WISER: Resources for
History of Science & Medicine
Juliet Ralph, Life Sciences Librarian
Isabel Holowaty, History Librarian
Shauna Barrett, Wellcome Librarian
William Harvey, from RSL
door by Eric Gill
Aim: To provide an overview of
History of Science at Oxford
• Collections
• Finding tools
• Source materials
• Archival, printed and electronic
Robert Hooke, from RSL
door by Eric Gill
Guiding the way
• Libraries
www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/libraries/subjects/historyofscience
• Oxlip
http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/eresources
History Faculty Library
www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/history
• 85,000 items including History of STM
• Lending materials for History Undergraduates
Radcliffe Science Library
www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/rsl
• History of STM section (Hist.)
• Strong 19th Century holdings
• Legal Deposit material post-1883
Museum of the History of Science
Library
www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/library
• History of Scientific instruments (astronomy, optics,
horology, chemistry, physics, medicine, maths, cartography)
• 20,000 books and offprints
• Founded by Lewis Evans (1853-1930)
• Strong antiquarian holdings
• Reference-only
Wellcome Unit for the History of
Medicine Library
www.wuhmo.ox.ac.uk/library
• 45-47 Banbury Rd
• Current research interests: tropical, colonial and
military medicine, history of nursing
• 7,000 monographs, serials and theses
• Reference-only
Bodleian Library
www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/bodley
• Dept. of Special Collections
www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/bodley/library/specialcollections/western_rarebooks/scientific
• Early manuscripts & printed books
• Scientists’ papers
• Archives
Other Oxford libraries
http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/libraries/libraries
• Oxford University Museum of Natural History
• Philosophy
• Plant Sciences
• Rhodes House / Indian Institute
• Zoology
• Colleges (Corpus Christi, Magdalen, Merton)
Oxford Catalogues
• OLIS
Access to the Oxford Libraries Union Catalogue
• Online Catalogues of Western Manuscripts
Gateway to electronic catalogues of the Bodleian's
western-language based manuscript collections.
• Oxford Digital Library
Digitised collections and information about ODL services
and developments.
• Selected Collections.John Johnson Collection
A major collection of printed ephemera
• Early Manuscripts at Oxford University
Digital facsimiles of early manuscripts
Bibliographic Databases
History of Science, Technology & Medicine (HSTM)
• Integrates four international bibliographies
• 9,500 sources
• Reflects the influences of these fields on society and culture
from prehistory to the present
• Includes records of journal articles, conference
proceedings, books, dissertations, serials, maps and other
materials
• Coverage: publications 1975 - present
• Access via Oxlip – hosted by
5mins Hands-on practice
Suggestion:
1. Search HSTM for William Harvey as a Keyword or an
Author
Try out the Sort and Limit functions
Explore a couple of records to see the full details and
links
2. Go to Oxlip (http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/oxlip/). Click on the
History of Science heading and browse.
Printed sources online
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Scholarly journals
Contemporary works (individuals, scientific societies)
Dictionaries
History of Science journals
• Isis (1913-2006)
• Annals of Science (1936-)
• British Journal for the History of Science (1962-)
• Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (1946-)
Ancient & medieval
• Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG)
• Aristoteles Latinus Database
• Cetedoc: Library of Latin Texts
Early modern 1500-1800
• Early English Books Online, 1475-1700 (EEBO)
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
• Making of the Modern World (MOMW)
• ARTstor
• Göttinger Digitalisierungszentrum:
Kollektion Wissenschaftsgeschichte (684 titles)
http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/dms/colbrowse/?DC=wissenschaftsgeschichte
Modern, 1800GoogleBooks
But, online finding tools:
OLIS, WorldCat, etc.
Royal Society Library
Wellcome Trust Library
Whipple Library, Cambridge
JSTOR
Also via Internet Library of Early
Journals (Oxford Digital Library)
• Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1665-2004)
• Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia (1841-2003)
Back-runs of science journals:
Science (1880-)
Other scientific societies (Germany)
Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina
Max Planck Institut
Other scientific societies (France)
Academie des Sciences
Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences (1835-1965)
Via Gallica http://gallica.bnf.fr/
Biographical information
• (Oxford) Dictionary of National Biography
• American National Biography
• Dictionary of Scientists
• World Biographical Information System
Biographical information
Gresham College
• Munk’s Roll of the Royal College of Physicians, 1518-2005
http://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/heritage/munksroll/index.htm
• Royal Society, Obituary notices (via JSTOR)
Proceedings (1830-1931)
Obituary Notices of Fellow of the Royal Society (1932-1954)
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (1955-2004)
• Sackler Archive Resource: Fellows, 1660http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1724
Dictionaries
• Encyclopedia Diderot
• Encyclopedia of Life Sciences
• Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science
5mins Hands-on practice
Suggestions:
1. EEBO or ECCO or MOMW (search for alchemy)
2. JSTOR (browse journals in Science sections)
3. Dictionary of Scientists (search for Einstein)
Archival resources online
Hippocrates
Praying apothecary. Coloured etching by T.
Rowlandson (1801) after G.M. Woodward
Archival resources online
• Main journals in this subject
• Other collections of interest in Oxford (print & online)
• Sources for archives and manuscripts
• Some online resources and gateways
e.g. NLM & MedHist
Main history of medicine journals
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Bulletin of the History of Medicine
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Canadian Bulletin of Medical History
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Emerging Infectious Diseases
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Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
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Medical History
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Nursing History Review
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Social History of Medicine
Other collections of interest in OULS/Oxford
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Rhodes House Library
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/rhodes/
Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Pitt-Rivers)
http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections.html
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Oxford Botanic Garden, Herbaria and Library
http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/herbaria_index.html
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Oxford Digital Library (e.g. Internet Library of Early Journals)
http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk/
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Oxford Archives/Oxford College Archives
http://www.oxfordarchives.org.uk/
Sources for archives & manuscripts
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National Archives (incl. ARCHON, NRA)
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
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Archives Hub
http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/
Access2Archives
http://www.a2a.org.uk/
Archives in London and M25 area (AIM25)
http://www.aim25.ac.uk/
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Wellcome Library Archives & Manuscripts
http://library.wellcome.ac.uk/
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British Library
NAHSTE
NCUACS
ECHO
OAIster (meta search engine)
http://www.bl.uk/
http://www.nahste.ac.uk/
http://www.bath.ac.uk/ncuacs/
http://echo.gmu.edu/
http://www.oaister.org/
Screenshot:OAIster
MedHist:
5mins Hands-on practice
Suggestions:
1. Search National Register of Archives (NRA) for
Francis Crick.
2. Search MedHist for plague.
3. Search Wellcome Library for malaria.
Any questions?
Thank you