Access to the collections and reference assistance are available Monday - Friday from 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Researchers from out of town are requested to make arrangements in advance. Photographic reproduction of materials will be arranged at cost. Photocopying is discouraged, though exceptions may be made at the discretion of the librarian.

The rare book collections comprise some 2,500 titles printed before 1800; 10,000 19th century titles; and 5,000 titles published between 1900 and 1950. Although all areas of the biomedical sciences are represented, the rare book collections are particularly strong in early printed anatomy, obstetrics & gynecology, orthopedics, dentistry, cholera, yellow fever and American popular medicine. Catalogs have been published that describe two of these collections: An Annotated Catalog of the Miner Yellow Fever Collection (Rochester, NY: Edward G. Miner Library, 1990); and the two-volume Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American Popular Medicine and Health Reform (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2001-2004). The collection of printed materials includes nearly a thousand 18th through early 20th century biomedical periodicals published in the United States, Great Britain, and Europe. Special collections are supplemented by some 5,000 secondary works on the history of the biomedical sciences housed within the department.

Faculty manuscript collections comprise the greater part of our archival collections. These include the papers of such figures as founding dean and Nobel prize winner George Hoyt Whipple; the psychiatrists John Romano and George Engel; physiologists Wallace Osgood Fenn and Edward Adolph, the papers of each of the School of Nursing deans, etc. Inventories for faculty and non-faculty collections are accessible on the Rare Books & Manuscripts website. 5,000 prints and negatives comprise the archival photograph collection, providing views of buildings, laboratories, patient care areas, medical & nursing class photos, portraits of faculty & staff, etc. taken from 1922 to 1970.