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Collection OslW : William Osler Collection

Description

Key

42734

Reference Code Element

OslW

Dates

1879-2022, inclusive

Extent

15 linear feet

Creator

Personal name, Osler, William, Sir, 1849-1919

Administrative/Biographical History

William Osler
12 Jul 1849-29 Dec 1919
William Osler was born in Bond Head, Ontario in 1849. He received his M.D. in 1872 from McGill University and studied in London, Berlin, and Vienna from 1872 to 1874. He joined the faculty of McGill in 1874, and left in 1884 to become professor of clinical medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Osler was recruited by John S. Billings in 1888 to be physician-in-chief of the soon-to-open Johns Hopkins Hospital and professor of medicine at the school of medicine being planned. He revolutionized the medical curriculum of the United States and Canada, combining the best of the English and German systems. He adapted the English system to egalitarian American principles by teaching all medical students at the bedside. Believing that students learn best by doing, he felt that clinical instructions should begin with the patient and conclude with the patient. He stressed that books were supportive tools to this end and required that all students do a rotation in the bacteriology laboratory. Osler introduced the German postgraduate training system, instituting a general internship of one year to be followed by a residency of several years. His book The Principles and Practice of Medicine, first published in 1892, was based upon the advances in medical science of the previous 50 years and remained the standard text on clinical medicine for the next 40 years. He left Johns Hopkins in 1905 to accept the Regius Professorship of Medicine at Oxford University.

Chronology

Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1888-1905

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Scope and Content

The William Osler Collection spans his entire medical career. Series include correspondence, personal and biographical materials, collected notes on medical conditions, publications, and photographs. There is an extensive group of letters from Osler to Henry Barton Jacobs covering the period 1905-1919. The majority of the Osler Papers at the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives are notes, case histories, letters, photographs, and journal articles on a vast range of diseases and medical conditions. The collection also includes material culture objects associated with William Osler and a few personal documents related to his son Revere Osler. A larger collection of Osler's personal papers is located in the Osler Library at McGill University in Montreal.

Language

English

Access and Use

Conditions Governing Access Element

This collection may contain some restricted records. Materials pertaining to patients, students, employees, and human research subjects, as well as unprocessed collections and recent administrative records, carry restrictions on access. For more information about the policies and procedures for access, see the Archives Policy on Access and Use.

Use/Reproduction Restrictions

When citing material from this collection, credit The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. For permission to reproduce images, contact the holder of the copyright.

Administration

Date(s) of Descriptions

1983, 2016-2017

Processing Information

The William Osler Collection was organized and cataloged by Harold Kanarek in 1983. Funding to process the William Osler Collection was provided by a grant from the NIH National Library of Medicine (LM 03594). Since 1983, the Chesney Medical Archives has received additional Osler materials which have been added to the collection. Beginning in 2008, under the direction of Phoebe Evans Letocha, the Chesney Medical Archives began to convert the 1983 finding aid to a web-based finding aid. Medical Archives student assistant Emma Graf converted the unpublished collection inventory to the catalog. In 2012, Chesney Medical Archives volunteer Dr. Francis Milligan began processing the addendum to the Osler Collection and reviewing the original inventory for more accurate description. Medical Archives student assistants Liana Sanders and Bengucan Gunen assisted with the processing. In 2016-2017, student assistants Connie Scozzaro and Joseph Wallace reprocessed Series 4 Collected Notes on Medical Conditions. Visual Materials Archivist Tim Wisniewski has digitized the Photographs series.

Finding Aids Element

A Web-based exhibit commemorating the 150th Anniversary of his birth provides further information on William Osler's life and work, as well as the text of some of his publications. https://medicalarchivescatalog.jhmi.edu/exhibits/osler/osler150.htm

Accession

2022-070

2022-066

2015-025

2003-145

2001-185

1989-120

1985-005

1983-016

1982-032

1980-101

1979-080

Composed Of

Found 7 record(s)

Reference Code and Titlesort by Reference Code and Title ascending	Key (Collection)sort by Key (Collection) ascending	Dates	Record Levelsort by Record Level ascending	Hierarchysort by Hierarchy ascending
1- Correspondence	42735	1827-1932	Series	CollectionOslW- William Osler Collection
2- Personal and Biographical Material	186079		Series	CollectionOslW- William Osler Collection
3- Personal Documents related to Revere Osler	186080		Series	CollectionOslW- William Osler Collection
4- Collected Notes on Medical Conditions	100707		Series	CollectionOslW- William Osler Collection
5- Publications and Reprints	186078	1877-1919	Series	CollectionOslW- William Osler Collection
6- Photographs from the William Osler Collection	148921		Series	CollectionOslW- William Osler Collection
7- Material Culture	186077		Series	CollectionOslW- William Osler Collection

Related Artifacts

Found 13 record(s)

Available Actions	Artifact Numbersort by Artifact Number ascending	Titlesort by Title ascending
	347A	Black and white photograph, portrait.
	1192A	Sir William Osler
	1534A	Celebrating contributions to medicine
	2582A	William Osler
	2726a	William Osler, Latch Key
	8022A	Etchings by E.R. Osler
	8023A	2 Lieutenant ER Osler
	8024A	The Great War for Civilization E.R. Osler Medal
	8025A	1914-1915 Star
	8027A	R.E. Osler Stamp
	8028A	The Book of the Tudor and Stuart Club Johns Hopkins University
	8030A	Officers and Members of the Tudor and Stuart Club of Johns Hopkins University
	8031A	R.E. Osler Ypres Certificate

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