as well as being a valuable example for what other collections or snapshots of past exhibitions would look like hosted on CollectionBuilder sites.

The item descriptions in this repository have been lifted from Notable Medical Books From the Lilly Library, edited by S.O. Waife, Elizabeth McCain, Ruth Weber, and Charles E. Hammond, and prepared by William R. LeFanu, Emeritus Librarian of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, England. Published in 1976, it is currently out of print, which is a shame—the remarkable amount of care and research put into each entry they wrote on the subject of the books in the collection provides great insight into each author’s contributions and the times in which they lived. On their own motivations on undertaking this former project, S.O. Waife had this to say:

“This volume, then, is only a partial record of special treasures in the Lilly Library at Indiana University. It does not aim to be a full survey of medical literature, still less a history of medicine. It samples great discoveries as recorded by those who made them. The history of medicine is preserved in the written word, but carry the mark of their authors' character and personality. Therefore, an attempt has been made to include here a brief account of each author's life and his other work and to provide a historical framework for the contribution he made to medical knowledge. […]

“Notable Medical Books is a tribute to the scholarship and generosity of J.K. Lilly, Jr., who was personally responsible for collecting works of primary significance for the story of medicine and who presented his acquisitions to Indiana University to attract others—as he had been attracted—to study and appreciation of the past” (Waife et al. 9).

Special Thanks

A huge thank you to Prof. John Walsh and Gyuri Kang, for their patience, availability, and excellent instruction.

Many thanks to Erin Chiparo for permission to partially digitize the Notable Medical Books collection, and for her support and enthusiasm for the project.

The depth of information provided in each entry would not have been possible without S.O. Waife et al.'s excellent scholarship and research epitomized in their 1976 publication.

Works Cited

Le Fanu, W. R. (1976). Notable medical books from the Lilly Library, Indiana University (S. O. Waife, E. McCain, R. Weber, & C. E. Hammond, Eds.). Lilly Research Laboratories.