The old library of the Pennsylvania Hospital.
The first medical book acquired by the Pennsylvania Hospital was William Lewis's Experimental History of the Materia Medica. Dr. John Fothergill of London donated it in 1762. The next year the Managers resolved to establish a library, and the physicians assigned their fees from hospital students for the purchase of books. Books were regularly ordered from William Strahan in London, and gifts and bequests added still more volumes. From 1790 to 1810 Dr. John Coakley Lettsom of London was the hospital's principal adviser on purchases. As the library grew, it expanded beyond purely medical works to include some in natural history, many purchased in 1817 from the estate of Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton. Catalogues were printed in the years 1790-94, 1806, 1829, and 1857. At midcentury the hospital library numbered about 9,000 volumes. At that time it was the largest medical library in the United States.
D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D007992:Libraries, Hospital / Q000266:history*; D010414:Pennsylvania