Digital Connections: Old Bailey Online

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The Old Bailey Online may not seem like the most obvious resource for researchers interested in the history of medicine. According to the project’s mission statement, it “…makes available a fully searchable, digitised collection of all surviving editions of the Old Bailey Proceedings from 1674 to 1913, and of the Ordinary of Newgate’s [prison chaplain] Accounts between 1676 and 1772. It allows access to over 197,000 trials and biographical details of approximately 2,500 men and women executed at Tyburn, free… Continue reading

Digital Highlights: Shut your mouth and save your life

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Among the collection of works on hygiene and general health that the Francis A. Countway Medical Library has submitted to the Medical Heritage Library, one finds an eclectic mixture of theory and practice advocating everything from the reformation of cemetery burial to the donning of proper footwear; from water cures to treatment of diseases attendant to sedentary office life in the early 19th century. Through a simple subject search one can peer directly into a world where publishers and authors were… Continue reading

Blog Redesign in Progress!

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As you may have noticed if you visit our website regularly, we’ve made some changes to the look of the place. At the minute, we’re still trying to get all the rough edges smoothed out: testing out color schemes, arrangement of widgets, and so forth. We appreciate your patience while we work through to our final design choices — and if you see something you love or something you hate, please, tell us in the comments!… Continue reading

Digital Highlights: “I Do Believe in Spooks!”

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John Harris’ Inferences from Haunted Houses and Haunted Men is a great read as we look forward to the Halloween season. Harris’ work is best approached in a kind of smorgasbord state of mind: there is no single through-line argument, rather Harris has assembled a collection of anecdotes and evidence to discuss psychic phenomena of one kind or another including hypnotism, thought transference, and hauntings. Continue reading

MHL at two million images: a behind-the-scenes look at the project

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This month, the Center for the History of Medicine contributed its two-millionth page-image to the Medical Heritage Library. That number translates into almost 6,000 volumes that have been digitized in their entirety (and downloaded over 90,000 times), or nearly two-thirds of our forecast total contributions to the project. Those who are interested in the process of library digitization might also be interested to learn more about what those statistics mean in terms of logistics and… Continue reading