Related Papers
A Tour of the Osler Library of the History of Medicine Through Jewish Eyes
Edward Reichman, Anna Dysert
This article is a virtual tour of the Osler Library of the History of Medicine at McGill University, highlighting items of Jewish interest. We hope that this exercise will give the reader an appreciation of a dimension of the Osler Library that has not previously been explored.
The Osler Library Newsletter
"On the Surface/Skin Deep: Opening Remarks"
2015 •
Shana Cooperstein
Osler Library Newsletter
Wilder Penfield, Helen Kermott-Penfield and Some of Their Experiences During WWII
2023 •
Frank Stahnisch
Eminent neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield (1891-1976), who was later nominated twice for the Nobel Prize, visited the clinical department for nervous and psychiatric diseases in Breslau, Germany for two lengthy research stays in 1928 and 1931 during the interwar period. These journeys were transformative for his own clinical and research investigations in Canada. At the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), for example, he organized the clinical and laboratory divisions around his central program on the cortical architecture of the human brain, while trying to create an interdisciplinary form of neurosurgical practice including areas from surgery, neurology, physiology, psychiatry, and neurorehabilitation (Stahnisch, A New Field in Mind, 30-34). At the MNI, Penfield and his associates created their vast and detailed research program on the cortical localization of brain functions which was investigated through electrically stimulating patients in neurosurgical intraoperative settings. Throughout the interwar period, he thus continued to view Germany in a favourable light, admired its medico-scientific institutions, and greatly revered his former mentor, Otfrid Foerster (1873-1941).
The Osler Library Newsletter
“‘West-Eastern Divan‘ – Penfield, the Breslau-Montreal Axis, and the Early Years of the Montreal Neurological Institute.“
2013 •
Frank Stahnisch
It is precisely this new development that forms the core of my research as a Nickerson Fellow in Neuro-History, namely to determine the theoretical, methodological, and pragmatic factors that were merged in creation of new and ground-breaking forms of research organization in the neurosciences. The methodological and practical differentiation of such programs was reflected and embedded in the architecture, organization, and function of neuroscientific inquiry in new centres of research. Centres such as the MNI were built to support the modern interdisciplinary approach of neuroscientific research as "Gemeinschaftsarbeiten", or collaborative research projects, and in response to greater social demands in Montreal, Breslau, and elsewhere in North America and Europe. My research will result in a new monograph entitled "The Making of a New Research Field: On the Pursuit of Interdisciplinarity in the German Neuromorphological Sciences, 1910-1945", which describes some of the deep transformations during the formative decades that led to the emergence of neuroscience as a new research field.
The Osler Library Newsletter, no. 128
“Contracting Habit in Nineteenth-Century French Medicine”
2018 •
Shana Cooperstein
Current Practice in Neurosciences
Current Practice in Neurosciences Food for thought
2020 •
Sunil Pandya
This essay suggests extracurrical books that medical students and residents may wish to add to their list of reading matter. Ths history of medicine, autobiography of a poet-physician, the classic Richard Gordon tale of doctors at St. Swithin's hospital, Osler's Aequanimitas and the wonder that lie beyond Conan Doyle's magic door are referred to.
Papers of The Bibliographical Society of Canada
Introduction to Special Issue on Casey Albert Wood
Victoria Dickenson
Shortly after his retirement from medical practice in 1920, Dr. Casey Albert Wood (1856–1942), a Canadian-born medical doctor, founded the Emma Shearer Wood Library of Ornithology and the Blacker Library of Zoology at McGill University. These libraries eventually merged to form the Blacker Wood Library of Ornithology and Zoology, which is now the Blacker Wood Natural History Collection. I first encountered this remarkable collection and its long-serving librarian Eleanor MacLean (1947–2018) in the early 1990s. For thirty years, until her retirement in 2011, MacLean had ensured that researchers had access to the treasures preserved in one of North America’s finest special collections for the study of natural history. MacLean was heir to a line of dedicated librarians going back to Gerhard Lomer (1882–1970) and Henry Mousley (1865–1949), both of whom worked with Casey Wood to build these libraries.
Canadian Bulletin of Medical History
A Student's Ode to Osler's Text Republished with Notes
1989 •
Faith Wallis
Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings
Caring Carefully: Sir William Osier on the Issue of Competence vs Compassion in Medicine
1999 •
Charles Bryan
Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association
Whatever happened to William Osler's library?
2006 •
David Crawford
Sir William Osler bequeathed his library to McGill University in 1919, and the 8000 volumes arrived in Montreal a decade later. Then, as now, the collection consisted of both primary works (rare books) and secondary commentaries, and current works on the history of the health sciences. In the last 80 years, the collection has grown considerably, and the library now adds about 1000 books each year, mainly current publications, and receives 200 current serial titles. The Osler Library, which is one of the largest "history of medicine" libraries in the world and the largest in Canada, tries to collect current material on the history of the health sciences from all over the world and attempts to collect all medical history published in Canada. The Osler offers its resources to researchers through its Web site, publications, and Research Travel Grant program.
