NLM's historical collections of material related to health and disease are among the richest in the world and originate in all time periods and cultures.
Our collections include rare books and manuscripts, historical prints and photographs, and historical films and videos.
You can learn about these collections through NLM's award-winning exhibition program and through a variety of online resources, including NLM's Digital Collections, Profiles in Science®, Turning the Pages, Images from the History of Medicine, Medicine in the Americas, and web sites about a myriad of historical topics.
We invite you to explore our historical collections online and visit us on the NIH campus.
COMING SOON — Hidden Treasure, a book that reveals NLM’s historical treasures to the world. Opening with an essay that will explore the history of NLM, Hidden Treasure will feature canonical books as well as pamphlets, trading cards, diaries, glass “magic lantern” slides, news clippings, handbills, stereograph cards, scrapbooks, film-stills, water-colors, and posters. Each “treasure” will be accompanied by a one-page essay on a facing page, written by a scholar, artist or Library historian, sounding important themes in the history of medicine and print and the larger field of cultural studies.
Hidden Treasure will be full-color, hard-cover, high-quality art book, printed on coated stock. The text will be written for the college-educated non-specialist reader — although its creators hope that the book will also be enjoyed by middle and high school students, health professionals and advanced scholars.
