FEATURE
A BRIEF HISTORY OF KORNHAUSER
HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARY of the
University of Louisville, Now 181 Years Old
Morris Weiss, MD
A
spring day in 1838 found Joshua
Barker Flint on the Ohio River
wharf at the foot of Second and
Third Streets about to board a
steamer for Pittsburgh. This
was the first leg of his journey to Europe to
purchase additional books and apparatus
for the Louisville Medical Institute (LMI),
founded the year before. Flint might have sailed from New York City
or the port of Philadelphia after traveling by coach from Pittsburgh
to the coast. His European sojourn was successful, and his purchases
were added to the 1,200 volumes he and Charles Caldwell had
already accumulated when the Louisville Medical Institute Library
was inaugurated in 1837. From its inception at LMI, for medical
luminaries of the day such as Daniel Drake, Samuel D. Gross, Charles
Wilkins Short, Lunsford Pitts Yandell and Drs. Flint and Caldwell,
the library made research and teaching possible.
With the opening of the Department of Law in 1846, the LMI
was officially renamed the University of Louisville Department of
Medicine. Early in the 20th century, the libraries of the Hospital
College of Medicine, the Louisville Medical College, and the
Jefferson County Medical Society were incorporated into the
present collection. In 1960, the library was renamed the Kornhauser
Memorial Library in honor of Dr. Sidney Isaac Kornhauser, who
had been Chairman of the Library Committee since 1922. Dr.
Kornhauser (1888-1959), was Professor and Chair of the Department
of Anatomy at the UofL School of Medicine from 1922-1959 and had
a distinguished career in medical education. In 1970, the libraries of
the School of Dentistry and the School of Medicine were combined
and housed in the present building. Since that time, the Kornhauser
has undergone some major renovations, changed its emphasis
from print to electronic data, and greatly enhanced its collections.
One of the most important accomplishments is the creation of
our dedicated reading rooms which celebrate some of our donors
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LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
and alumni. Today the library is a comprehensive health sciences
information resource center providing access to the most current
information resources available.
For practicing academic physicians, the library staff is invaluable
in teaching time-saving and very accurate ways to manage references
for publications and lectures.
The model of American medicine and life has changed drastically
over the last 50 years, leaving the practicing physician little time
to devote to leisure or philosophical pursuits. The Friends of the
Kornhauser Library, once a large and vibrant group of physicians
interested in medical history and philosophy, has dwindled over
the last 25 years to only two or three aged (but not doddering!)
physicians and led by the current library director, Neal Nixon.
The Kornhauser Library Historical Collection, housed on the
third floor of the Health Sciences Library, is arguably one of the
best, if not the best, 19 th century library of medical journals, books
and memorabilia in the region. But it needs resources and support
to survive. Moving into the 21 st century, the collections are used
less by researchers traveling to the collection and more by the
digitization of valuable documents and photographs so they can
be made available online to researchers around the world. This
work requires both equipment and personnel for which there is
little or no funding available. If you are interested in supporting
the library by joining the Friends of the Kornhauser Library, go to
http://library.louisville.edu/kornhauser/community/Friends or call
(502) 852-5766.
Dr. Weiss practices Cardiovascular Disease Medicine with Medical Center
Cardiologists.
Editor Note: Read more about Dr. Weiss in "Dr. Who" on page 34.