Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions

The Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions is a local, state, national, and international resource of books, journals, archives, photographs, and medical artifacts for the history of the health professions in Cincinnati and the history of the health professions in general. The Center (formerly the Cincinnati Medical Heritage Center) was organized in 1974 and moved into 121 Wherry Hall in 1978. In Fall 2008, the Center moved into the Medical Sciences Building with new offices and the Stanley J. Lucas, MD, Board Room. Although most of the archives, primary materials, photographs, and artifacts remain in the Wherry Hall Location (G17), these materials will be moved to the Medical Sciences Building location when renovation is complete.

The University of Cincinnati's 183 year history was formed by the mission and vision of Dr. Daniel Drake when he began a program of formal medical education over a drug store in Cincinnati. It was Drake who founded the Medical College of Ohio (the tenth oldest medical college in the country) and the Cincinnati College in 1819 and the Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum in 1821. Drake's love of libraries and museums led him to open the first public library in Cincinnati and continued through the establishment of libraries and museums in the above institutions.

Ultimately, these library collections and collections of physicians and faculty formed the basis of the rare and classical works in the history of the health sciences, a working medical library of the 19th Century including the sectarian views and teachings, medical artifacts, medical instruments, manuscripts, archives, photographs and the exhibit of a replica of a 15th Century Pharmacy, which was first shown at the Paris Exposition in 1899. All the collections have been donated by people with a vision of the preservation of medical history.

The library houses over 35,000 rare and classical works in the history of the health sciences dating from 1500 to 1920 and a modern circulating history of medicine collection. A collection of over 2,000 medical artifacts ranging from Civil War field surgery kits, a gold IUD, busts and paintings of past faculty, and an iron lung are part of displays in the Center. A grant was awarded to the seven Ohio Medical Historical Collections to catalog and organize the medical instruments as one would a book. You will find these instruments in the on-line catalog UCLID/OHIOLINK. There is an excellent photograph collection from the 1890s to date representing medicine as it was practice in the late 19th century to the most modern technology of today's scientists. Class photos and photos of individual faculty members from Dr. Daniel Drake to Dr. Albert Sabin are also available.

Researchers in the history of medicine utilize the resources of the Center for primary documentation. The most noted archives are the Daniel Drake manuscripts, the Albert B.Sabin papers, research materials, medals, awards and honors, the Robert A. Kehoe studies in lead and all of his research materials from the early 30's to the mid-1970s and the papers of William Altemeier, Charles Aring, Benjamin Felson, etc. Over sixty-four archival collections are available including the Cincinnati Obstetric and Gynecology Society minutes and papers, local hospital archives from Jewish Hospital, the now defunct Seton and Dunham Hospitals and University Hospital patient indexes from 1837-1977.

The services of the Winkler Center include expert reference assistance in such topics as:

• history of the development of medical schools in Cincinnati (twenty-three in the 19th Century);
• an oral history videotape series of famous local physicians and scientists;
• the development of hospitals in Cincinnati;
• access to the Cincinnati Hospital patient records, 1837- 1881;
• assistance in the history of medicine by subject, person or organization;
• assistance with research in the history of medicine for scholars, news and television media, authors, students and faculty;
• the medical alumni records are used to answer questions of past physicians and their training and further research is provided if the physician was not a UC graduate;
• expert on-line searching is available.

As we enter the 21st Century, it is the goal of the Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions staff to collect, preserve, and disseminate the history of the University Medical Center and the health professions in Cincinnati in all formats. We strive to meet the challenge as stated by Daniel Drake in his "Discourse" before the Cincinnati Medical Library Association in 1851, "carry forward the noble work which they began--make it better than you found it, and then hand it on to posterity."