Anatomy of a Collection: URMC History of Medicine Blog

Post authored by Josh Goldman, Library Assistant, Circulation/History of Medicine Section, Edward G. Miner Library, University of Rochester Medical Center.

What is a tombstone? To put it simply, a tombstone is a marker used to show where a person has been buried. Gotthold E. Lessing explores the representations of death in his 1879 “How the Ancients Represented Death” (reprinted in Death and the visual arts (1977)). Ancient tombstones were typically made from different types of stone, such as limestone, soapstone, sandstone, or slate. Marble gravestones were introduced later in the 1870s.  Eventually, so was granite. Granite remains the most popular choice of tombstone material not only because of its variety of colors, but also for its durability and shine. 

In addition to the type of material, tombstones can also be identified by their shapes. There are many distinctive types of tombstones that can be found in cemeteries.  The most common styles include flat or upright headstones, crosses, slanted headstones, and footstones. The more uncommon styles include obelisks, ledger headstones and bevel headstones. Each tombstone usually holds the person’s name, date of birth, date of death, and sometimes, the cause of death. In ancient times, things were a little bit more elaborate.

In Rome, some monuments were found to be decorated with some rather impressive designs. One monument, discovered by poet Jean-Jacques Boissard, features two angels with their arms stretched out over closed double doors with the names of the deceased above them. “Behind a closed door stands on either side a winged genius, half of whose body projects, and who points with his hand to the closed door” (Death and the visual arts, p. 197). The two angels represent Death and Sleep - the inevitable, the end, something that both love and friendship cannot save. 

Many people in ancient times referred to the deceased differently than what we do today. In modern times, people commonly say that someone is dead, or “rest in peace”.  However, in Roman times, phrases such as “he has lived”, “he has been”, “he has gone to the majority” were commonly placed on tombstones and can still be found in some cemeteries today.  The reason behind this was because many people at the time considered the word to be a bad omen.  For example, if someone made a tombstone using these phrases (paired with a skeleton or other representation of death), they believed it would lead to ideas of decay and corruption instead of the more preferred representation of death: sleep. 

Even now, tombstones continue to evolve and change over time to fit cultural and societal norms. They showcase the uniqueness and creativity of modern tombstone designs, as well as new phrases that reflect modern society’s view of death.   To explore more on symbolism in grave marking, visit the Association for Gravestone Studies. 

More books on this topic in the History of Medicine circulating collection:

Coffin, M. M. (1976). Death in early America : the history and folklore of customs and superstitions of early medicine, funerals, burials, and mourning.

Tetel, M., Witt, R. G., & Goffen, R. (1989). Life and death in fifteenth-century Florence.

Post written by Tracy Skye-Meli, Sr. Library Assistant, History of Medicine Section, Edward G. Miner Library.

Throughout the ages, there have been countless medicines that “treat what ails ya.” Many of these cures were heavily advertised in the nineteenth century, and here at History of Medicine, we are fortunate to hold a wealth of material in the Atwater American Patent Medicine Collection. These artifacts give us a vivid glimpse into the ailments people worried about – and how those ailments were purportedly treated. Cures were offered for colds, rheumatism, dyspepsia, “female disorders,” liver or heart disease, and even lumbago. You, your family, and even your livestock could be treated for coughs, sore muscles, or parasites.

In a future post, I’ll take on the pharmacology (or lack thereof) of these so-called remedies; today, my focus is less on ingredients and more on the advertising ephemera preserved in our archives. Posters, trade cards, labels, flyers, and novelty items, such as paper dolls, are more than decorative curiosities; they are marketing documents that reveal how nineteenth-century sellers shaped consumer beliefs. They show what images and stories appealed to people, and how spectacle and storytelling helped products travel far beyond their places of origin.

It has not escaped my attention that much of this advertising can be considered cultural appropriation. In many cases, the imagery and narratives used to promote these products drew heavily on invented or exaggerated depictions of Indigenous cultures. Medicine-show promoters often adopted tribal names, attire, and invented origin stories to lend their remedies an air of authenticity, while the products themselves had little or no real connection to the communities they claimed to represent. These portrayals were crafted primarily for spectacle and profit, and they reveal as much about nineteenth-century marketing practices as they do about the remedies being sold.

As a woman of Native descent, the practice of exploiting Indigenous imagery in this way has weighed heavily on my heart and spirit. Still, these materials are part of our American history, and the History of Medicine’s collection offers an important opportunity to confront that history openly. We can both appreciate the creativity of the graphic design and typographic choices, while also critiquing the harm embedded in the imagery and narratives.

I’m a sucker for good packaging. I enjoy clever advertising, and many pieces in our collection are truly delightful to explore. Among my favorites is a set of paper dolls created for the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Show: The Special Kickapoo Offer for 1897, Wonderful Wild West and Kickapoo Indian Paper Doll Camp. This traveling spectacle was the creation of Charles Bigelow and John Healy, who promoted a “Kickapoo” remedy called Sagwa, an herbal tonic presented as an Indigenous formulation even though its origins were largely fabricated for commercial appeal. The paper dolls, trade cards, and labels associated with the show combine playful illustration and bold typography; they were intended to entertain as much as to sell.

Looking closely at an item like a paper doll reveals layers: hand-colored prints, playful cut-outs meant for children, and shorthand clues that promised authenticity: feathers, fringed garments, and simplified “tribal” motifs. Those same elements, when produced by outsiders for profit, flatten complex cultures into a few recognizable signs. That flattening is what makes these objects both fascinating and troubling.

These artifacts remind us how imagination, exploitation, spectacle, and commerce were entangled in the nineteenth century-and why it’s important to study them critically. I plan to return to the collection in future posts to examine specific remedies, the claims they made, and the lives they touched. For now, the ephemera invites us to hold two truths at once: to admire the ingenuity of historical advertising, and to acknowledge the harm it often perpetuated.

Post authored by Katelyn Gibson, Centennial Archivist, History of Medicine Section, Edward G. Miner Library, University of Rochester Medical Center.

Part Three: The Physical Culture Movement

The Atwater American Popular Medicine Collection held by the History of Medicine Section contains a variety of texts by individuals who led health and wellness reform movements, including a number of cookbooks and publications on wellness. This multi-part blog series explores relationships between health reform and food, and the ways in which diet and nutrition were an integral part of various health reform movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries. If you haven’t already, check out part one and part two of this series to learn about the dietary habits of water-cure practitioners and the health-reform origins of graham crackers and breakfast cereal!

This week’s blog post will focus on the creator of the Physical Culture movement, Bernarr MacFadden—and contains an interesting connection to the water-cure pioneers of part one.

After hydropathy began to wane in popularity in the 20th century, the large institution built by the Jacksons in Dansville went through a period of transition. It briefly served as an Army hospital during World War I and was taken over by the U.S. Public Health Service and used as a treatment center for veterans after the war. In 1929, the building was purchased by a former wrestler turned health faddist—and renamed the Bernarr MacFadden Physical Culture Hotel.

After facing sickness and the loss of both parents as a child, Bernard McFadden (1868-1955) saw his physical health improved through farm work and bodybuilding. Looking to make a career of his physical fitness, he moved to New York City, changed his name, and started his magazine Physical Culture in 1899. The magazine covered bodybuilding, health, and fitness; its very first issue began with the following statement:

It is the editor’s firm and conscientious belief—that weakness is a crime. That one has no more excuse for being weak than he can have for going hungry when food is at hand…That there is no disease without a cause, and if the cause is removed the body will gradually “cure itself.” That disease is not “sent by Divine Providence,” but is the result of the victim’s own ignorance or carelessness. (3)

Like many other health reformers, MacFadden had very little faith in the medical profession. Counter to germ theory, he believed that sickness was caused by the over-saturation of digestive byproducts in the blood—and could be cured by exercise and nutrition. But his attitudes toward the body and sex differed greatly from other health reformers; he decried prudery and was a firm believer in “sexual vigor” and vitality within the bounds of marriage. His physical culture publications and demonstrations were incredibly popular, in part for the scantily clad men and women they featured. 

In addition to his publishing empire, MacFadden operated a number of health resorts and Physical Culture Restaurants. Much like many other health reformers, his dietary regimen was strictly vegetarian; and he advocated for abstinence from tobacco, alcohol, tea, and coffee. The following menu gives an idea of the typical fare at one of his restaurants, which included a variety of meat substitutes.

Richardson, Mary, George Propheter, and Bernarr Macfadden. Physical Culture Cook Book. New York: Physical Culture Pub. Co., 1901.

The Physical Culture Cook Book provides further insight into MacFadden’s views on food and nutrition.

Some of the rules followed by MacFadden and practiced at his institutions included: strained honey instead of sugar, two meals a day, seasoning foods with salt only, and whole wheat bread with every meal. While he was a vegetarian, his cookbook includes some recipes using meat with the understanding that “we cannot convert the public to the strictest hygienic methods.” (21) 

Bernarr MacFadden. Macfadden’s Encyclopedia of Physical Culture: A Work of Reference, Providing Complete Instructions for the Cure of All Diseases Through Physcultopathy… New York: Physical Culture Publishing Company, 1914.

In addition to his cookbook, MacFadden published an extensive encyclopedia that included recipes, diet tips, and detailed nutrition charts for food groups. His recipe for “almond cutlets” is one example of early meat substitutes designed to mimic the appearance and experience of eating meat.

Further Reading:

For more information on Bernarr MacFadden and the Physical Culture movement, check out the following books available through Miner Library.

Ernst, Robert. Weakness Is a Crime: The Life of Bernarr Macfadden. Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse University Press, 1991.

Fitzpatrick, Shanon. True Story: How a Pulp Empire Remade Mass Media. 1st ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674275669.

Macfadden, Mary Williamson, and Emile Gauvreau. Dumbbells and Carrot Strips; the Story of Bernarr Macfadden. 1st ed. New York: Holt, 1953.

Whorton, James C. Crusaders for Fitness: The History of American Health Reformers. Vol. 527. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400857463.
 

Manufacturers of violet ray machines claimed there was almost no ailment it could not heal, from asthma to deafness, infantile paralysis to dandruff, nervous affections to enlarged prostates.  This antique medical appliance was popularized in the early 20th century when electrotherapy and ultraviolet light were already being experimented with as possible therapeutic treatments by trained doctors, as well as quack remedies from which to make a buck by the hucksters of the day.  

The machine was manufactured as a portable device in carrying cases of various sizes, depending on the model.  They could be plugged into a lamp or wall socket or wired to a battery.  The handheld wand consisted of a Tesla coil wrapped in an insulating material, generally Bakelite.  The coil produced 1 to 2 kilovolts, which charged a condenser, and then discharged at a rate between 4 to 10 kilohertz when passed over the skin.  The intensity of the spark created from the voltage could be adjusted from mild to intense.  The high voltage ionized the gas within the glass tube, creating the purple glow that gave the device its name.

The electrodes that attached to the wand were glass vacuum tubes.  They were available in different shapes depending on the intended use and ailment to be treated.  For example, RenuLife, one of the largest US manufacturers of violet rays, supplied five different dental electrodes to treat the gums and teeth.  One was a special pyorrhea electrode, which the company claimed to be “used by hundreds of dentists throughout the country with splendid results in the treatment of pyorrhea.”  

Overall, RenuLife manufactured 44 electrodes for internal and external applications, including an ozone inhaler attachment.  The manufacturer produced seven different models of their violet ray machines, of which the History of Medicine holds Model R.  This is the “most complete portable High Frequency Violet Ray Health Generator manufactured; for both professional and home use; delivers two qualities of High Frequency current and includes highly efficient built-in Ozone Generator with inhaling mask.”  This model was patented in 1919 and was sold by Rochester Gas & Electric Co. in Rochester, New York, probably in the mid-1920s.  

A pamphlet, Physicians’ directions for Renulife treatments: instructions for operating, by Noble M. Eberhart was included in the sale.  This pamphlet was published by the Renulife Electric Company, which was based in Detroit, Michigan.  Eberhart is claimed to be “the highest  authority in the world on this subject.”  He walks through how to use and care for the machines before covering treatment instructions for an alphabetical list of diseases or symptoms from abscesses to writer’s cramp.  Readers are reminded that this pamphlet does not include all the medical issues upon which the violet ray has been used.  For four dollars, plus postage of ten cents, one could receive the “more complete directions for treating over 200 diseases and symptoms.”

By the 1940s and 1950s, makers of violet ray devices were party to numerous lawsuits and multiple actions by the United States government including recalls, seizures, forfeitures, and orders to have them destroyed.  In 1951, a ruling against a violet ray manufacturer named Master Appliances for misbranding effectively ended production of the machines in the United States.  Modern equivalents can still be bought today, as well as the antiques, sometimes still in working condition.  

Post authored by Josh Goldman, Library Assistant, Circulation/History of Medicine Section, Edward G. Miner Library, University of Rochester Medical Center.

In The Architecture of Madness, Carla Yanni describes the importance of architecture in the development of psychiatric hospitals, also known as insane asylums.

I am a big fan of architecture, particularly in terms of building styles, ranging from Queen Anne to Contemporary. The design of a building, as I have gathered, can be a significant factor in how people perceive it. Yanni stresses the same point in her book, when she describes how the architecture of insane asylums played a key role in patient treatment. 

The Buffalo State Hospital, now known as the Richardson Complex, was designed by H.H. Richardson, a renowned architect comparable to Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan. His style, dubbed the Richardsonian Romanesque, was first used in the construction of the State Hospital. The Richardsonian Romanesque style is a blend of 11th- and 12th-century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque characteristics, including dark stone, arched pathways, and paired towers. The design was also part of the Kirkbride plan, developed by Dr. Thomas S. Kirkbride in the 1770s. The plan consisted of wards set back en echelon, buildings characterized by a parallel formation at an oblique angle to a particular direction. Construction on the Buffalo State Hospital began in 1871 and was completed in 1895, after Richardson's death. Also involved in the project were Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, two other nineteenth-century designers. 

An unusual feature present in an early design of the State Hospital was the placement of the doors. Unlike other asylums, the Buffalo State Hospital did not feature any doors at the front. This, according to Yanni, was to give the asylum a more public face. The final design of the Hospital, finalized in 1872, featured several innovative elements, including communal rooms, promenades, and connecting corridors. The design was praised by many, with one reporter even stating the Hospital was built, “with the safety and care of a cathedral” (Yanni, 136).  Reporters also admired the distance between the buildings in the complex, which, in turn, added to the increased separation of quiet patients from the disturbed ones and prevented fires from spreading block to block. Other notable, praiseworthy features of the hospital include the big windows on its façade, the two spires at the top of the complex, and curved passages. These features enabled doctors and nurses to easily navigate the facility while maintaining a close eye on patients. 

The hospital saw many years of use until mental health treatment changed. The complex suffered deterioration as a result and, by 1974, all the remaining patients were transferred out. The hospital was not fully abandoned, though. In 1973, a year before the hospital closed, it was added to the National Registry of Historic Places and later designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. The hospital was used as office space until 1990, after which it was fully abandoned until 2006, when the Richardson Center Corporation was established to restore the building.

After extensive renovations in the past twenty years, the hospital now operates as a hotel, while a museum known as the Lipsey Architecture Center Buffalo is in development. 

Post written by Tracy Skye-Meli, Sr. Library Assistant, History of Medicine Section, Edward G. Miner Library.

Among the various anatomical texts held by the Miner Library are a few that are particularly special. I know, I think that about a lot of the collection. These items feature aesthetically pleasing images accompanied by text; the images themselves are notable. They provide an interactive experience that helps students better understand and learn with movable flaps that expose the inner parts of the human body.

1. Schmidt, & Furneaux, W. S. (n.d.). Whittaker’s anatomical model : a pictorial representation of the human frame and its organs. Thomas Whittaker, publisher.

The preface to Whittaker’s Anatomical and Technical Models sums up perfectly the reasoning behind the creation of the flap books.  

Everyone who has undertaken the task of teaching young pupils the structure of the human frame and the arrangement of its organs has undoubtedly felt the insufficiency of ordinary diagrams and sketches; for it is impossible to give, by the use of such aids alone, a correct idea of the positions and relations of parts. … In this little work by Dr. Schmidt an admirable attempt has been made to give the readers a pictorial representation of the human body and its organs, such as may be examined and turned over by the youngest students; and, at the same time, to supply a simple description of its structure and function.

This full color model from the 1880s displays chromolithographic illustrations with flaps that open to reveal the musculature, skeletal structure, and internal organs of the human figure.

2. Christoph von Hellwig, Christian Friedrich Ludwig (1744). Nosce te ipsum, vel, anatomicum vivum : oder, kurtzgefasstes und doch richtig gestelltes Anatomisches Werck … Verlegts Augustinus Crusius, Universitäts-Buchhändler. 

Christoph von Hellwig’s book features an elaborate black and red ink title page.  All other pages in this book are devoid of color, but the woodcut images themselves are still remarkable.  We see male and female figures facing each other.  On closer inspection, you can see that there are flaps that can be opened to expose the inner systems of their bodies. The circulatory, nervous, and skeletal systems.  The male and female models are later displayed separately to reveal the insides of each.  Following the illustrations are descriptions of the body's parts and their function.
 

3.  Furneaux, W. S., & Mayer, E. (1880). Minder’s anatomical manikin of the human body : an illustrated representation with full and descriptive text. Students edition/edited by William S. Furneaux; revised by Dr. Ethel Mayer. American Thermo-Ware Co., publisher. 

This anatomical manikin also uses chromolithographic illustrations to depict the human body's organs and structures.  Dr. Minder’s Anatomical Manikin of the Female Body (189?), a separate volume exclusively for the female body, features an extra flap to highlight the pregnant body.

4. White’s physiological manikin. (1886). James T. White & Co., publishers. 

This anatomical manikin measures 5 feet 9 inches tall and utilizes chromolithography to highlight its color and detail.  Publisher James T. White (1845‒1920) patented the physiological manikin in 1886, which was used in medical schools and doctor's offices as a tool for studying anatomy and physiology at the turn of the 20th century.   This example was used by Miriam Modesitt’s great-uncle as a medical student at the University of Cincinnati, 1870-1880.  Miriam Modesitt was married to John Romano, who was the first Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.  According to the provenance note on the back of this manikin, it was used as a toy by three generations of kids.  It was donated to the Miner Library by the Romanos in 1973.

Post authored by Katelyn Gibson, Centennial Archivist, History of Medicine Section, Edward G. Miner Library, University of Rochester Medical Center.

Part Two: Health Reformers Turned Household Names

The Atwater American Popular Medicine Collection held by the History of Medicine Section contains a variety of texts by individuals who led health and wellness reform movements, including a number of cookbooks and publications on wellness. This multi-part blog series explores relationships between health reform and food, and the ways in which diet and nutrition were an integral part of various health reform movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries. If you haven’t already, check out part one of this series to learn about the dietary habits of water-cure practitioners!

This week’s blog post will focus on Sylvester Graham and John Harvey Kellogg. Both leaders of reform movements in the 19th century, these men helped popularize food items that you can now find in any grocery store.      

Sylvester Graham. A Treatise on Bread, and Bread Making. Milwaukee: Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research. [Facsimile of 1837 Boston edition]

Sylvester Graham (1794-1851), a Presbyterian minister and health reformer, is best known as the inspiration behind today’s graham cracker. While he didn’t invent or profit from graham flour, or the graham bread and crackers created from it, he strongly encouraged the technique of bread-making with coarsely ground wheat in this publication and his lectures. Like many health reformers of the time, Graham was an advocate for temperance and vegetarianism and avoided spices and stimulants to maintain “purity” in the diet and lifestyle.

His diet was based around the valuable nutrients in whole food and whole-grain items—and also had benefits when it came to food safety. In the mid-19th century, it was not uncommon for bread manufacturers and bakers to supplement white flour with chalk and other substances to add weight, whiten bread, or hide evidence of spoilage. But Graham’s idea of purity went beyond nutrition, and also included preventing “impure thoughts” and masturbation. He believed that his diet could encourage physical and emotional restraint—a view that was common in the closely-related temperance movement.

In addition to detailed instructions for grinding flour and fermenting dough, Graham’s treatise includes his opinions on the labor associated with cooking and baking. He argues that while it is possible for “female domestics” to make the best quality bread,

“it is the wife, the mother only—she who loves her husband and her children as woman ought to love, and who rightly perceives the relations between the dietetic habits and physical and moral condition of her loved ones, and justly appreciates the importance of good bread to their physical and moral welfare—she alone it is, who will be ever inspired by that cordial and unremitting affection and solicitude which will excite the vigilance, secure the attention, and prompt the action requisite to success, and essential to the attainment of that maturity of judgement and skillfulness of operation, which are the indispensable qualities of a perfect bread-maker.” (105-106)

Graham’s teachings brought him popularity, but angered members of the medical establishment as well as the butchers and bakers whose methods and products he strongly criticized. Several of his public speaking engagements caused riots—but it was his views on sexual physiology, and not vegetarianism, that provoked the outrage. Despite his polarizing views, he would become one of the faces of the early vegetarian movement in America.

Ella Eaton Kellogg. Healthful Cookery: A Collection of Choice Recipes for Preparing Foods, with Special Reference to Health. Battle Creek, Michigan: Published by the Modern Medicine Publishing Company, 1904.

The author of this cookbook, Ella Eaton Kellogg, was the wife of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943), a health reformer best known for his development of dry breakfast cereal and one of many to be inspired by the teachings of Sylvester Graham. Kellogg was also the medical superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan from 1876 until his death in 1943. Under his management, the health resort expanded treatment to include a vegetarian diet with an emphasis on whole grains, nuts, and other fiber-rich food.  

Ella Eaton Kellogg first came to the Battle Creek Sanitarium as a teacher, but soon became the supervisor of the Sanitarium’s Experimental Kitchen; her illustrated cookbook Science in the Kitchen was a product of the time she spent developing recipes and conducting nutrition and diet experiments.

John Harvey Kellogg had an early entry into health reform; he converted to an entirely vegetarian diet as a teenager after reading health reform publications from Seventh-Day Adventists, and was persuaded by his family to attend R.T. Trall’s Hygeio-Therapeutic College. Although many health reformers placed themselves in direct opposition to the medical profession, Kellogg was willing to engage with its ideas and education. He earned his MD from Bellevue Hospital Medical School in 1875, and became a member of the American Medical Association after earning his degree. Kellogg did reject the use of drugs and vaccines, though, and refused to be vaccinated; he believed that his habits and lifestyle were enough to protect him from diseases such as smallpox. (Schwarz 56)

Although Kellogg ate an entirely meat-free diet, he was not a typical vegetarian by modern standards. Early in his career he opposed the consumption of many raw vegetables, as well as root vegetables, and emphasized that man’s “natural diet” should consist primarily of grains, fruits, and nuts. Like many health reformers, Kellogg also rejected the use of many seasonings and condiments: “hygienic cookery requires…the exclusion of all unwholesome ingredients, such as chemical leavening agents, vinegar, pepper-sauce, mustard, and other pungent and irritating condiments, and the excessive use of free fats.” (9)

This cookbook gives a good sense of the meat replacements most commonly found at Battle Creek Sanitarium: protose and nuttolene. Both were made primarily of blended peanuts mixed with water or wheat gluten and salt, and were canned and sold in loaf form by the Sanitarium.

In addition to these meat substitutes, Kellogg is also partly responsible for the popularization of peanut butter in America.

After the accidental discovery of corn flakes, credited varyingly to members of the Kellogg family, the Battle Creek Sanitarium began selling their invention along with their meat substitutes and other staples of Kellogg’s diet. This advertisement shows the range of products available for purchase.

For those interested in reading more about these two health reformers, the following books are available to check out from the History of Medicine circulating collection.

- Gerstner, Patsy. “The Temple of Health : A Pictorial History of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.” In Caduceus. Springfield, Ill: Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Dept. of Medical Humanities, 1996.

- Nissenbaum, Stephen. Sex, Diet, and Debility in Jacksonian America : Sylvester Graham and Health Reform. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1980.

- Schwarz, Richard W. John Harvey Kellogg, M.D. Nashville, Tenn: Southern Pub. Association, 1970.

- Sokolow, Jayme A. Eros and Modernization : Sylvester Graham, Health Reform, and the Origins of Victorian Sexuality in America. Rutherford [N.J: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1983.

In honor of Banned Books Week this week (October 5-11, 2025), we’re highlighting a few of the books in History of Medicine’s rare book collection that have been banned over time. 

Thomas Browne’s Religio Medici (Religion of a Physician) is an early psychological self-portrait.  Browne meditates on the relation between his medical profession and his Christian faith.  The volume promoted tolerance and asked readers to come to their own conclusions when it came to faith and science.  An unauthorized edition was published in 1642 by the London bookseller and publisher Andrew Crooke.  Browne’s authorized version began circulating in 1643, and a Latin edition was released in following year.  By 1645 the Catholic Church had put Browne’s work on the Vatican’s Index Expurgatorius, a list of published works that ere forbidden to be read unless sections of unacceptable content were removed.  This index was part of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the Church’s list of texts that were deemed dangerous due to their heretical, anticlerical, or lascivious content.  Despite this, the text became a European bestseller with many editions and eventually translated into French, German, Dutch, and Italian.  The History of Medicine’s copy is from 1656.

Zoonomia, or the laws of organic life by the British physician, Erasmus Darwin, was first published in 1794.  This two-volume medical text describes the pathology, anatomy, psychology, and functioning of the body.  Darwin presents early ideas of the theory of evolution in these books.  Zoonomia was banned and added to the Vatican’s Index in 1817.  It remained in the Index until its final edition in 1948.  The Church placed the title on the list because it implied that the Bible was not to be read as literally true.  The History of Medicine owns a 1794-1796 copy of Zoonomia that once belonged to the Medical and Chirurgical Library in Maryland.

Charles Knowlton first published Fruits of philosophy, or the private companion of young married people in 1832.  This pamphlet advocates for controlling reproduction and details methods for preventing pregnancy.  From the beginning, it was considered an illegal book because, at that time, United States obscenity laws prohibited the publication of immoral and obscene material, which included information about contraception.  Knowlton was prosecuted three times under the obscenity laws, one prosecution leading to three months of hard labor in a Cambridge, Massachusetts jail.  Many attempted to prevent the pamphlets circulation, but many activists kept it circulating and were even prosecuted for publishing further editions.  One such case was that of Annie Wood Besant and Charles Bradlaugh, activists in England, in 1877.  They published a second edition of Knowlton’s work from the Freethought Publishing Company in London, with a preface note stating that are very few changes from Knowlton’s original text.  In the wake of fears surrounding overpopulation and poverty at the time, Besant and Bradlaugh stated the need for controlling reproduction in their preface, as well.  The History of Medicine has eight editions of the text, including two that Besant and Bradlaugh published.  

Celebrate Let Freedom Read Day on October 11 by reading one of the banned books that Miner Library circulates:

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Born a Crime : Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

How the Word is Passed : A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

Caste : The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

Post authored by Josh Goldman, Library Assistant, Circulation/History of Medicine Section, Edward G. Miner Library, University of Rochester Medical Center.

According to Judith Flanders in her book Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait Life of Domestic England (2004), clothing played a significant role in the status of a family in the Victorian era.  For example, women were expected to “look the part” for their men and were required to dress according to their family’s wealth.  This change prompted women to search for new health options, which in turn led to the creation of the bathroom. 

The bathroom’s earliest form, a lavatory (or water-closet), was first displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and soon spread into Victorian homes.  Prior to the bathroom and lavatory, servants washed using basins and ewers made from materials ranging from tin to zinc.  Hot-water pipes arrived in the 1870s and became a popular choice for middle-class households.  The cost of installing a water-pipe was expensive; between 50 to 60 pounds.  However, the increased revenue from rent made from houses containing a bathroom made it worthwhile for landlords to install bathrooms in those without. 

Much like other rooms of the period, lavatories and bathrooms were heavily decorated. Some popular choices included toilet bowls made by potteries such as Minton and Wedgewood.  Toilet bowls might be decorated with elaborate ribbon and shell designs named Renaissance and Empire, or with Carnation or Hydrangea floral designs. 

The noise generated from the pipes due to flushing often became an annoyance for residents. Indoor plumbing revealed a new danger, transmission of diseases through the pipes.   Pipes were thought to be an entry point for illness since the new piping systems were linked between houses.  After waves of contagious diseases in the 1830s and 1840s (influenza, cholera, typhoid, and smallpox, and scarlet fever), people began to recognize that the contaminated water was to blame.  These growing health concerns led to the creation of the sickroom, a room in the home where people with illnesses were separated from the rest of the household and treated, much like in a modern-day hospital.

Usually, a sickroom contained the following items:
•    a bed (with no bedcurtains or valances), sofa, or daybed for patients to rest in; 
•    a washstand for patients to clean themselves;
•    a chest of drawers for patients to store their clothes;
•    two tables for doctors and nurses to store medicine and surgical materials. 

These rooms were usually staffed by professional nurses (for those who could afford it), who, according to Flanders, were “sober, active, orderly, clean and neat in person.”  However, with the rise of technological advances in medicine, male doctors soon took over the profession and were able to treat people with pills and drugs, such as Beecham’s Pills and morphine.  

However, these new medical advances, usually ended up in failure due to the inexperience of the doctors at the time.  This led to many illnesses returning and the death of many sick patients.

To learn more, check out Flanders’ book and other similar titles in the History of Medicine's circulating collection: 

• Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait Life of Domestic England by Judith Flanders (2004)
• Clean and Decent: The Fascinating History of the Bathroom and Water Closet by Lawrence Wright (1960) 
   

The medical library of the University of Rochester Medical Center made its humble first home on the second floor of the Research Laboratory, also referred to as the Animal House, from 1923 to 1925.  The Research Laboratory was the first building to be constructed for the School of Medicine and Dentistry (SMD).  During these early years of the library’s establishment, it was the founding dean, George H. Whipple, who insisted upon a strong central library resource for learning and knowledge.  He recognized that the library would serve the entire Medical Center as a vital part of all the work done here.  As a result, its permanent physical home was set in the center of the medical complex in the fall of 1925 when SMD opened.

The library’s collections were built through a combination of purchases and gifts.  Various other medical libraries, including Boston Medical Library, Grovesnor Library of Buffalo, and New York Academy of Medicine, donated their duplicate books and journals.  Purchases were made through the Library Committee, which was originally chaired by Dr. George E. Corner.  A substantial donation for building the collections was given by Dr. Edward Mulligan, a prominent surgeon in Rochester, New York.  Mulligan donated $15,000 over three years (1926-1928) to purchase volumes illustrating the history of medicine.  With that donation, Corner began the basis for today’s History of Medicine Section within Miner Library.   Over the last 100 years many faculty members of the Medical Center and local institutions have donated books and/or funds to the medical library to grow its collections and support the work of the librarians.

Edward G. Miner, who was a trustee for the University of Rochester, had a great interest in libraries and, in May 1927, he donated his collection of early works on yellow fever.  Miner continued to add to this collection, as well as volumes on other communicable diseases, until his death in 1958.  In recognition of his services to the University of Rochester and its libraries, the Medical Library was named in honor of Edward G. Miner in December, 1952.

Miner Library’s staff and librarians continue to provide high-quality service to the Medical Center and beyond through library acquisitions, reference services, interlibrary loan and circulation services, instruction, and more.  Miner’s current team is comprised of hard-working, dedicated individuals who ensure the success of all who enter the library, either physically or virtually.   As our mission states, we provide answers and expertise to help you work, learn, and achieve success.

If you find yourself at the Medical Center on October 2, 2025, please join us in celebrating our birthday with cake and coffee in Miner Library from 10am to 1pm.  The History of Medicine Section is hosting an open house at the time for our latest exhibit, A Century of Research and Education Innovation, which begins our year-long celebration of the centennial of the University of Rochester Medical Center.