Wangensteen Historical Library

NOTICE: All University Libraries are closed until further notice. Many items in our physical collections are temporarily available in full-text online to U of M faculty, staff, and students. We are extending the due dates for all items and we are not charging overdue fines.

Online library services and resources during COVID-19: Undergraduates | Graduate students | Faculty and staff

The Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine collections contain materials and objects that broadly represent health, medicine, and biological sciences from 1430 to 1945.

Collections

Rare books and manuscripts

Search our collection of 73,000 print materials from 1430 to 1945, with strengths in anatomy, women’s health, surgery, natural history, and pharmacy.

Digitized collections

The digitized collections of the Wangensteen Historical Library are freely available online. They cover a broad range of topics from East Asian History to Clara Barton’s diaries.

Artifacts

Our artifact collection contains 8,000 objects, including pharmaceutical, medical and surgical equipment, instruments, and products.

Place artifact request

Featured content

Kongaku Ketsuho seated man

Kongaku Ketsuhō

From our growing collection of books on East Asian health care, Kongaku Ketsuhō (Bunjō Ishizuka, 1835) discusses acupuncture points and therapy. It is printed in an unusual format, as a narrow oblong octavo — shuchin bon — a book small enough to carry in a kimono sleeve.

Handwritten tooth powder recipe

English Medicine

This handwritten pharmacopeia (1807-1850) is made up of 135 recipes for making various drugs, medicines and domestic remedies, and includes a dosage list.

Flora Medica Aconitum Napellus plant

Flora Medica

Reputed to be a witch’s potion in the Middle ages, monkshood or wolfsbane (Acontium Napellus) was sometimes used for sedation, as detailed in Flora Medica (1829). In J.K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter fictional series, it aids Remus Lupin’s transformation into a werewolf.

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Visit

Engagement and outreach

Partner with the library to create or enhance conversations about the history of health, medicine, and biological sciences through exhibits, lectures, and material loans.

Collaborate

Fund your research

Learn more about travel grants that support in-depth research drawing on the library’s holdings and staff expertise.

About Owen Wangensteen

In the 1960s, Dr. Owen H. Wangensteen, distinguished surgeon, became the force behind the creation of the library that bears his name.

Exhibits & events

Current exhibit

Events

Online exhibits

Illustrated book spines

Secret Lives of Books

This exhibit celebrates the stories of our books — from the stories woven in their bindings to the comments written on their pages by readers.

Apothecary herbs from 7th century

Journeying through a 17th c. apothecary manuscript

This exhibit is centered on a 17th-century apothecary manuscript from Toulouse, France, and a student’s research project involving translating the manuscript and mapping where in the world the ingredients may have been sourced.