Collection Description
The Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collection consists of personal papers and organizational records in all formats which document predominantly 20th and 21st century American medical practitioners, biomedical scientists, public health practitioners and researchers and health policy planners. Subject strengths of the Collection include public health and health policy, mental health, child development, and molecular biology. Notable collections include personal papers of former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, and the papers of Nobel Prize-winning scientists, particularly those connected with NIH. The Collection also contains significant holdings of bound and folio manuscripts dating between the 17th-19th centuries, largely of European origin, that include student lecture notes, recipe books, diaries, physician's ledgers, pharmacist formularies and account books, and medical treatises and commentaries. The Collection also manages selected internal records of NLM and other organizations relating to medical librarianship and medical informatics.
While we selectively collect the papers of significant NIH scientists and some institutional records, most permanent records of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its Institutes are found in the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).