Join Steven Hartshorne, Curator Science, Technical and Medical Rare Books, The University of Manchester Library in the Map Room at the University of Manchester Library (main Oxford Road campus). The visit will last been 1 - 1.5 hours and numbers are limited. Places must be reserved in advance. Those booked onto the visit should gather in the foyer of the main University of Manchester Library at least 5 minutes before the visit is due to commence.
The visit will allow members to see up close items from the Library’s printed medical collections. The materials are largely drawn from the library of the Manchester Medical Society, which itself acquired the libraries of local hospitals, such as Manchester Royal Infirmary, St Mary’s Hospital for Women and Children and Macclesfield and Bolton Infirmaries in the early 20th century. The collections held at the University’s Main Library hold books from the 19th and early 20th centuries and have particular strengths in anatomy, public health, obstetrics and gynaecology, the latter subjects due to the benefactions of John Hull, Charles Clay, Thomas Radford, Charles Cullingworth and most recently Max Elstein. Notable items from these collections are John Snow’s and Henry Gaulter’s works on cholera, first editions of Bichat’s Anatomie Générale and Anatomie Déscriptive and George Spratt’s innovative Obstetric Tables.