The Medical Library at Yale

The Yale Medical Library, 1941-1990

Yale Medical Library Rotunda

The interior of the Rotunda was a 50th reunion gift of Cushing's classmates from the Class of 1891, providing a large space to host exhibitions highlighting library collections and Yale medical community history. In 2019, with substantial funding from the Library Associates group, new exhibition cases replaced the original cases.

Frederick Kilgour, Director of the Yale Medical Library, 1948-1966

In 1948 Frederick G. Kilgour, later the founder of OCLC, became Librarian of the Yale Medical Library. Kilgour was not only at the forefront of library technology, he was also a devoted historian of medicine. The Historical Library and General Medical Library were from then on administered as a single unit. Administrative responsibility for the Yale Medical Library was transferred from the Medical School to the University Library. At this point, the Medical Library became an integral part of the Yale University Library. The medical journals from Sterling Memorial Library were transferred in 1942 and 130,000 volumes of monographs and pamphlets in 1949.

The Historical Library

The Historical Library houses the circulating medical history collections, while rare materials reside in a secure part of the Library.  Faculty from the Section of the History of Medicine also has offices throughout the space.

Madeline Earle Stanton (1898-1980),  Librarian of the Historical Library, 1941-1968

Madeline Stanton, a graduate of Smith College, was hired by Harvey Cushing, then at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, to be his secretary. She moved with Cushing to New Haven in 1933. After Cushing's death in 1939, she served for a decade as Secretary of the Historical Library under John F. Fulton, and from 1949 to 1968 as Librarian of the Historical Collections. She authored or co-authored several bibliographies, including a bibliography of early publications on anesthesia with John Fulton that is still a standard work.

Report of the Historical Library, 1947-48

Report of the Historical Library, 1947-48, announcing the appointment of Frederick Kilgour, who was to serve as Librarian until 1966, and the integration of the Medical Library into the University Library.

Founding of the Associates of the Yale Medical Library, 1948

This brochure announces the founding of the Library Associates, a friends group that has continued to provide support to the Library. The Associates sponsor an annual meeting and distinguished lecturer each Spring.

Library Brochure, 1956

This brochure of 1956 shows the plan of the Library as it was then. The long corridor featured in the cover design originally had medical school offices. The library began at the rotunda and the circulation desk was located just beyond the rotunda. 

Stanley Truelson, Jr., Director of the Medical Library, 1966-1976

With Stanley Truelson in this photograph is Lucia Fulton, widow of John F. Fulton.

First Public Health Library

The Department of Public Health (later part of Epidemiology and Public Health) established its own library, initially located at 310 Cedar Street. Ruth Herrington, librarian, is seen in this picture taken in 1945. In 1978, the library was renamed the Ira V. Hiscock Library, in honor of the former Chairman and Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health.

Periodical Room, 1960s

The periodical room was the main reading room of the Medical Library before the renovation and the creation of the Information Room, now the Information Commons.

Yale Medical Library User's Guide, 1972

A major task of medical reference librarians at this time was to perform bibliographical searches on MEDLINE (the index to medical literature) for faculty and students.

Ira Vaughan Hiscock Library

The Hiscock Library, as shown in these two photographs, was located in the Epidemiology and Public Health building at 60 College Street, designed by architect Phillip Johnson in the 1960s. Hiscock was chairman of the department or school of public health from 1945 to 1960. After 1960, the department was renamed Epidemiology and Public Health (EPH).

Need for Expansion and Renovation, 1981

The photographs in this 1981 Yale Medicine article on the Library explain why an expansion and renovation of the Medical Library was desperately needed. By 1981, the Library had run out of space for books and journals. Some had to be stored offsite in a medical school basement. There was too little space for patrons to work. In addition, two major technological innovations since the founding of the Library had changed the way patrons used the Library: photocopying and electronic bibliographic searching. The configuration of space meant that patrons had to go a long distance from the journal stacks to the photocopy machines and staff had to haul journals a long distance for reshelving. Since the databases were not user friendly and charging was by time, databases had to be searched for patrons by librarians who had memorized the codes of the interface. Additional librarians and space for them to work were needed to cope with the electronic resources and the ever-expanding flood of medical information.

Rededication of the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, June 7, 1990

In the late 1980s, Betsy Cushing Whitney, daughter of Harvey Cushing (Yale 1891) and widow of John Hay Whitney (Yale 1926) donated 8 million dollars to enlarge and refurbish the Medical Library. Space for the collections was approximately doubled and the beautiful sky-lit Information Room was added to the main floor.

Rededication Invitation, 1990

Morse Periodical Reading Room

Formally the main reading room of the Library, the Morse Periodical Reading Room, dedicated in 1990 from a gift of Mrs. Belle Morse in honor of her husband, Carl A. Morse '25s and their son, Stephen I. Morse '51, M.D., is now the Library’s premier quiet space.