Brown University

From 18th and 19th century manuscript collections evidencing the technological and commercial development of the whaling industry to incunabula illuminating early medieval practices of astronomy, Consortium members are invited to explore Brown’s extensive History of Science, Medicine, and Technology collections from a variety of methodological and historical entry points. Collections especially relevant to Consortium members include History of Medicine collections; Science, Mathematics, and Technology collections; Disability Studies collections; Alcoholism and Addiction Studies collections; the Feminist Theory Archive; the Hall-Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda, and our extensive Occult and Magic collections.

All researchers visiting the John Hay Library must register in advance and request appointments for the days and times of their visit. For more information and tutorials on using our system, consult our guide for researchers or email hay@brown.edu.

Research university; library system with holdings in many areas.

Encompassing books, manuscripts, objects, and instruments dating from the late 15th to the 21st century, Brown’s collections on the history of science, medicine, and technology are uniquely diverse in both scope and size. Thematic focuses range from the historical, material, and intellectual evolution of science, technology, and medicine across the globe to more contemporary areas of scholarly inquiry, such as disability studies, environmental justice, and critical theories of knowledge-production.

The collection’s foundation is built on works fundamental to the study of the exact sciences during the Renaissance, especially astronomy and mathematics, and also includes works integral to the evolution of medicine as both a scientific discipline and a cultural practice. There are more than 4,000 significant works documenting the sciences in modern times, many of which were printed before 1800, beginning with the works of Galileo, Kepler, Tycho Brahe, Newton, and his followers. There are also early editions of works by Ampere, Francis Bacon, Boyle, Mme Curie, Einstein, Franklin, Helmholtz, von Humboldt, William James, Leibniz, Lyell, Maury, Napier, Pasteur, Priestly, and Vesalius.

The collection is increasingly enriched through the integration of critical and often marginalized perspectives related to the intersections of science, technology, health, and medicine with studies of gender, race, sexuality, and other forms of human difference. With the strategic collecting direction of “Integrative Themes in the Sciences,” collection development includes materials related to climate change, collections as data, and topics in health and history, such as reproductive justice and racial disparities in medicine. Other unique collections that reveal and explore dynamics of power in the history of science and medicine include the papers of Anne Fausto-Sterling, a biologist and feminist theorist whose research has probed the sex/gender binary, and a large set of collections related to the treatment of alcoholism from social, scientific, and medical perspectives.

Alcoholism and Addiction Studies Collections

Disability Studies Collections

History of Medicine Collections