History of Science
The history of the biological and physical sciences is strongly represented in landmark editions of works by Newton, Galileo, Darwin, Hooke, Leeuwenhoek, Linnaeus, Jussieu, Gessner, and Audubon, among many others. The collection also includes anatomical works by Vesalius, Harvey, and Fabricius, as well as Renaissance medical herbals, including, Fuchs’ De Historia Stirpium(1542); Hortus Sanitatis (1517); Mattioli’s De Materia Medica (1583); and numerous other beautifully illustrated botanical works. Special Collections also holds numerous 18th-century scientific periodicals, including long runs of Memoires of the French Academie des sciences and the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
These works complement the University of Missouri’s emphasis on the life sciences, support interdisciplinary research, and provide an important access point for the study of intellectual history and scientific inquiry.
How to Use the Collection
With a few exceptions, the collections can be accessed and requested through the library catalog. Finding aids for individual collections are linked on this website. Materials are available for use in the Special Collections Reading Room (room 401) during regular hours. Materials do not circulate.
Finding Aids for History of Science
Donald Silver Rare Book Room, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library

The Rare Book Room was given to the library by the Department of Surgery and is dedicated to Dr. Donald Silver, an Emeritus professor of the…
Gary E. and Janet J. Venable Antiquarian Atlas & Map Collection

The Venable Collection documents the history of cartography, geography, and exploration from the sixteenth through the early twentieth century.…
Historic Textbook Collection

The Education Library of the University Libraries began collecting textbooks in 1968. Donations were solicited and members of the Friends of the…
Rare Books

The Rare Books Collection is the default designation for materials in Special Collections that are acquired as individual items. Like Special…
Related Exhibits
150 Years of On the Origin of Species

150 Years of The Origin of Species: The Historical Journey from Specimens to Species to Geneswas a physical exhibit mounted...
Anatomical Illustration

The 6th annualMU Life Sciences and Society Symposium (March 2010)took as its theme, From Art to Biology and Back Again....
Controlling Heredity

This virtual exhibit explores the intersections between ethics and the pseudo-science of eugenics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth...
Food Revolutions: Science and Nutrition, 1700-1950

This exhibition was originally mounted in the Ellis Library Colonnade during March 2012 as part ofFood Sense: The 8th AnnualLife...
Generations

Although the scientific study of epigenetics only dates to the middle of the twentieth century, scientists have puzzled over related...
In-Flew-Enza: Spanish Flu in Columbia

In fall, 1918, an outbreak of epidemic influenza spread across the entire world. Erroneously dubbed "the Spanish Flu," the pandemic...
Leaders and Heroes

Every age, every race, has its leaders and heroes. ~ Ohíye S’a (Charles A. Eastman) Libraries tend to hold those materials that...
Science of Love

This exhibit presents the many faces of love as they appear in the literature of antiquity, the Middle Ages, and...
Vesalius at 500

Vesalius at 500 showcases materials from the Libraries’ collections that helped to shape Andreas Vesalius’ career, including medieval manuscripts and...
Winds of Change

This exhibition investigates the relationship between weather and time by questioning past perceptions, examining measurement and prediction practices, and surveying...
Selected Items
An account of the late total eclipse of the sun, on July 28, 1851 : as observed at Lilla Edet in Sweden / by R.C. Carrington, Esq.

A dissertation on the eclipse mentioned by Phlegon : or, An enquiry whether that eclipse had any relation to the darkness which happened at our Saviour's Passion / by Arthur Ashley Sykes.

Fifth map, or, Map of 1733 : to accompany Willard's History of the United States.

Covers the Atlantic Coast of North America from Nova Scotia to Florida./ Shows route of General Oglethorpe, 1733, and Palatines from Germany sent by…
Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, and Minnesota.

Map is p. [48] from a geography textbook./ On verso: "Questions on the map of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky."/ Northern border of Minnesota is…
Tacuinum sanitatis in medicina : codex vindobonensis series nova 2644 of the Austrian National Library.

Schmaltz : Ossa extremitatum equi et insertiones musculorum. Die gliedmassenknochen des pferdes. Mit einzeichnung der insertionen von muskeln, sehnen und bändern. Atlas in 18 tafeln mit anmerkungen und tabellen der benennungen nach den neuaufgestellten nomina anatomica hominis, sowie der bisherigen deutschen und französischen synonyma / von Reinhold Schmaltz.
