Wangensteen Historical Library
Visit
The Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine collections contain materials and objects that broadly represent health, medicine, and biological sciences from 1430 to 1945.
Prepare for your visit
Materials from the Wangensteen Historical Library are available by appointment.
Reference consultations
Meet with curators to locate materials for your research topic.
Course support
Collaborate with curators to support student learning and student interactions with texts, historical images, manuscripts, and objects.
Engagement and outreach
Partner with the library to create or enhance conversations about the history of health, medicine, and biological sciences through exhibits, lectures, and material loans.
Fund your research
Learn more about travel grants that support in-depth research drawing on the library’s holdings and staff expertise.
About Owen Wangensteen
In the 1960s, Dr. Owen H. Wangensteen, distinguished surgeon, became the force behind the creation of the library that bears his name.
Collections
Rare books and manuscripts
Search our collection of 73,000 print materials from 1430 to 1945, with strengths in anatomy, women’s health, surgery, natural history, and pharmacy.
Digitized collections
The digitized collections of the Wangensteen Historical Library are freely available online. They cover a broad range of topics from East Asian History to Clara Barton’s diaries.
Artifacts
Our artifact collection contains 8,000 objects, including pharmaceutical, medical and surgical equipment, instruments, and products.
Featured content
Disembodied Reembodied
Our collaborative exhibit with artist-in-residence Jenny Schmid is on display October 24, 2024 - February 28, 2025. Learn more through interactive online content and an article about the project.
POP UP: Secret Knowledge (Feb. 13, 12-2:30)
Join the Wangensteen Historical Library, the Center for Premodern Studies, and the Oakeshott Institute for a pop up event on secret knowledge, medieval alchemy, and the intersection of science and magic.
POP UP: Global Exchange and Visual Culture (Feb. 27, 11:30-1)
Explore the Wangensteen’s new Chinese, Japanese, and Korean acquisitions at this casual, open house-style pop up exhibit!
Exhibits and events
Disembodied Reembodied
This exhibit addresses medical depictions of women's bodies in the collection and is a collaborative project between artist-in-residence Jenny Schmid, Wangensteen curators Emily Beck and Lois Hendrickson, and Clinical Ethics Assistant Professor Jaime Konerman-Sease.
Online exhibits
Secret Lives of Books
This exhibit celebrates the stories of our books — from the stories woven in their bindings to the comments written on their pages by readers.
Downton Abbey: Behind the scenes of health and illness
Our library holdings come together to illuminate the medical themes threaded throughout Masterpiece Theater’s wildly popular Downton Abbey.
Journeying through a 17th c. apothecary manuscript
This exhibit is centered on a 17th-century apothecary manuscript from Toulouse, France, and a student’s research project involving translating the manuscript and mapping where in the world the ingredients may have been sourced.
About
Visit the Wangensteen Historical Library and experience more than 73,000 volumes of rare books, journals and manuscripts in diverse health, medicine and biological subject areas that span over 500 years, from 1430 to 1945.
Explore handwritten documents written by doctors and medical students hundreds of years ago, a large collection of surgical and anatomical atlases and texts, and historically significant books from the various disciplines in health sciences, biology and, natural history.
Research the origin of medical questions and findings as they relate to current questions. Gain insight into the context of health sciences as a social and cultural experience, and better understand your role as a provider. The stacks hold inspiration for students, researchers, educators, and all visitors. Artists, poets, naturalists, and playwrights have all found a home at Wangensteen.