The medical archives holds over 1,000,000 photographic items dating from the late 19th century to the present. These collections reflect the daily use of photography within an academic health institution and encompass many genres, including biomedical, clinical, documentary, corporate, architectural, and portrait photography. The collections also encompass many historic and current photographic processes, including cased photographs, card photographs, photomicrographs, glass plate negatives and slides, albumen, platinum, and gelatin silver prints, color photographic prints, transparencies, and slides, digitally produced prints, and born-digital photographs.
The photograph collections are arranged either topically or by office or department of origin. To browse the finding aids to our major photograph collections, explore the list below. To search for specific types of photographs among all collections, use the advanced search tab on the catalog search page. On the first search row, select Format Type in the first column, Exact in the second column, and Image in the third column. Use the remaining rows to search using keywords, titles, or subjects. Please note that although many photographs are digitized and viewable through the online catalog, many are not. To search for only photographs that have been digitized, select the digital content only button after you search. To access photographs that are not digitized, you may schedule an appointment to view the photographs in our reading room, or request photocopies or scans of photographs for a fee. Visit our reproduction fees page for more information. Appointments and other reference inquiries can be made through our online registration form.
Explore finding aids to our major photographic collections. Additional photographic series may be found in larger personal paper collections and institutional records.