The College of Physicians of Philadelphia began to assemble a collection of images in the 18th century. Most of the images in the collections today reside in the Historical Medical Library. Images can also be created from the collection of artifacts and specimens of the Mütter Museum. The College maintains and continuously enlarges a database of images including:
- Prints, texts, and photographs from over 350,000 volumes in the Historical Medical Library including pamphlets and other medical ephemera, and particularly images from the library's manuscript collections and its early printed books on anatomy, surgery, and botany;
- Medical photographs, prints, negatives, slides, and digital images of the instruments and specimens of the Mütter Museum;
- More than 10,000 archival images, chiefly individual and group portraits of physicians;
- Photographs of medical institutions and various illustrations; and
- The Portrait Collection (approximately 160 oil paintings, drawings, or sketches) including works by John Singer Sargent and Thomas Eakins.
Taken together, the Library and Museum collections contain a unique and unparalleled collection of historic medical photographs and images. Specific image collections or compilations include:
- The Samuel B. Sturgis collection of medical portraits, prints and photographs, which includes medical illustrations by Erwin F. Faber;
- The Dome Collection of portraits from the American Academy of Dermatology;
- The 12-volume set Philadelphia Physicians Portrayed in Art, Reproduced by Photography, compiled by William N. Bradley in 1936;
- The photograph collections of Philadelphia General Hospital and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia;
- The Samuel X. Radbill-William Helfand collection of medical bookplates; and
- Several collections of glass lantern slides on diverse subjects from surgeries to mental hospitals.
Most images within the College collections have not been digitized.
Some important image collections have yet to be inventoried and catalogued,
including thousands of lantern slides once used for lectures. Because
we are continually enlarging our digital database of images and inventorying
materials, please inquire about images you seek even if they are not identified
anywhere within our Web site. The growing College digital database consists
of high-resolution digital images of black and white and color photographs
available for purchase for study, editorial, and commercial use.
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