Thomas E. Keys

The Colonial Library and the Development of Sectional Differences in the American Colonies

N THE Colonial era geographical barriers and differences in religion, nationality, and traditions helped to create three distinct groups in the American colonies. On the map these original thirteen colonies were divided as follows: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut in the north; the beginnings of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, in the middle zone; and in the southern zone, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and the boundary states, Delaware and Maryland. It is the purpose of this study to discuss the development of sectional differences as represented in the private and semiprivate colonial libraries. Each group had its own personality, and the striking differences revealed in the libraries of the North and the South, for example, show the beginnings of the disastrous sectional cleavage which continued for the next hundred years. Before the time of the American public library movement several private libraries existed in local communities. In New England the Puritan ministers, who often exerted their influence in managing the local governments, built up rather large libraries which in many ways reflected the Puritan complex. In the colonies of New York and Pennyslvania the libraries were likewise the acquisitions of the community leaders. A glance at surviving records shows that the owners not only included the ministers and the local political leaders but with the advent of the subscription libraries, the growing mercantile and professional classes also. Here the library contents reveal the growth of a genuine democratic spirit. The owners of the libra-

The Earliest Medical Books Printed with Movable Type: A Review

O tNE important phase of medical history is that treating the development of the printed medical book. There are several fragmentary accounts recorded in the literature describing the main books in important collections, but, as far as the present writer is aware, no attempt has been made to bring together a descriptive account of the significant books printed during the several centuries. Sir William Osler, in the address that serves as an introduction to his remarkable contribution to the study of medical incunabula, discusses in some detail the medical books printed before 1481. Since I923, when Oslers contribution was published, many important medical incunabula have come to light, and it was thought advisable to take notice of these books and also to incorporate into this study the significant medical books published from 1481 until the close of the fifteenth century. Without important check lists and indexes to aid the student of medical history such bibliographic studies as this one would be most inadequate. The writer is much indebted to Dr. Arnold Klebs for the use of his painstakingly made check list containing more than 8So editions of medical books published in the fifteenth century.2 Dr. Klebss check list forms the basis for our study, although it has been necessary from time to time to refer to other sources. Special mention should be made of the following useful tools:

Libraries of Some Twentieth-Century American Bibliophilic Physicians

P ROGRESS in the medical sciences is dependent, more than is generally realized, upon past knowledge. The experience gained thereby has been accumulating through the centuries, and much of it has been preserved in private medical libraries. These libraries, for the most part, are eventually deeded to public and university collections, and in this way many important contributions are made available to the general fund of knowledge. The medical world, therefore, is indebted to physicians who collect books. Medical librarians, especially, are grateful to bibliophilic physicians who spend a considerable number of years and not inconsiderable funds in quest of significant books, to the enrichment of library collections. In this paper we shall describe some of the outstanding American medical collections and their collectors.