Participating Archives and Libraries
The Briscoe Center for American History is an organised research unit and public service component of The University of Texas at Austin. The Briscoe Center increases knowledge and fosters exploration of the past by collecting, preserving, and making available documentary and material culture evidence encompassing key themes in Texas and US history.
The documents selected for
Medical Services and Warfare include Civil War hospital registers and military correspondence, order books and accounts, recording the status of each army, including the
dwindling supplies of the Confederate army.
More than 5,000 letters and reports from the Florence Nightingale Papers make up the British Library’s contribution to this resource. Selected from the full Papers on the basis of their relevance to the project’s themes and period, the manuscript items are fully text searchable for the first time thanks to
Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) technology and include key documents such as:
The British Library's contribution to the second Module comprises 36 volumes of Alexander Fleming’s scientific notebooks and speeches, made fully text searchable through
Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR). This tool opens up Fleming’s manuscript notes on hundreds of experiments and observations, including the discoveries of lysozyme and penicillin.
The British Library serves business and industry, researchers, academics and students in the UK and world-wide. The library receives a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland and the collection includes well over 150 million items, in most known languages, with three million new items added every year. The British Library houses manuscripts, maps, newspapers, magazines, prints and drawings, music scores, patents, sound recordings, stamps and other philatelic items and over 16,000 people use the collections each day (on site and online).
British Film Institute
The BFI is the UK’s lead organisation for film, television and the moving image. Founded in 1933, the BFI is a registered charity governed by Royal Charter.
Films selected from the BFI's holdings for
Medical Services and Warfare include
Conquest of a Germ, a 1944 presentation concerning the dawn of the anitibiotic age, based on a screenplay by the poet Dylan Thomas, and
Blood Transfusion, an introduction to both the groundbreaking work of the Army Blood Transfusion Service and the science of blood transfusion itself.
The Medical Center Archives of Duke University contributes a wealth of both audiovisual and archival material to
Medical Services and Warfare, centred upon the 65th General Hospital Collection. This unit distinguished itself in the fields of specialised treatment and the immediate care of combat casualties, and following the war a physician of the 65th, Dr Leo Alexander, acted as a consultant to prosecutors in the Nuremberg Trials. Highlights from the collection include the personal correspondence of Captain Norman Ross, recounting everyday life and medical work in Britain; reports compiled by Alexander on subjects such as the
Medical School Curriculum in Wartime Germany; and
an extended memorandum addressed to Telford Taylor, concerning experiments on concentration camp prisoners.
Based in the Seeley G. Mudd Building at Duke University, the Duke University Medical Archives comprises 12,088 linear feet of archival materials.
Medical Services and Warfare draws from a number of collections at Stanford, including the American National Red Cross Records and photograph collections, highlighting American service in the First World War and the work of national and international Red Cross societies.
Founded by Herbert Hoover in 1919, the Hoover Institution Library & Archives are dedicated to documenting war, revolution, and peace in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. With nearly one million volumes and more than six thousand archival collections from 171 countries, Hoover supports a vibrant community of scholars and a broad public interested in the meaning and role of history.
Discover documents from the Hoover Institution Library & Archives here.
The IFRC Archives preserves records documenting the activities of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (formerly called the League of Red Cross Societies) that date from the foundation of the League in 1919. Medical Services and Warfare includes a selection of these records, focusing opn the period 1936-1950 and covering the themes of humanitarian aid, nursing, and post-war reconstruction.
Highlights include a complete run of the
Bulletin of the Federation of the Red Cross National Societies for 1936-1946, files relating to the role of the International Red Cross in providing aid during the Spanish Civil War (for example,
Espagne: Appel de la Ligue) and the Second Sino-Japanese War (such as
Chine 1937-1939), as well as a comprehensive series of records covering the Advisory conference of delegates of Red Cross National Societies, held in the autumn of 1945. A selection of posters produced by Red Cross Branches around the world during the same period provide an additional, visually arresting record.
Discover documents from the IFRC Archives here.
Founded in 1964, the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives is a leading repository for research into modern defence policy in Britain, from the Second Boer War onwards. The Centre's holdings include the personal and semi-personal papers of nearly 800 senior British defence personnel.
The Liddell Hart Centre's contribution to
Medical Services and Warfare includes a treasure trove of material concerning psychiatry and psychology during the Second World War (including selections from the papers of Aubrey Lewis and Ronald Forbes Adam), tropical medicine, and the experience of allied prisoners of war in Europe. Highlights include the
Diary of G.M. Warrack, which provides a detailed account of medical services during the Battle of Armhem; Adam's outspoken,
unpublished memoirs, which recall his wartime service as Britain's Adjutant-General in enthralling detail; and the
Diary of Thomas Henry Wilson, which records his experiences of the Battle of France - and was smuggled out of a prisoner of war camp in a plaster cast.
Discover documents from King's College London here.
Focusing on the influenza epidemic of 1918 and subsequent outbreaks, the documents from the Library and Archives Canada are sourced from the Papers from the Canadian Department of Health and Papers from the Canadian Department of National Health and Welfare (primarily classmark RG29). From the cleaning and quarantine of freight ships to government reports and correspondence tackling the crisis,
discover documents from the collection here.
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) combines the holdings, services and staff of both the former National Library of Canada and the National Archives of Canada. LAC’s mandate is to preserve the documentary heritage of Canada for the benefit of present and future generations; to be a source of enduring knowledge accessible to all, contributing to the cultural, social and economic advancement of Canada as a free and democratic society; to facilitate in Canada co-operation among communities involved in the acquisition, preservation and diffusion of knowledge and to serve as the continuing memory of the Government of Canada and its institutions.
Discover documents from Library and Archives Canada here.
The museum was begun by the private collector Dr Gordon E. Damman, focusing on Civil War-era medical artefacts, and first opened to the public in 1996. The museum organises an annual national conference on Civil War-era medicine. The associated Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office opened in 2014 in Washington, D.C.
Documents digitised from the Museum of Military Medicine include selections from the papers of Q.V.B. Wallace, commanding officer of the 9th General Hospital in North Africa and Deputy Director Medical Services of the British First Corps in Northwestern Europe, a variety of papers relating to the Army Blood Supply Depot, and personal collections from British Army medical personnel including Captain Julius M. Green, a dentist who
provided the British government with intelligence on the German war effort whilst treating his fellow prisoners of war. A number of intriguing items from the Museum have been digitised alongside archival documents; these include a
pair of improvised dentures, manufactured in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
The Museum of Military Medicine, based in Ash Vale, Surrey, tells the story of army medicine and healthcare, human and animal, from the English Civil War to the current day, as Army Medical Services personnel continue to serve across the globe as part of the British Army.
Discover documents from the Museum of Military Medicine here.
Items digitised from the National Archives include official as well as personal war diaries, correspondence and committee minutes from the First World War, and are sourced from many classmarks, including the following collections:
• Nursing Service Records, First World War: Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS)
• Field Ambulance and Casualty Clearing Station War Diaries
• Nursing Service Records, First World War: Territorial Force Nursing Service (TFNS)
The National Archives also contributes a valuable selection of documents for the Second module of Medical Services and warfare, spanning interwar improvements in military medicine, the development of antibiotics, research into the blood transfusion, burns treatments developed for the Royal Air Force, military medicine in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, research into malaria, medical preparations for D-Day, the experiences of prisoners of war, and the creation of the National Health Service.
The National Archives are one of the world’s most valuable resources for academic research. As the official archive and publisher for the UK government they are the guardian of millions of the UK's national documents, the earliest dating back over 1,000 years. Their role is to collect and secure the future of the government record, both digital and physical, to preserve it for generations to come, and to make it as accessible and available as possible. For the academic community and others engaged in scholarly research The National Archives offer opportunities for collaboration and partnership across a broad range of disciplines. They bring together the skills and specialisms needed to conserve some of the oldest historical documents with leading digital archive practices to manage and preserve government information past, present and future.
Discover documents from The National Archives here.
The
Zwerdling Postcard Selection also provides stunning visuals from a number of conflicts and countries.
The NLM contributes further valuable collections to the second module. These include the papers of Dr Julius S. Schreiber, the psychologist who oversaw the creation of an extensive
orientation programme for US Army personnel during the Second World War; the papers of Stanhope Bayne-Jones, which provide a wealth of detail on the work of the United States of America Typhus Commission
and Army Epidemiological Board; the papers of John F. Fulton, which chart the development of allied military medical research during World War II, especially in the field of aeromedicine; and the papers of Mason V. Hargett, rich in both visual content and scientific detail, which tell the story of the development of the yellow fever vaccine.
The National Library of Medicine (NLM), on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, has been a center of information innovation since its founding in 1836. The world’s largest biomedical library, NLM maintains and makes available a vast print collection and produces electronic information resources on a wide range of topics that are searched billions of times each year by millions of people around the globe. It also supports and conducts research, development, and training in biomedical informatics and health information technology. In addition, the Library coordinates a 6,000-member National Network of Libraries of Medicine that promotes and provides access to health information in communities across the United States.
Discover documents from the U.S. National Library of Medicine here.
Some of the highlights of the items digitised from The New York Academy of Medicine include manuals, government reports, printed books and periodicals relating to the treatment and rehabilitation of disabled veterans of the First World War, collected by Douglas McMurtrie and The Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men, during the period c.1915-1927.
Key themes include Disability, Rehabilitation and Mental Health, and titles include the
American Journal of Care for Cripples and
Carry On.
Module 2 features further material from the Academy’s collection, covering themes such as gas warfare, plastic surgery, psychology, tropical medicine, healthcare at sea, and medical services on the British and American Home Fronts. These are complimented by a series of memoirs and diaries including
A doctor's eyewitness account of Auschwitz, and the
Hiroshima diary of a Japanese physician.
Initially established as a medical collection for the use of physicians, the Library opened to the public in 1878. As a working professional library, the collection’s primary focus was first in contemporary medicine, but soon extended to rare and historical materials. The Library's current focus has shifted to building on its historical holdings, including current works in the history of medicine.
Discover documents from the New York Academy of Medicine here.
The Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds contains the main collections for the arts, social sciences and law as well as their Special Collections, which include the significant Liddle and Bamji Collections from which their contribution to
Medical Service and Warfare was drawn.
The Liddle Collection is an archive of material gathered from British veterans and their descendants, and the items selected for digitisation include a wealth of personal ephemera, diaries, memoirs and artefacts from the First World War (see the
Object Gallery).
The Bamji Collection is largely printed books concerned with military applications of medicine and nursing in the First and Second World Wars, of which this resource includes over 140 volumes.
Discover documents from the Special Collections, University of Leeds here.
Medical Services and Warfare features a broad range of documents digitised from the holdings of the US Heritage and Education Center's collections, held at Carlisle Barracks. These include the personal papers of Army Nurses, selections of photographs from both the US Army Signal Corps and personal collections, and transcripts of oral histories from the Army Nurse Corps Collection, in which veterans recall their service across the world - at Pearl Harbour, Bataan, Correigdor, D-Day and the Anzio Landings, also recounting daily life and their pre- and post- war experiences. Other highlights include a scrapbook and personal history compiled by Nurse Florence Hunter, the Pictorial and Narrative History of the 53rd General Hospital, and the personal photograph albums of Kathryn C. Singer (Boxes one and two), which record a thirty year career in military medicine.
Discover documents from the US Army Heritage and Education Center here.