250 Years of American Medicine, a new NLM History of Medicine digital gallery

Posted by Carolyn Martin on July 23rd, 2026 Posted in: Consumer Health, Education, News from NLM
Tags: consumer health, History of Medicine, NLM History of Medicine

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You may already be familiar with some of essential resources of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) such as PubMed and MedlinePlus. NLM’s History of Medicine is another important resource. It is home to an amazing collection, both physical and digital, focusing on health and disease.

The NLM History of Medicine has a growing collection of over 28 million items that span ten centuries and originate from almost every part of the world. They collect, preserve, make available, and interpret this collection for a variety of audiences. Some of you may have visited or even hosted one or more of their popular exhibitions that traveled around the country such as Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness or Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine in Harry Potter’s World.

Announced earlier this month, NLM History of Medicine unveiled its most recent project, 250 Years of American Medicine. This digital gallery includes a variety of materials that include manuscripts, audiovisuals, images, texts, and born-digital objects. This collection is made up of one item that was published or created in the United States for each year since 1776 to reflect how medicine has changed in the United States over the last 250 years.

The 250 Years of American Medicine is expertly organized for easy viewing. You can choose to simply view each of the items one by one from the home webpage or you can view by clicking on “Choosing a Theme”. Three columns of categories appear:

• Ranges of years, e.g. 1776-1826
• Medical topics, e.g. Anatomy and Surgery
• Formats, e.g. Audiovisuals

Clicking on each will direct you to “View Images in This Theme”

From there, you can click on an image and then you can choose to go to the NLM Digital Collections to learn more about the image.

Medical librarians may find these three items of interest regarding resources developed by the National Library of Medicine:

• “HowTo” for GRATEFUL MED Version 4.0 Software, Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, Bethesda, MD: National Library of Medicine (NLM), 1989
• MEDLARS: The World of Medicine at Your Fingertips, National Library of Medicine (NLM), Bethesda, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1986
• Medical Questions: MEDLINE Has Answers, National Library of Medicine (NLM), Bethesda, MD, 1996

Other items of interest include:

• Virginia Apgar Demonstrating the Apgar Score (Photoprint), 1959
• Polar Guide, U.S. Air Force, Shreveport, LA: Air Training Command, 1948
• Medicine as a Profession for Women, Elizabeth Blackwell, New York, NY: Trustees of the New York Infirmary for Women, 1860

250 Years of American Medicine is an amazing visual experience of the first 250 years of U.S. American medicine and showcases the importance of preserving these historical items that inform, educate, and connect us to our past and help shape our future. We hope you enjoy learning about our country’s medical history.