Library Guides: HIPS 17502: Science, Culture, and Society III: Modern Science: Books

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica

Image from the NYPL Digital Gallery.

Starting Points

University of Chicago Library Catalog This link opens in a new window
Find books (print and online) in all campus libraries, as well as periodicals, sound recordings, videos, DVDs and more.
Find items in all campus libraries, including books, periodicals, sound recordings, videos, DVDs and more.

Electronic Books: 18th-19th Century

HathiTrust Digital Library
The HathiTrust Digital Library brings together the immense collections of partner institutions (major research institutions and libraries) in digital form. Works from 18th, 19th and 20th century science are fully searchable and full PDFs may be downloaded by UChicago users after logging in with CNetID.

Eighteenth Century Collection Online This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive digital edition of The Eighteenth Century, a microfilm collection of 150,000 English-language titles and editions published between 1701 and 1800. Includes books and broadsides, Bibles, tract books and sermons to printed ephemera by well-known and lesser-known eighteenth-century authors.
Early American Imprints: Series I. Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
This incomparable digital collection contains virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America over a 160-year period. Digitized from one of the most important collections ever produced on microform, Early American Imprints, Series I is based on Charles Evans renowned American Bibliography and Roger Bristols supplement. Including more than 36,000 printed works and 2.3 million pages
Early American Imprints: Series II. Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 This link opens in a new window
Continuation of the preceding resource.
A comprehensive set of American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the early part of the 19th century. It is based on the noted "American Bibliography, 1801-1819" by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker. With more than four million pages from over 36,000 items
Google Books This link opens in a new window
Excellent resource for discovering contemporary accounts of scientific research and discovery. Public domain works are full viewable, and many titles available as snippets in Google may be available in print in the UChicago Library collections.
Search the full text of books to find ones that interest you and learn where to borrow or buy them.

Rare Books and Manuscripts

John Crerar Collection of Rare Books in the History of Science and Medicine
This collection of over 25,000 volumes ranges from the classic texts of Vesalius, Galileo, and Newton, to equally rare but lesser known works by investigators and researchers who helped to establish the intellectual milieu of modern science. A fuller description of the medical portion of the collection may be found at Directory of History of Medicine Collections

Many major research libraries have collections of rare books which support scholarship in the history of science. The following are just a few selected collections.

History of Science Collection at Linda Hall Library
The Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology at the Smithsonian Institution
A collection of rare books and manuscripts relating to the history of science and technology. The library's internet site offers electronic resources on topics, people, and organizations.

Locate and Request Rare Books Using the Library Catalog

Biographical Information

Dictionary of scientific biography, Charles Coulston Gillispie, editor-in-chief. New York : Scribner, [1970-] 18 volume set.
Crerar Reference, Q141.D5

Nobel lectures, including presentation speeches and laureates' biographies: Physiology or medicine. New York : Published for the Nobel Foundation by Elsevier Pub. Co., 1964
Crerar Stacks QH311.N74

The Nobel Prize winners. Physiology or medicine, edited by Frank N. Magill. Pasadena, Calif. : Salem Press, c1991.
Crerar Reference, R134.N630 1991

Biographisch-literarisches Handw?rterbuch der exakten Naturwissenschaften. Poggendorff, J. C. Excellent resource if you can read German.
Crerar Reference, Z7403.P74 1994.

A select bibliography of medical biography: with an introductory essay on medical biography, by John L. Thornton. Edition 2nd ed.
Crerar Reference, Z6658.T505 1970

A bibliography of medical and biomedical biography, Leslie T. Morton and Robert J. Moore. Edition 2nd ed. Aldershot, Hants, England : Scholar Press ; Brookfield, VT : Ashgate Pub. Co., c1994.
Crerar Reference, Z6660.5.M670 1994

Index to Scientistst of the World from Ancient to Modern Times: Biographies and Portraits. Ireland, Norma Olin. Boston, MA. 1962. This is only an index. You will need to track down the original source once you get the reference.
Crerer Reference, Z7404.I65

Bibliographies

Reference Books for the Historian of Science : a Handlist
Z7405.H6J3 Crerar Library, Reference Collection

Contact Information

Rebecca Starkey
Regenstein Reference Librarian
Regenstein Library, 1st floor
773-702-4484
Email Rebecca

Deb Werner
Biomedical Reference Librarian
Crerar Library Room 127
773-702-8552
Email Deb

Andrea Twiss-Brooks
Director of Research and Teaching Support
Regenstein Library Room 181
773-702-8777
Email Andrea

Catherine Uecker
Rare Books Librarian
Regenstein Library, The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, Rm 130
773-702-8711
Email Catherine