Manuscript Resources on the History of Medicine

This guide describes collections documenting the history of medicine in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU. It includes the papers of physicians; surgeons; dentists; nurses; medical orderlies; and druggists and pharmacists. It also contains records of hospitals and asylums. There are a number of collections containing records of nursing associations.

The guide also contains remedies and recipes for medical treatments like medicinal tea; materials on medical education; prescriptions; descriptions of medical treatments; and doctors' record books with patient information, treatments, and fees. There are also materials on such diseases as yellow fever and cholera; plantation records that include information on the health of family members and slaves; materials on veterinary medicine; and medical advertisements. Finally, there are materials relating to illnesses and wounds suffered during wartime, particularly during the Civil War, World War I, and World II. Most of the collections are from Louisiana, but there are also materials from other parts of the Lower Mississippi Valley.