Items

Title: Are Clean Milk Producers Benefited?
Description: "Milk is no longer 'Just Milk," states this leaflet. Reproducing an excerpt form "The Milk Reporter," the case is made that the highest quality of milk will recieve the highest level of montary gain, benefiting clean milk producers. Grades for milk (A, B, C) and the equivalent price set for each, are also included.
Subjects (LC): Milk hygiene, Dairying, Milk--Grading
ID: mk1e004
Geographic Subject: New York. New York City.
Collection: New York Milk Committee Ephemera Collection

Title: Babies' Pure Milk Station
Description: Form 10,000 5-11, 8-11, a blank form printed in English for recording individualized milk formulas for infants receiving aid from the New York Milk Committee's Babies' Pure Milk Stations. Ingredients to be used include milk top; whole milk; lime water; milk sugar; boiled water; barley water; and oatmeal water. Space for the prescription of formula and for the establishment of a feeding schedule is also provided.
Subjects (LC): Milk, Infants, Bottle feeding
ID: mk1e017
Geographic Subject: New York. New York City.
Collection: New York Milk Committee Ephemera Collection

Title: A collection of choise receipts : manuscript, circa 1680-1700
Description: Late 17th-centrury English manuscript divided into two parts: "A Collection of Choise Receipts" and "A Book of Physical Receipts." The first part of the manuscript contains approximately 390 recipes on 254 numbered pages. Of the recipes in the first part approximately 204 are culinary and approximately 175 are for medicines, perfumes, sweet bags, cosmetics, and household cleaners. A large portion of the culinary recipes concern banqueting, particularly fruit preserving; wines, liqueurs, non-medicinal waters, and syrups; and cakes and biscuits. Dinner and supper recipes, such as puddings, meat, poultry, and fish, are also well represented. The second part contains approximately 781 medicinal recipes on 214 numbered pages. Various diseases and conditions such as ague, bleeding, consumption, colic, dropsy, fits, fever, plague, pox, and stone are mentioned. Both parts are followed by indexes. The entire manuscript is written in one very legible hand, possibly that of a professional scribe. The characters "J H" appear frequently in the first part of the manuscript. Many of the recipes are attributed, some to nobility.
Subjects (LC): Cooking, English -- Early works to 1800, Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions -- Early works to 1800, Traditional medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions, Manuscripts, English -- 17th century

Title: Information Cards

Title: From Basilisks to Bezoars: The Surprising History of Harry Potter’s Magical World
Description: This collection celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the publication of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by showcasing rare books and objects dating back to the fifteenth century that reveal the history behind many of the creatures, plants and other magical elements that appear in the Harry Potter series—from mandrakes to basilisks to Nicholas Flamel and the philosopher’s stone itself. The collection is organized as a fictional study aid for Hogwarts students preparing for their important wizardry exams, the O.W.L.s, with content relating to seven Hogwarts courses.
Disclaimer: This exhibition is not licensed or endorsed by Warner Bros. or J.K. Rowling.

Title

Facendo Il Libro: The Making of Fasciculus Medicinae, an Early Printed Anatomy

Description

The collection includes five editions of the Fasciculus Medicinae printed between the years of 1495 and 1522. The Fasciculus medicinae—literally, the “little bundle of medicine”—is a small group of independently-authored medical treatises and illustrations first printed in 1491. Remarkable as one of the earliest illustrated medical books to be printed, the Fasciculus was reprinted in dozens of different editions and translated into the major European vernacular languages into the 1520s. The Fasciculus also serves as an important witness to a dynamic period of change, reflecting both medieval medical ideas and new advances spurred by the humanistic surge associated with the Renaissance. This is perhaps best illustrated by the inclusion of the first printed scene of human dissection, an indication of the growing importance of empirical investigations of the interior. The images attached to the Fasciculus are a blend of diagrams copied from medieval manuscripts alongside newer, narrative-based scenes demonstrating the modern taste for classical styles in figures and interiors.

EXPLORE OUR NEW ONLINE EXHIBIT TO LEARN MORE →

This digital collection was made possible by generous support from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Title

William S. Ladd Collection of Prints

Description

The William S. Ladd Collection of Prints consists of 671 prints, primarily portraits, dating from the 17th century through the early 19th century. In 1975, the Academy accepted the Ladd Collection as a gift from the Cornell University Medical College. William S. Ladd, the original donor, had been Dean of the Medical College and when his significant collection of prints came into the Medical College Library, Erich Meyerhoff, the Librarian, recognized its research value and the fact that such a collection properly belonged in a major research library. With the permission of the Dean of the Cornell University Medical College and the donor’s son, Dr. Anthony T. Ladd, Eric Meyerhoff offered the collection to the Academy. It was accepted and arrived in the Malloch Rare Book Room (now the Drs. Barry and Bobbi Coller Rare Book Reading Room) in May of 1975.

The prints themselves had been accumulated in the first half of the 20th century by William S. Ladd. He had purchased a great many of them as deaccessioned duplicates from the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Primarily portraits of significant and lesser known figures in medicine and science, the prints span a period from the early 17th century to the first half of the 19th century. The printing processes used to render the various images include etching, engraving, stipple, mezzotint, and lithography. Among the etchers, engravers, artists and lithographers are some very famous names, a history in fact of English and Continental art and printmaking, with a smattering of American efforts among the lot. For example, the portrait of John Syng Dorsey (1783-1818), a little known American surgeon who rated a footnote in Fielding Garrison’s An Introduction To The History Of Medicine, is an engraving after a painting by Thomas Sully (1783-1872). Sully, who had studied with Gilbert Stuart and Benjamin West, is best known for his famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware. The portrait of Charles Lucas (1713-1792), an Irish physician who did not even get a footnote in Garrison’s work, was engraved by James McArdell after a painting by Joshua Reynolds. James McArdell was an engraver who specialized in mezzotints. ...READ MORE

The New York Academy of Medicine Library and the William S. Ladd Collection of Prints digitization was supported in part by funds from the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) through the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program.

Ladd, William S. The William S. Ladd Collection of Prints, ca. 1600 to ca. 1850.

Title: New York Milk Committee Ephemera Collection
Description: The New York Milk Committee Ephemera Collection contains materials issued between 1910 and 1917 or 1918 by the New York Milk Committee and its Committee for the Reduction of Infant Mortality, dealing with their work in the Blue Front milk stations in New York City where they distributed milk and educated mothers.
New York Milk Committee. New York Milk Committee Ephemera Collection, New York, 1910-1918.

Title: Gemel book of recipes : autograph manuscript signed, circa 1660-1700
Description: This English manuscript contains approximately 91 culinary recipes, as well as a few household and medical recipes. Most of the recipes are for dishes commonly served at banquets, with approximately 55 of the 91 culinary recipes being fruit preserves and similar conceits.
Subjects (LC): Manuscripts, English -- 17th century, Cooking, English

Title: Approved receipts in physick : manuscript, circa 1650-1700
Description: Manuscript recipe book consisting of mostly medical formulas, as well as some culinary recipes and a few alchemical preparations. Predominately in two unidentified hands. There are approximately 480 medical recipes (467 numbered) and 21 culinary recipes. Includes remedies for sores, burns, wounds, ailments of the eyes, complexion, "greene sickness," colds, coughs, and more. Most of the recipes are unattributed, but there are a few exceptions, including a receipt for "Sr Walter Rawley's great cordiall". Culinary recipes include syrups, wines, meats, pickles, preserves, and waffles. The book was probably compiled in the second half of the 17th century.
Subjects (LC): Cooking, English, Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions -- Early works to 1800, Traditional medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions, Cooking, English, Manuscripts, English -- 17th century

Title: Recipe book : manuscript, 1700s
Description: This manuscript consists of 113 medical receipts and 178 culinary recipes. The culinary and medical recipes are in different sections, written from opposite ends of the book, and both sections start with numbered indexes. The medical receipts include plasters, waters, salves, purges, and other preparations for the treatment of green sickness, burns, worms, palsy, dropsy, stones, women's complaints, and other ailments. Of the culinary recipes, approximately 100 are banqueting or dessert dishes and wines. Fruit preserving, sweet wines, puddings, pickled dishes, small breads, pancakes, and fritters are well represented. The remaining culinary recipes include dinner and supper dishes, beer, mead, possets, and caudles. Three hands are evident.
Subjects (LC): Cooking, English, Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions -- Early works to 1800, Traditional medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions, Cooking, English, Manuscripts, English -- 18th century

Title

The byrth of Mankynde newly translated out of Laten into Englyshe

Description

The Byrth of Mankynde, published in 1540, is the oldest manual for midwives printed in the English language. It remained in use both as a guidebook for midwives and as a source for physicians in the practice of obstetrics throughout Europe for the next two hundred years. The 1540 Byrth was a translation from the Latin edition of De Partu Hominis of Eucharius Rösslin’s Rosengarten. Rösslin was charged with supervising the midwives of Frankfurt, and although this volume contains sound instruction on delivery procedures, it did not break new ground in the field of obstetrics. Instead, it makes available the teachings of the Roman physician Soranus, popularized by Moschion, author of a 6th century question – and –answer book for Roman midwives. Other influences include Galen, Hippocrates, Aetius, Magnus and others. The volume’s seventeen copper-engraved plates were among the first in England to be produced by a roller press. The first illustrates “the Womans Stwle,” or birth chair, a birth aid which had been in use at least since Soranus’ time. Sixteen additional plates depict “Byrth Figures” in various positions in utero. The babies in these images, who resemble children age three or four and not fetuses, float dreamily in light-bulb-shaped vessels.

READ MORE→

Subjects (LC)

Abnormalities, Human, Conception, Early works to 1800, Gynecology, Medicine, Midwifery, Obstetrics, Reproduction, Sex instruction, Sexual behavior

Title

Here biginneth the inventorie or the collectorye in cirurgicale parte of medicene compiled and complete in the yere of oure Lord

Description

An illuminated and illustrated manuscript of the Chirurgia magna, or great surgery, by Guy de Chauliac. Attempting in the Chirurgia to collect the best medical ideas of his time, he compiled sources from Arabic and Greek writers, including Rhazes, Avicenna, Hippocrates, Aristotle and others. Guy wrote the first text of the Chirurgia in Latin at Montpellier, in approximately 1363. This text was published in many editions and remained the authoritative text on surgery through the seventeenth century. It consists of 181 pages of English black letter in double columns and lines lightly ruled in red. It is ornately illuminated in gold and silver with finely decorated floral borders and large floriated initials, heightened with gold leaf. The manuscript includes 24 drawings of surgical instruments. The calf binding dates to Henry VIII’s reign or to the Elizabethan era. The original brass and leather clasps are engraved with stars and lion heads. There has been dispute about the manuscript’s date, with authorities dating it between the late 14th and second half of the 15th century. The manuscript was sold with the Streeter collection to the New York Academy of Medicine in 1928.

READ MORE→

Subjects (LC)

Early works to 1800, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Manuscripts, Medical illustration, Medicine, Medicine—History, Medicine, Medieval, Surgery—History, Surgical instruments and apparatus

Title

Engravings of the Arteries

Description

This early work by the Scottish anatomist Charles Bell was composed for medical students and aimed to offer accurately and simply-rendered illustrations of the arteries. It was used as a preparatory text for surgical study and practice. The ten engravings in this volume were hand-colored, and labelled with letters corresponding to explanatory descriptions of the arteries on the opposite page. Bell was an accomplished medical illustrator; the engravings were done by Thomas Medland after Bell’s drawings. For Bell, true anatomical understanding was aided in pairing accurate drawing with thorough description. Bell believed that a variety of bodies should be used as subjects, and that the artist must choose the most typical anatomical examples to copy accurately. Bell made important inroads in determining the sensory functions of the nervous system, and was an early advocate of the idea that different parts of the brain controlled different functions; his pioneering work on the brain and cranial nerves influenced the work of other important brain researchers for decades. Chief among his achievements are his very fine medical illustrations, unsurpassed in terms of efficiency of presentation and elegance. These are very much on display in this beautiful book.

READ MORE→

Subjects (LC)

Anatomy, Arteries, Arteries—Surgery, Atlases, Engraving, Medical illustration, Medicine, Nervous system, Surgery, Surgery—History

Title

An Abstract of the Patent Granted by His Majesty King George…

Description

Patent medicines originated in England in the mid 17th century and were marketed with extravagant claims, offering cures for a host of maladies. Recommendations for dosage were vague, and ingredients (often including opium) were usually not specified. In 1726 Benjamin Okell was granted the royal patent for Dr. Bateman’s Pectoral Drops, a tincture of gambir (an astringent extract from an Asian plant) and opium. Advertisements published in the London Mercury as early as 1721 directed prospective customers to the warehouse and printing shop at Bow's Churchyard, where they could purchase the drops for one shilling. Our copy of the 1731 reprint by Peter Zenger is likely the first piece of medical printing in New York. Zenger, who would later become famous for printing seditious texts, was instrumental in establishing freedom of the press in America. The Academy has the only known copy. Bound with our copy of the abstract is a copy of A Short treatise of the virtues of Dr. Bateman's Pectoral Drops, also issued by Okell and his printing house partners. Here, Batemans efficacy as a treatment for numerous ailments are described in sections dedicated to each. The last section of the treatise offers testimonials from satisfied customers.

READ MORE→

Subjects (LC)