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History of Science & Medicine

General History of Science Sites | Natural Sciences | Physical Sciences | Evolution | Medical History | Psychology | History of Technology

General History of Science Sites

• ECHO: Exploring & Collecting History Online
  Site maintained by Geoge Mason University that "provides a centralized guide for those looking for the scattered Web sites on the history of science and technology."
• Internet History of Science Sourcebook
  A subset dealing with the history of science derived from Paul Halsall's internet sourcebook series, a "world wide web project designed to provide easy access to primary sources and other teaching materials in a non-commercial environment."
• MedHist
  Comprehensive collection of links dealing with the history of medicine. Also see the History of Biomedicine site from the Karolinska Institute.

Natural Sciences

• Curtis Botanical Magazine
  Collection from the National Agricultural Library (NAL) of more than 1,000 botanical images originally published in Botanical Magazine between 1787 and 1807. Also see the NAL's other collections of drawings and material.
• The Linnean Correspondence
  This site includes a selection of Carl Linnaeus' correspondence dating from 1735 to 1772 , a biography and bibiliography.
• Linus Pauling and the Race for DNA: A Documentary History
  Documents, images, audio and video clips documenting the discovery of the structure of DNA. Also see the Linus Pauling Research Notebooks.
• MendelWeb
  MendelWeb is an educational resource for teachers and students interested in the origins of classical genetics, introductory data analysis, elementary plant science, and the history and literature of science.
• New Madrid Compendium
  Newspaper, scientific and eyewitness accounts of the earthquakes of 1811-1812 that struck the Mississippi valley.
• Papers of Sir Joseph Banks
  "Digital reproductions and transcripts of those papers of Sir Joseph Banks which are held at the State Library of New South Wales, These amount to approximately 10,000 manuscript pages.
• Surveyors of the American West
  Collection of New York Public Library presents the journals and photographs of two 19th century surveyors of the West, William Henry Jackson and Robert Brewster Stanton.

Physical Sciences

• Alchemy Web Site and Virtual Library
  Comprehensive site dealing with alchemy "providing tens of thousands of pages of text, over 1700 images, over 200 complete alchemical texts, extensive bibliographical material on the printed books and manuscripts, numerous articles, introductory and general reference material on alchemy."
• Atomic Archive
  Collection of documents, images and other material dealing with history of the invention of the atomic bomb. Also see Leo Szilard Home Page and Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb.
• Caltech Archives PhotoNet
  Searchable collection of more than 5,000 digitized photographs from the collection of the California Institute of Technology.
• Correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot
  Transcriptions of nearly 10,000 letters to and from Talbot, early developer of photography.
• Edgar Fahs Smith Collection
  Images of scientists and instruments in the field of chemistry.
• Einstein Archives Online
  Collection of approximately 3000 digitized images of Einstein's scientific and non-scientific writings plus an archival database of additional Einstein material. Also see the American Institute of Physics exhibit Einstein: Image and Impact, Albert Einstein Online and FBI documents regarding Albert Einstein.
• Emilio Segre Visual Archives
  Collection of more than 25,000 photographs and other images of scientists provided by the Center for the History of Physics.
• Galileo Project
  "The Galileo Project is a hypertext source of information on the life and work of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and the science of his time."
• Portsmouth and Macclesfield Collections
  Cambridge University collection of that documents "Isaac Newton's writings and ideas, in letters and manuscripts, on gravitation, calculus, the Principia mathematica, optics, chemistry, comets and other subjects."
• Selected Classic Papers from the History of Chemistry
  Collection of transcribed chemical papers dating from primarily from the 18th to early 20th century. Includes works by Priestly, Dalton and Curie.
• T Epact: Scientific Instuments of Medieval and Renaissance Europe
  Online version of an exhibit displayed at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford. Also see other exhibits at the museum.
• Three Mile Island 1979 Emergency
  Dickinson College collection includes interviews, newspaper clippings, government documents and other media dealing with the 1979 emergency.

Evolution

• The Alfred Russel Wallace Page
  Page dedicated to Wallace with biography, chronology, an extensive collection of Wallace's works and a comprehensive bibliography. Also see the Natural History Museum's digitized collection of Wallace material.
• The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online
  Publications, manuscripts and ancillary materials by and about Darwin. Also see the Darwin Correspondence Project, Darwin Digital Library and Darwin's Metaphor: Nature's Place in Victorian Culture.
• A History of Evolutionary Thought
  Collection of concise biographies of thinkers and scientists who have contributed to evolution from the Museum of Paleontology at UC Berkeley.
• Paper Dinosaurs
  Exhibit of 136 images of original printed materials related to the history of dinosaur discovery provided by the Linda Hall Library.
• Piltdown Plot
  Collection of primary and secondary articles dealing with the Piltdown hoax.

Medical History

• The Ascelpion
  "World Wide Web page devoted to the study of ancient medicine" created by Professor Nancy Demand at Indiana University Bloomington.
• Bibliotheque Interuniversitaire de Medecine, Paris
  The BIUM has digitized historic medical texts such as early printed editions of Hippocrates plus 153 19th century dissertations.
• Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics
  Harvard collection of "digitized copies of books, serials, pamphlets, incunabula, and manuscripts" dealing 8 notable epidemics ranging from London's Great Plague of 1665 to tropical diseases during the building of the Panama Canal in 1918.
• Digital Clendening
  University of Kansas Medical Center digital collections includes posters, photographs and a selection of Florence Nightingale letters.
• Disability History Museum Library
  This archive contains "digital versions of images, texts, and other artifacts related to disability history" dating back to the 18th century.
• The Discovery and Early Development of Insulin
  Exhibit and collection at the University of Toronto provides news clippings, medical articles and images.
• History of Phrenology on the Web
  Site created by a graduate student at Cambridge which includes a explanation of phrenology, chronology, images, primary sources and a bibliography.
• Human Radiation Experiments
  Collection of Department of Energy material dealing with radiation experiments during the Cold War. Included are photographs, documents and oral histories.
• Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement
  Searchable collection of more than 1,200 images (including photographs, documents and news clippings) from the DNA Learning Center at Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory. Also includes an extensive exhibit. Materials date from 1910-1940.
• In Their Own Words... NIH Researchers Recall the Early Years of AIDS
  Collection of oral histories, documents and images depicting early research into AIDS. Also see the New York Times special on AIDS at 20, the CDC's page, 20 Years of AIDS and UCLA's collection of worldwide AIDS posters.
• John Snow Site
  Site focusing on epidemiological pioneer, John Snow, who tracked down the cause of London's cholera epidemic of 1854. The site uses maps, texts and images "that enable users to dig deeply into Snow's background, pursue the facts surrounding his investigation of the 1854 epidemic and locate key sites on a detailed period map of London."
• League of Nations Malaria Documents
  World Health Organization collection of 282 documents from the Malaria Commission published between 1924 and 1932. Also see WHO's collection of digitized rare books on the plague, smallpox and epidemiology.
• Medicine and Madison Avenue
  "This website explores the complex relationships between modern medicine and modern advertising" through 600 health-related newspaper and magazine advertisements published from the 1910s through the 1950s.
• National Library of Medicine Exhibits
  NLM exhibits covering subjects such as Historical Anatomies on the Web, Visual Culture and Public Health Posters and Images From the History of the Public Health Service.
• Northampton Lunatic Hospital Reports
  Annual reports from the Massachusett's hospital from 1856 through 1939.
• Philip S. Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection
  Online archive of over 5,000 items comprised of "correspondence, notes, reports, printed materials, photographs, negatives, and artifacts" detailing the work of the U. S. Army Yellow Fever Commission with yellow fever.
• Profiles in Science
  Selected papers with accompanying exhibits of prominent 20th century biomedical scientists provided by the National Library of Medicine. Digitized collections include those of Barbara McClintock, Oswald Avery and Marshall Nirenberg.
• Women Physicians: 1850s-1970s
  Digital collection of materials illustrating the history of women in medicine.

Psychology

• The Mead Project: Foundational Documents in Sociological Social Psychology
  Collection of writings of George Herbert Mead and other psychologists such as Dewey and James. Also see Classics in the History of Psychology and the History of Psychology.
• Sigmund Freud: Conflict & Culture
  Library of Congress exhibition on Sigmund Freud includes photographs and selected documents. Also see Freud Museum.

History of Technology

• Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers
  Collection of more than 1400 items "consisting of correspondence, scientific notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles, and photographs documenting Bell's invention of the telephone and his involvement in the first telephone company, his family life, his interest in the education of the deaf, and his aeronautical and other scientific research." Part of American Memory. See also Alexander Graham Bell's Path to the Telephone.
• Computer Museum History Center
  This museum site includes a timeline and online exhibits such as the History of the Internet, 1962-1992.
• Department of Transportation Documents
  Collection includes historic investigation reports of railroad and aviation accidents and papers of H.S. Fairbank and others involved in the creation of the interstate highway system.
• John W. Mauchly and the Development of the ENIAC Computer
  Exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania includes narrative with photographs and documents.
• Making the Macintosh
  This site "is principally an effort at documentation. Its electronic archive consists of material from collections at Stanford, and newly-published material from the private collections of people involved in the history of the Macintosh."
• Samuel F.B. Morse Papers
  Collection of Morse papers at the Library of Congress documents the "invention of the electromagnetic telegraph, his participation in the development of telegraph systems in the United States and abroad" and other topics.
• Space History
  History of the U.S. space program created and maintained by NASA. Also see the NASA Historical Archive for Manned Missions.
• Steam & Electric Locomotives of the New Haven Railroad Digital Collection
  Collection of 460 images of "railroad locomotives and scenes associated with the New Haven Railroad."
• Taking the Wheel: Manufacturers' Catalogs from the First Decade of American Automobiles
  New York Public Library collection of catalogs from 1909.
• Thomas A. Edison Papers
  Searchable database of Edison papers with links to selected documents. Also see Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies.
• The Transport Archive
  Thousand of images that detail the history of transportation in Britain from the 18th century to the present.
• Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers
  Library of Congress collection of "correspondence, diaries and notebooks, scrapbooks, drawings, printed matter, and other documents, as well as the Wrights' collection of glass-plate photographic negatives."

Image: Detail from Da Vinci anatomical drawing.