UAB Synopsis, Vol. 27, No. 3, January 28, 2008
Holdings Include 13,000 Rare Medical Texts
On February 8, 2008, the Reynolds Library will celebrate its 50th year with a lecture by Stephen Greenberg, PhD, National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Division, on “Real Books: What They Are and Why We Still Need Them.” The lecture is at 4 pm in the Ireland Room, third floor, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences.
The library contains thousands of rare works of medical literature of immense historical value, such as Andreas Vesalius’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica Liborum Epitome (On the Workings of the Human Body), a groundbreaking volume of human anatomy published in 1543.
Other major holdings that helped lay the foundation for modern medicine are: a 1628 printed volume by William Harvey, Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (An Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Living Beings), a text that offered the first proof that the heart pumps blood through the body, and a selection of works by the celebrated 16th century surgeon Ambrose Paré.
The library also has more than 30 one-of-a kind incunabula, rare books produced before 1501 that were printed rather than handwritten. “Other important works include one of only five original copies of the first medical book ever published in America – The English Physician, by Nicholas Culpeper [1708],” says Associate Director for Historical Collections Michael A. Flannery, who edited a recent reprint.
The library boasts a collection of correspondence written by famous health care and historical figures. Among these handwritten treasures are letters by Louis Pasteur, Florence Nightingale, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sir William Osler, and George and Martha Washington.
Laying the Foundation
On February 2, 1958, eminent radiologist Lawrence Reynolds, MD, (1889-1961) officially dedicated his collection of more than 5000 rare books and letters to UAB. The donation formed the core of the Reynolds Historical Library, now recognized as having one of the finest, most valuable collections of medical literature in the world.
Dr. Reynolds was born in the small Alabama town of Ozark. “His love of books began in his youth, when he read to his physician father who lost his sight in old age,” Flannery says. In later years, Dr. Reynolds spent much time and money amassing exceptional works of medical literature.
Although Dr. Reynolds was an Alabama native, his career took him away from the state permanently, and with many institutions coveting his collection, its donation to UAB was not assured.
Reynolds completed his undergraduate education at the University of Alabama. He received his MD degree from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1916 and was the first radiology resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital. After 2 years of World War I military service, he spent 3 years as a roentgenologist at Harvard Medical School and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. Dr. Reynolds joined Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, in 1922 and remained there until his death.
Wayne University, the University of Michigan, Yale University, and others lobbied for the collection, but Flannery says, “Dr. Reynolds’ Alabama roots motivated him to return something of great value to his native state.”
The Collection Grows
Flannery notes that since Dr. Reynolds’ original contribution, library holdings have expanded to include almost 13,000 works. A major area of concentration is Civil War medicine, a collection that began with substantial support and expertise from former UAB Department of Surgery Chair Arnold G. Diethelm, MD.
“The medical and surgical history of the Civil War is laid out in published memoirs of Union and Confederate physicians and soldiers, original copies of official medical guides, and a massive three-volume set of The Medical and Surgical History of the War of Rebellion [1870-1888] –– the most comprehensive summary of Civil War medicine available,” Flannery says. More recent acquisitions include books related to malaria, cholera, and other diseases once common in the South.
UAB Historical Collections
In 1996 the Reynolds Historical Library evolved into the UAB Historical Collections, which encompasses three distinct entities: the library; The Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences, which holds instruments and other items representing the practice of medicine around the world for the past 700 years; and the UAB Archives – a repository for original UAB documents and materials related to the history of health sciences in Alabama.
Flannery credits much of the growth to strong supporters, who include Dr. Diethelm; former UAB presidents S. Richardson Hill Jr, MD, and Charles A. McCallum Jr, DMD, MD; founder of UAB’s Division of Rheumatology Howard L. Holley, MD; School of Medicine Dean Emeritus James A. Pittman, MD; and former Reynolds Library Associates Chair Wayne S. Finley, MD.
“This collection is more than just a window into history – it represents a constellation of medical humanities that enrich our understanding of all of medicine,” says Flannery, who recalls the official 1958 dedication inscribed on the entrance of the library: Each time one of you reaps from the great minds of the past the desire for finer achievements in your profession and nobler development of your own character, the Reynolds Library will have been rededicated.