Rhode Island Medical Society (RIMS) Library
The Rhode Island Medical Society voted in 1982 to donate its library of more than 30,000 volumes to Brown. The more recent books and serials, including journals issued by national and state medical associations, have been added to the Sciences Library to support the University's Program in Medicine.
Two important groups of rare or unusual books collected by the Society in its 175 years are inSpecial Collections. The first is the Davenport Collection, an endowed gift from Dr. James Henry Davenport, containing "books on medical history, medical biography and extra-curricular writings of physicians." It is these extra-curricular writings that give the collection its eclectic flavor. Included are books by physician authors in the fields of history, biography, travel narratives, fiction, poetry and drama, as well as many other works from
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (London, 1892) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Oliver Wendell Holmes's
The Poet at the Breakfast-Table (Boston,1872).
The second group comprises the contents of the Society's De Jong Rare Book Room plus titles selected from its general collection. Here are medical classics such as Pliny's
Historia Naturale (Venice, 1501), Galen's works (Venice, 1525), Avicenna's
Liber Canonis (Venice, 1555), Vesalius's
De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Amsterdam, 1642) and works by Celsus, Harvey, Boerhaave, Pare, Morgagni and Osler along with other authoritative texts including the ubiquitous
Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical (London, 1858) of Henry Gray.
The general collection includes numerous 18th and 19th century medical tracts published in America from Nicholas Culpeper's
Pharmacopoeia Londinensis (Boston, 1720) to the "ether controversy" of the 1850's and beyond. There is also a substantial selection of pamphlets dealing with homeopathy, hydropathy, naturopathy and other less orthodox medical doctrines more frequently practiced in the 19th century.
Also included is the Chapin Collection, from the library of Charles V. Chapin, consisting primarily of Greek and Latin classics in English translation.
Format(s): Books
Library: John Hay
Contact(s): William_Monroe@brown.edu
Contact(s): Richard_Noble@brown.edu
Access to the collection:
Online Catalog (JOSIAH):
Individual records for most printed materials available on JOSIAH
Related Collections:
Chapin (Charles V.) Personal Library
Davenport Collection