History of Medicine and Public Health

A guide to recommended books, historical journals, digital collections and statistics about the history of medicine and public health.

Search Library Quick Search

Use Library Quick Search to search for books and articles across many databases in a single search.

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How to Use Google Scholar Off Campus
Due to recent changes made by Google, you'll need to do a one-time set-up for your account to access full-text articles available through UTSA Libraries. Step by step instructions provided.

Key Databases

Gale eBooks (Gale Virtual Reference Library)
Cross-searchable collection of full text encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources in a wide-range of disciplines for background information. Formerly known as Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Oxford Reference Online
Contains the full text of over 230 dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources in a variety of disciplines, including the natural sciences, social sciences, and arts.
Health Reference Center - Academic (Gale)
Provides selected abstracts and full-text access to a variety of health information sources including 40 nursing and allied health journals, consumer health magazines, reference books, newsletters, health pamphlets, newspaper articles, and general interest titles.
MEDLINE (EBSCO)
Provides citations from thousands of worldwide journal articles in life sciences, with a concentration on biomedicine and healthcare. Encompasses those areas of the life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering needed by health professionals and others engaged in basic research and clinical care, public health, and health policy development. Includes information from Index Medicus, Index to Dental Literature, and International Nursing, as well as other sources. Produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
PubMed
Produced by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), PubMed provides free access to MEDLINE, NLM's database of bibliographic citations and abstracts in the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, health care systems, and preclinical sciences. Citations may include links to full text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. See also MEDLINE.
Quarantine and Infectious Disease Control Series (History Commons)
Quarantine and Infectious Disease Control in America Series, contains first-hand accounts of the American experience with infectious diseases from historical perspectives. Part I - Newspapers from 1736-1922; Part II - Books from 1823-1928.
ProQuest Congressional
Comprehensive full image coverage of U.S. Congressional publications 1789-present, Updated daily. Hearings (1824-present); Congressional Research Service Reports (CRS) (1916-present); House and Senate Documents/Reports (1817-present); Legislative Histories (1969-current); Bills & Laws (1776-present); Vote Reports (1987-present); Historical Maps & Images (1789-2007); Congressional Record (daily and bound versions) (1789-present); Regulations; Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations; Presidential Executive Orders.
Member profiles, committee assignments, financial disclosure statements and voting records.
Early American Imprints, Series 1: Evans, 1639-1800 (NewsBank)
Based on Evans' American Bibliography, this database contains the full text of all known existing books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in the American Colonies or United States from 1639 through 1800. Includes an additional 1,100 titles from Bristol's Supplement to Evans.
Early American Imprints Series 2: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1800-1819 (NewsBank)
Provides full text access to virtually every known book, pamphlet, and broadside published in the U.S. from the years 1800 through 1819. Also contains state papers and government materials; presidential letters and messages; and congressional, state and territorial resolutions. Based on the bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker.
Periodicals Archive Online (PAO) (ProQuest)
Search periodicals in the humanities and social sciences including disciplines such as anthropology, area studies, economics, education, history, linguistics and philology, literature, music and the performing arts, and sociology, among others. Covers publications from the 15th century to the present. Includes full-text articles in languages other than English, with significant offerings in Spanish, French, and German.
America: History and Life (EBSCO)
Selectively indexes and abstracts the scholarly literature on U.S. and Canadian history from prehistory to the present. Includes citations to journal articles, book and media reviews, and dissertations. Also includes useful features such as the ability to search by historical time period. For world history, see Historical Abstracts.
Historical Abstracts (EBSCO)
Selectively indexes and abstracts the scholarly literature of world history from 1450 to the present. Includes citations to journal articles, book and media reviews, and dissertations. Also includes useful features such as the ability to search by historical time period. For U.S. and Canadian history see America: History and Life.
Dissertations & Theses Global (ProQuest)
Provides citations and abstracts, as well as full text PDFs, to millions of doctoral dissertations and master's theses from graduate schools and universities around the world. Full text coverage is primarily from 1997 forward, with a significant number of full text titles previous to 1997. Coverage is from 1637 to the present.
JSTOR
Searchable full-text and full-image backfiles of scholarly journals, as well as e-books, and primary resources. Subject areas include the arts, humanities, social sciences, science, math, and business. Includes the Artstor Digital Library containing millions of images from the world's museums, archives, and libraries.
Oxford Bibliographies Online
A database designed to help you start your research on almost any subject. Contains recommendations for scholarship at all levels, whether encyclopedias and textbooks or journal articles and primary sources. Bibliographic essays and annotated citations on each topic. Peer-reviewed, selective, rather than exhaustive content chosen by experts in their disciplines.

Topics covered:

National Library of Medicine

Please note: See box about How to Get Resources from the National Library of Medicine.

The History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine
The National Library of Medicine houses one of the world's largest history of medicine collections. It collects, preserves, and makes available materials documenting the history of medicine, health, and disease in all time periods and cultures. Includes digitized books and nearly 70,000 images.
National Library of Medicine: Search LocatorPlus
A catalog for books, audiovisuals, journals, computer files, and other materials in the Library’s collections. Refine search results to certain formats such as books, videos, etc. Or limit to materials accessible online.
IndexCat - 15th-20th century
The online version of the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office, U.S. Army is a comprehensive subject catalog of books, pamphlets, dissertations, etc. NOTE: Link may only work in some browsers.

How to Get Resources from the National Library of Medicine

National Library of Medicine catalogs may lead you to a citation for print material with no full text online.

WorldCat (OCLC)
Comprehensive online catalog of library holdings locally and worldwide. Lists books, journals, maps, recordings, films, scores, open access resources, and other materials from academic, public, corporate, and specialized libraries. Get It For Me button allows you to request to borrow an item.

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TexShare Information
Find out how to get a Texshare card to use at other academic and public libraries in Texas.