The Center for the History of the Health Professions (CHHP) is a local, state, national
and international resource of books, journals, archives, photographs and medical
artifacts for the history of medicine in Cincinnati and the history of medicine
in general. The Center was organized in 1974 and moved into 121 Wherry Hall,
its present location in 1978. The University of Cincinnati's 183 year history
was formed by the mission and vision of Dr. Daniel Drake when he began a program
of formal medical education over a drug store in Cincinnati. It was Drake who
founded the Medical College of Ohio (the tenth oldest medical college in the
country) and the Cincinnati College in 1819 and the Commercial Hospital and
Lunatic Asylum in 1821. Drake's love of libraries and museums led him to open
the first public library in Cincinnati and continued through the establishment
of libraries and museums in the above institutions.
Ultimately, these library collections and collections of physicians and
faculty formed the basis of the rare and classical works in the history of
medicine, a working medical library of the 19th Century including the sectarian
views and teachings, medical artifacts, medical instruments, manuscripts,
archives, photographs and the exhibit of a 15th Century Pharmacy, which was
first shown at the Paris Exposition in 1899. All the collections have been
donated by people with a vision of the preservation of medical history.
The library houses over 35,000 rare and classical works in the history of
medicine dating from 1500 to 1920 and a modern circulating history of medicine
collection. A collection of over 2,000 medical artifacts ranging from Civil War
field surgery kits, a gold IUD, busts and paintings of past faculty and an iron
lung are part of displays in the Center. A grant was awarded to the seven Ohio
Medical Historical Collections to catalog and organize the medical instruments
as one would a book You will find these instruments in the on-line catalog
UCLID/OHIOLINK.
There is an excellent photograph collection from the 1890s to date
representing medicine as it was practice in the late 19th century to the most
modern technology of today's scientists. Class photos and photos of individual
faculty members from Dr. Daniel Drake to Dr. Albert Sabin are also available.
Researchers in the history of medicine utilize the resources of the CHHP for
primary documentation. The most noted archives are the Daniel Drake manuscripts,
the Albert B.Sabin papers, research materials, medals, awards and honors, the
Robert A. Kehoe studies in lead and all of his research materials from the early
30's to the mid-1970s and the papers of William Altemeier, Charles Aring,
Benjamin Felson, etc. Over sixty-four archival collections are available
including the Cincinnati Obstetric and Gynecology Society minutes and papers,
local hospital archives from Jewish Hospital, the now defunct Seton and Dunham
Hospitals and University Hospital patient indexes from 1837-1977.
The services of the CHHP include expert reference assistance in such topics
as:
history of the development of medical schools in Cincinnati
(twenty-three in the 19th Century)
an oral history videotape series of famous local physicians and scientists
the development of hospitals in Cincinnati.
access to the Cincinnati Hospital patient records, 1837- 1881.
assistance in the history of medicine by subject, person or organization.
assistance with research in the history of medicine for scholars, news and
television media, authors, students and faculty.
the medical alumni records are used to answer questions of past physicians
and their training and further research is provided if the physician was not a
UC graduate.
expert on-line searching is available.
As we enter the 21st Century, it is the goal of the Center for the History of the Health Professions staff to collect, preserve and disseminate the history of the
University Medical Center and medicine in Cincinnati in all formats. We strive
to meet the challenge as stated by Daniel Drake in his, "Discourse"
before the Cincinnati Medical Library Association in 1851, "carry forward
the noble work which they began--make it better than you found it, and then hand
it on to posterity."
