Find public domain images from NLM collections on Flickr. The Commons on Flickr shares hidden treasures from the world’s public photography archives.
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Images from the History of Medicine (IHM), is an online picture database of nearly 70,000 images from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) History of Medicine's Prints and Photographs Collection. IHM includes portraits, photographs, caricatures, posters, and graphic art illustrating the social and historical aspects of medicine dated from the 15th to 21st century.
IHM is available through NLM Digital Collections.
Newly acquired materials are continually being added to IHM. In addition, existing records are regularly reviewed and upgraded, with new records and edits made available in IHM.
Many of the images in IHM are featured in the History of Medicine’s blog, Circulating Now. New content is posted every week.
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Images from the History of Medicine is also available in Open-ISM, NLM’s open access biomedical image search engine from the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications (LHNCBC). Open-ISM enables search and retrieval of abstracts and images (including charts, graphs, clinical images, etc.) from open source literature and biomedical image collections.
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The Commons on Flickr
A selection of public domain images from images in the History of Medicine is also available on Flickr Commons.
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New Accessions
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Patricia Gallinek, RN, Global Healing Photograph Collection
Patricia Gallinek, RN, donated a collection of approximately 500 photographs documenting her experiences as a volunteer for organizations involved in healthcare around the world. She embarked on a career of photojournalism in 1990 after 30 years in the nursing profession. The subject matter includes physicians at work, nurses, technicians, and patients. Capturing intensely emotional scenes of despair, her images thoughtfully and respectfully evoke the sense of humanity, perseverance, and friendship that she found in the communities she visited. All images were photographed and printed by Ms. Gallinek.
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Charles R. Lachman Community Health Center, NYC, Photograph Album
This original photograph album of 30 images was presented to Charles R. Lachman upon the September 20, 1966 dedication of the Community Health Center at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital, bearing his name. Captioned prints provide a comprehensive visual tour of the building's construction, facilities, and equipment, with many showcasing before and after views of the improved areas. Images include the nursery, pharmacy, O.R., and waiting rooms. A majority of the images are uncredited. 11 images were taken by Irving Kaufman Studios (NYC). One image is credited to Hutchins Photography Inc. (Belmont, Mass.). Three images are credited to fine art photographer, Dianora Niccolini.
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Cornelia Mercer Nursing Photograph Album
An original photograph album of pediatric nurse or nursing student Cornelia Mercer, capturing her time at Baltimore's Union Protestant Infirmary (operating still today as MedStar Union Memorial Hospital) ca. 1909–1910, With an emphasis on the female role in healthcare, the album contains 87 black and white photographs in various sizes including children likely afflicted with polio, in hospital beds and wheelchairs, Mercer and her colleagues, and some images of Mercer of a more personal nature.
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Unprocessed Collections
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Photographs by NIH Photographer Jerry Hecht
This collection of over 600 photographs taken by Gerald “Jerry” Hecht, an NIH photographer from 1959 to 1987, documents NIH during a time of growth and prominence. Hecht had access to NIH surgical units and labs and so was able to capture remarkable achievements of the NIH. The subjects of Hecht's images include heart surgeries performed during the 1960s–70s, auditoriums, laboratories, and hundreds of photographs of everyday life at the NIH, from telephone operators and mechanics to nurses and patients. Mr. Hecht died on November 24, 2016, at the age of 88.
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Healers of Our Age
This collection contains black and white photographic portraits of 12 prominent figures in the history of medicine known for their commitment to the art and science of healing. This portfolio was produced for the benefit of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Endowment of the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine in Boston in a limited edition of 590. Each portfolio has been personally signed by the photographer, Yousuf Karsh. Portraits include Walter Clement Alvarez, Charles Herbert Best, Alfred Blalock, William Boyd, Thomas Stephen Cullen, Albert Einstein, Sir Alexander Fleming, Carl Gustav Jung, Helen Keller, Albert Schweitzer, George Hoyt Whipple, and Paul Dudley White.
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The Adolf Schwartz Medical Stamp Collection
The Adolf W. Schwartz medical stamp collection consists of approximately 700,000 stamps with medical themes. The stamps are organized in 109 four-inch binders, in chronological order, and are the results of 60 years of collecting by Dr. Schwartz. Subjects on the stamps include doctors, nurses, military medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, folk and mythical medicine, plants and herbs, inventors of surgical instruments, doctors serving in Congress, places named for physicians, and more. The stamps are cancelled, non-cancelled, commemorative, in postcard form, first-day issue, proofs, tax stamps, tobacco stamps, postal cancellations, and legal tender. Stamps feature Elisabeth Blackwell, Marie Curie, Wilhelm Roentgen, and Florence Nightingale, among thousands of others. The collection includes a series on the Nobel Prizes from the Federated States of Micronesia, as well as a series of special oversized cigar bands from the Canary Islands, featuring Nobel Prize winners in Medicine of Physiology for the years 1901–1970, including Joshua Lederberg, James Watson, Francis Crick, and Marshall Nirenberg. The collection also includes 16 books that Dr. Schwartz compiled containing biographical and historical information about the stamps and their subjects.
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Pictures of Nursing
The postcard is a fleeting and widespread art form influenced by popular ideas about social and cultural life in addition to fashions in visual style. Nurses and nursing have been the frequent subjects of postcards...
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Chinese Family Planning and Child Health Education
As one of the most populous countries in the world, China saw the need to have a strong family planning policy. The country launched 3 family planning campaigns.
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Chinese Public Health Posters
The National Library of Medicine has recently acquired a large collection of Chinese Public Health materials, about seven thousand items produced from early 20th century to the year of SARS.
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Visual Culture and Public Health Posters
Posters flourished as an art form in Europe and the United States in the late-nineteenth century as advances in printing technologies allowed for mass circulation. In the 1860s, French artists ushered in a new age for the illustrated poster.
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Other Visual Collections
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Islamic Medical Manuscripts
Here you can learn about Islamic medicine and science during the Middle Ages and the important role it played in the history of Europe.
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Historical Anatomies on the Web
Historical Anatomies on the Web is a digital project designed to give Internet users access to high quality images from important anatomical atlases in the Library’s collection.
Go to Historical Anatomies on the Web
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Profiles in Science
This site celebrates twentieth-century leaders in biomedical research and public health. It makes the archival collections of prominent scientists, physicians, and others who have advanced the scientific enterprise available to the public through modern digital technology.
Go to Profiles in Science
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Digital Projects
Find a wide range of digitized materials from NLM historical collections on our Digital Projects page.
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Medical Stock Images
Most US government images and graphics are in the public domain. We list some resources for medical stock shots, images, photographs, slides, videos, animations, and film footage that may be helpful.
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