Discover Our History and Special Collections Division
You don’t need to travel far to find rare books, manuscripts and digital resources documenting the history of the health and life sciences. Located on the 4th floor of the UCLA Biomedical Library is the History & Special Collections Division, one of the finest repositories on these subjects in the country. The Division owns important classical and seminal works upon which the fields of health and life sciences are built.
The Division is involved in a variety of activities to promote the study of the history of medicine, allied health fields, and the life sciences. The Study of the History of Medicine at UCLA is an interdisciplinary program designed to assist in the exploration of resources related to the history of medicine. This portal includes a brief overview of the collection, explains access procedures for using the collection, and provides links to other departments on campus with historical collections. There are also links to events, fellowships, people, and research tools such as indexes, oral histories and organizations involved with the history of medicine.
On November 16-17, 2007, History & Special Collections and the History of Medicine faculty from the School of Medicine will co-host “The Architecture of Healing: an international conference at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.” The conference will focus on the development of the hospital and its place in our society today as a center of healing and research. Registration forms are available online and are due by November 2nd.
The Division is involved with many online exhibits and digitization projects which have allowed unique materials to be easily accessible to a wider audience. One interpretive exhibit, Spices – Exotic Flavors and Medicines, showcases beautiful 
drawings of spice plants and provides information on the historical importance of spices. Another project, Relief of Pain & Suffering, is an exploration of attitudes towards pain and its relief from 1800 to the present. The impressive AIDS Posters collection consists of 625 posters from public health campaigns worldwide. The Donald Ryder Dickey Photographic Collection includes photos of California’s wildlife and landscapes taken from 1911-1929. This collection currently consists of 350 images, and 1000 additional photos will be added by 2008.
The History & Special Collections Division’s books, journals, manuscripts, medical artifacts and digital resources are an extraordinary resource not available at many other universities. The librarians, archivists, curators, and staff of the Division encourage you to explore our collections online or in person on the 4th floor of the Biomedical Library.
