Medical Services and Warfare Digitization Project Completed in Partnership with Adam Matthew Digital

May 7, 2018

Digital collection now freely accessible onsite at NLM and from Adam Matthew Digital for institutional subscribers

The National Library of Medicine’s History of Medicine Division recently worked with Adam Matthew Digital, a digital publisher of unique primary source collections from archives around the world, to digitize more than 12,000 pages of manuscripts from 15 collections held by the NLM, the world’s largest biomedical library.

The NLM collections join a host of others from the British Library, the Library and Archives of Canada, and the UK National Archives, among other libraries and archives, in Medical Services and Warfare, a new online resource from Adam Matthew which explores multiple perspectives on the history of injury, treatment and disease on the front lines of modern warfare.

Patrons can freely view Medical Services and Warfare at the NLM. They may also study the original NLM collections in the NLM’s History of Medicine reading room.

NLM Digital Collections will eventually provide free global access to all the material now digitized for the Medical Services and Warfare project.

These collections include selections from:

• The Bernard John Dowling Irwin Papers, which contain reprints of articles written by Irwin and articles written about him and his career, biographical data, and photographs. Irwin served as a surgeon the in the U.S. Army beginning in 1855 and retiring in 1894.
• The Alexander Hoff Papers, which contain correspondence, drawings, photographs, and background documents on Hoff's military service during the Civil War.
• The private and official papers of US Army and Confederate Army medical officers: Thomas S. Latimer, 1861–1900, which consist of official documents and correspondence relating to certain Union and Confederate surgeons during the Civil War (1861–65), the immediate post-war period (1866), and the Spanish-American War (1898).
• The Sloan US Army General Hospital Records, which consist of two order books, hospital reports, vouchers, receipts, and correspondence that document the hospital's activities between May 1864 and October 1865.
• The Lewis H. Steiner Papers, 1861–1867, which include personal papers, reports, printed matter, and some correspondence pertaining to the United States Sanitary Commission.
• The George Miller Sternberg Papers, 1861–1917, which contain correspondence, documents, certificates, and printed matter.
• The Thomas Winston Papers, which consist mostly of the correspondence between Thomas Winston and his wife Caroline Mumford Winston during 1862-1866. Winston imparts a vivid picture of what he saw and did while encamped with the Illinois 92nd, while also discussing at length many of the most vital and controversial issues of the time. Winston also delivers a full account of the state of military medicine during the Civil War.
• The H. C. Yarrow Correspondence, 1863–1906, which consist of personal letters chiefly from Army medical officers including J. H. Baxter, John S. Billings, James Carroll, C. H. Crane, J. M. Cuyler, John Eagen, Robert Fletcher, Charles R. Greenleaf, Charles L. Heizmann, Bernard J. D. Irwin, George A. Otis, J. Simpson, George M. Sternberg, and J. J. Woodward.
• The United States Armory Square General Hospital, Washington DC collection, which consists of a booklet of local orders issued to the Hospital, one published and two typewritten articles about the Hospital, the order to close the Hospital, and the 1865 issue of the Armory Square Hospital gazette.
• The Armory Square Hospital nursing diary, 1864, of a nurse in Ward E of the hospital during the spring and summer of 1864, which includes a description of duties, the patients, and social activities in Washington during the Civil War.
• Brady’s civil war album, 1864: Armory Square Hospital, an album of cartes de visite of Civil War battle scenes, buildings, and individual soldier portraits from E. & H. T. Anthony Company’s commercial series "Brady’s album gallery.”
• The Armory Square Hospital Gazette, Washington DC.
• The Marion A. Blankenhorn Papers, 1916–1918, which contain correspondence, diaries, printed matter, clippings, orders, printed ephemera, and patient record books and transfer cards, all relating to Base Hospital No. 4 (Lakeside, U.S.A.), directed by George Crile, during World War I.
• The Merritte Weber Ireland Papers, which contain correspondence, a 1917 war diary, and addresses delivered as surgeon general.
• The Stanhope Baynes-Jones Papers which include information on family background, education, and service in World War I and II, and Dr. Bayne-Jones' association with the Johns Hopkins University Medical School, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Yale University School of Medicine, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, Tulane University School of Medicine, U.S. Army Surgeon General's Office, and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Read more about NLM’s rich collections related to military medicine on our popular blog, Circulating Now.

Since its founding in 1836, the National Library of Medicine https://www.nlm.nih.gov has played a pivotal role in translating biomedical research into practice and is a leader in information innovation. NLM is the world's largest medical library, and millions of scientists, health professionals and the public around the world use NLM services every day.

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