LibGuides: Public Health and Advocacy: Historical Health Sciences Research

Historical Databases

Academic Databases
Freely Accessible

America: History & Life This link opens in a new window Covers the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to present. Over 1800 journals indexed. Scope: United States and Canada. Dates: 1895 to present.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window Full text collections of legal journals, texts, cases, statutes, regulations, presidential materials, treaties, as well as international and foreign legal journals, cases and materials. Content is in the original page-image (PDF) format, ensuring the authenticity of the original hardcopy document. Content includes historical and current materials. Collections include Law Journal Library, History of International Law, Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register Library, Legal Classics, Women and the Law (Peggy), U.S. Treaties and Agreements Library, U.S. Attorney General & Department of Justice Collection, U.S. Federal Legislative History Library, U.S. Presidential Library, U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Supreme Court Library. Scope: Worldwide. Dates: Varies.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window Covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from the 15th century to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more. This authoritative database provides indexing of more than 2,300 academic historical journals in over 40 languages. Scope: Worldwide (excluding the United States and Canada) Dates: 1953 to present (some titles back to early 20th century).
Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window Quantitative facts of American history. Statistical tables covering population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, economic sectors, and governance and international relations. The fully searchable and downloadable electronic edition permits users to graph individual tables and create customized tables and spreadsheets reflecting their own particular areas of interest. Scope: United States. Dates: 1700s-2000 (majority of tables falling between 1790-1990).
JSTOR This link opens in a new window Full text scholarly, multidisciplinary, database that currently includes thousands of academic journal articles, along with thousands of monographs and other materials relevant for education. Scope: Worldwide. Dates: Varies.
Nineteenth Century Masterfile: 1106-1930 This link opens in a new window Provides access to primary resources for studies in Anglo-American literature published before 1930. Search across dozens of subject indexes to periodicals, newspapers, books, patents, US and UK government documents and more. Scope: Great Britain, United States. Dates: 1106 to 1930.
Women and Social Movements in the US This link opens in a new window A resource for students and scholars of U.S. History and U.S. Womens History. This collection includes 123 document projects and an archives of over 5,100 documents organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000. Scope: United States. Dates: 1600 to 2000.

For more Historical Databases, looking at specific regions or subjects, see our History Databases.

Recommended : Related specifically to Health and Medicine

LitMed The Literature, Arts and Medicine Database (LitMed) is a collection of literature, fine art, visual art and performing art annotations in the Medical Humanities. It was created by faculty of the New York University School of Medicine. Use it to find resources to help you with your research.
National Library of Medicine: Digital Collections Digital Collections is the National Library of Medicine's free online resource of biomedical books and still and moving images. All of the content in Digital Collections is freely available worldwide and, unless otherwise indicated, in the public domain. Digital Collections provides unique access to NLM's rich resources, including their History of Medicine resources and historical films & video.
National Library of Medicine: History of Medicine NLM’s History of Medicine Division collects, preserves, makes available, and interprets for diverse audiences one of the world's richest collections of historical material related to human health and disease.

Other Resources

American Memory Provides free and open access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. Collections are primarily from the Library of Congress, but also includes material from other institutions as well.
HathiTrust Search across various newspaper collections. Access may vary depending on the partnering institution. Use the advanced search to limit to a specific format.
Internet Archive Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, music, images, TV news, and more.

News and Newspapers

See the Newspaper page on our Finding Resources Guide for historic and contemporary newspaper listings.

Related specifically to Health and Medicine

California's Old Series Trademarks Search a digitized collection of 3,940 trademark applications filed with the Secretary of State between 1861 and 1900. These "Old Series Trademarks" provide a glimpse of commerce and consumer goods in the Golden State during this time. The archive includes images of patent medicines.
Duke University Historical Images in Medicine Over 3,000 photographs, illustrations, engravings, and bookplates from the history of the health and life sciences from Duke's Medical Center Library.
Historical Anatomies on the Web (National Library of Medicine) A digital repository of high quality images from important anatomical atlases in the Library's collection. The project offers selected images from NLM's atlas collection, not the entire books, with an emphasis on images and not texts. Atlases and images are selected primarily for their historical and artistic significance, with priority placed upon the earliest and/or the best edition of a work in NLM's possession.
Medicine and Madison Avenue Over 600 advertising items and publications dating from 1850 to 1920, illustrating the rise of consumer culture and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States.
National Library of Medicine: Digital Collections Digital Collections is the National Library of Medicine's free online resource of biomedical books and still and moving images. All of the content in Digital Collections is freely available worldwide and, unless otherwise indicated, in the public domain. Digital Collections provides unique access to NLM's rich resources, including their History of Medicine resources and historical films & video.
Public Health Image Library (PHIL) from the CDC Images from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). MeSH is used to organize by hierarchical categories of people, places, and science, and is presented as single images, image sets, and multimedia files.
Seeing is Believing: 700 Years of Scientific and Medical Illustration (NYPL) Images from the exhibit of the same name that NYPL had on view from October 23, 1999-February 19, 2000. Reviews advances in scientific and medical illustration techniques.
Wellcome Images A database with over 170 000 historical and contemporary images, covering medical and social history, contemporary healthcare and biomedical science.

American Memory Provides free and open access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. Collections are primarily from the Library of Congress, but also includes material from other institutions as well.
Brooklyn Visual Heritage Brooklyn Visual Heritage makes digitized historic images of Brooklyn easily accessible to a diverse audience. Working with Pratt Institute’s School of Information and Library Science, the Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Public Library. Search by institution, subject, or location.
Calisphere from University of California A database of the digitized collections from California libraries, archives, and museums. With over 400,000 images, texts, and recordings, highlights from the collections include photographs and other primary sources on: Japanese American Internment, Chinese Exclusion Act, Dust Bowl Migration and more.
Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York Provides online access to digital collections of libraries, archives, museums and historical societies located in and around New York City, including NYC and Westchester. Available images include photographs, maps, letters, postcards, manuscripts, scrapbooks, programs from events, catalogues, memorabilia, ephemera, and more.
DPLA (Digital Public Library of America) A portal that provides different ways to search across a wide selection of digital collections from libraries, museums, archives, and other institutional repositories in the United States. Search through curated exhibitions, explore by place or date, search through images, text, and more.
Historical Anatomies on the Web From the National Library of Medicine this database is a digital project designed to give access to high quality images from important anatomical atlases in the Library's collection. The project offers selected images from NLM's atlas collection, not the entire books, with an emphasis on images and not texts. Atlases and images are selected primarily for their historical and artistic significance, with priority placed upon the earliest and/or the best edition of a work in NLM's possession.
Internet Archive Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, music, images, TV news, and more.
NYPL Digital Collections Search through the over 800,000 digitized items from the New York Public Library’s collections, with prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more. Also has a feature in which public domain items have been enhanced and labelled so that they may be used in various ways.
Photogrammar Search through the 170,000 photographs from 1935-1945 by the United States Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information (FSA –OWI). Use the interactive map to search for photographs, or search by photographer.
Smithsonian Libraries: Galaxy of Images Collection of digitized images from the Smithsonian Libraries.

Welcome!

Use this page to find resources to assist you in the historical research of health and medicine. Whether looking for a place to generate ideas, images, archives, or more this page can help get you started.

A Story About Brian, Images from the History of Medicine, http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101438555

Primary and Secondary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

A direct source from a particular event; a first-hand account from someone who was involved in an event; a work that was created during the time period studied.
A diary, newspapers from the time an event took place, a personal letter or correspondence.

CHINESE CRUSH FOE IN CHIHKIANG ZONE. (1945, May 11). New York Times (1923-Current File) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/107140388?accountid=13701

What is a Secondary Source?

Uses primary sources to make an argument or provide an analysis; not from the direct time of the event that it is describing.
Criticisms, commentaries, a document that reviews or interprets a previous event or findings.

The Long Road Home by Ben Shephard
Call Number: D808 .S44 2011
ISBN: 9781400040681
Publication Date: 2011-02-22

Can a Source be Primary and Secondary?

Simply put, yes. For example a documentary about World War II could be used as both a primary or secondary source. It could be used as a primary source if it has first-hand accounts or if you are studying the art of documentary. It could also be used as a secondary source because it uses primary source material to analyze an event.

White light, black rain : the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Steven Okazaki; Takafumi Kawasaki; Steve Condiotti; Masafumi Ichinose; HBO Documentary Films
Call Number: D767.25.H6 W45 DVD
ISBN: 9780783156552
Publication Date: 2007

Not sure if what you are looking at is primary or secondary?

Medical History Podcast

SawBones Podcast From Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin comes Sawbones. This podcast covers medical history - focusing on "odd, weird, wrong, and dumb ways we've tried to fix people over the years." It is a great resource for beginning to think about your research and/or sparking that initial interest.

Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials

When searching PubMed you can limit to the publication type: historical article
You can also limit to the MeSH:

Delivery of healthcare/history
History, 20th Century

Example Search: "Delivery of Health Care/history"[Mesh]

Clinical Queries in PubMed
Check out information on how to use Clinical Queries to find medical history citations in PubMed.

Librarian Tip: If you are looking for historical information on a specific topic try to find out if there is an organization or library that has an archives collecting on that topic. The resources might not be digital, but they can be useful. Not sure how to begin? Ask a Librarian!

When and How Can I Use an Image?

Just because you find an image online does not mean that it is free to use. When using an image, make sure you use media with a stated license (for example Creative Commons and Public Domain) or determine if your intended use of an image is covered under Fair Use.

Can I Use That Picture?

Newbold, Curtis. Can I Use that Picture?. 2014. The Visual Communication Guy. Web. Accessed August 25, 2017.

You must also always cite an image, just as you would a work in print.
For information on how to cite sources, visit this page.

Creative Commons helps people to share their works with the world.

Creative Commons licenses are a standardized way to give others permission to share and use a piece of work -- on conditions of their choice. To find out how you can use an image with a Creative Commons license review the license type listed.

Learn more with the Creative Commons Flyer
Visit the Creative Commons website to learn how to share your work and use & remix Creative Commons licensed works.

Depending upon when a work was created, it might be in the Public Domain.

Copyright Term and the Public Domain, a guide to copyright duration created by Peter Hirtle at Cornell University, is a comprehensive and useful resource for researching a work's copyright status. You can also use the Copyright Slider from the American Library Association for quick reference.

As a general rule, works registered or published in the U.S. before 1923 are in the public domain.

Have more questions? Check out our Copyright Guide and/or

Public Health and Advocacy: Historical Health Sciences Research