An Annotated Catalog of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American Popular Medicine and Health Reform: Volumes I, II, and III

This three-colume set catalogues the Edward C. Atwater, M.D., Collection of American Popular Medicine, housed at the University of Rochester Medical School library. The books described in the catalogue were written by physicians and other professionals to provide information for the non-medical audience on human anatomy, hygiene, temperance and diet, health maintenance, and illness, especially in the absence of professional medical help. The books promoteda healthy lifestyle for readers, offfering guidance on everything from physical fitness to the special health needs of women.
The third and final volume of the annotated catalog of the Edward C. Atwater, M.D. Collection of American Popular Medicine includes books, manuscripts, pamphlets, periodicals, and printed ephemera acquired since the publication of Volume 1 (Authors A-L) in 2001 and Volume 2 (Authors M-Z) in 2004. Volume 3 (Authors A-Z) contains entries for more than 2,000 items. Together, these three volumes provide an unparalleled perspective on the vast and diverse body of literature published between the colonial period and World War I that, among other things, instructed Americans on the domestic treatment of illness or injury, advised women on reproductive control, and enlightened school children on the structure and functioning of their own bodies.
The Atwater Collection is the product of nearly four decades of collecting by Edward C. Atwater, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Medicine and the history of medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Christopher Hoolihan is History of Medicine Librarian at the University of Rochester Medical School’s Edward G. Miner Library.