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History of Medicine

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Here Today, Here Tomorrow: Varieties of Medical Ephemera
Here Today, Here Tomorrow: Varieties of Medical Ephemera banner. Here Today, Here Tomorrow is written in brown lettering above Varities of Medical Ephemera written in blue letter. Addiction written in blue lettering below an image of a woman laying in a bed with two children at her side. AIDS written in blue lettering below a red AIDS ribbon Bookplates written in blue lettering below an illustration of a man leaning against a stack of books holding a rod of Asclepius in his left hand. Children written in blue lettering below a color image of a boy sitting in a chair playing doctor on a dog lying on a table while three girls look on. Medical Education written in blue lettering below an illustration of a doctor making patient rounds in a hospital with three students attending. Medicine Show written in blue lettering below a color illustration of the cover of Graphic Scenes Kickapoo Indian Life in the South and West. Public Health written in blue lettering below a diagonal half white half black illustration with a cigarette in the center surrounded by a red circle with a line through it. The bottom right black diagonal has Thank you for not smoking here written in white lettering. Tuberculosis written in blue lettering below a predominantly blue poster with white and yellow lettering. In the center is an illustration of Santa Claus holding a little girl in one arm and an oversized Christmas seal in the other hand. Buy Christmas Seals Fight Tuberculosis is in yellow lettering at the bottom. Women written in blue lettering below a black and white image of a woman standing and taking the pulse of a man sitting in a chair. In the upper left corner are the words The Lady Doctor in black lettering.

Bookplates

Collectors not only paste their own bookplates in their books, they also frequently have copies made to trade with like-minded colleagues. Later, free of associations with their original owner, such bookplates become ephemeral objects. Artists commissioned to design bookplates will often include images related to their patron's interests. In the case of medical bookplates, such images usually include aspects of medical specialties - an operating scene for surgeons, an infant for pediatricians, etc. There are also many examples with a microscope, caduceus, or scalpel for physicians, a tooth for dentists, or a mortar and pestle for pharmacists.

The bookplate of Frederick G. Banting, a Nobel Prize winner for his discovery of the use of insulin in diabetes, featured a laboratory scene, and that of the movie actor, Jean Hersholt, who played a physician in a film on the Dionne quintuplets, displayed flags of his native and his adopted countries. Bookplates by well-known artists such as the Viennese Michael Fingesten, who made a number of examples for physicians and pharmacists, (one of which is shown) are especially prized.

Bookplate for Ex Libris Julius Buri featuring a color lithograph of a man leaning against a stack of books holding a rod of Asclepius in his left hand.

Ex Libris Julius Buri,
color lithograph,
n.p., c. 1925,
10.3 x 10 cm.

Bookplate for Ex Libris Alfred Ade, Tierarzt u. Botaniker featuring an etching,of a pig sitting on a chair with its hoof being held up by Alfred Ade. Surrounding them are other animals wearing bandages.

Ex Libris Alfred Ade,
Tierarzt u. Botaniker,
etching,
Germany, c. 1925,
14.7 x 11 cm.


Viktor L. Arnet's Black and white bookplate featuring a wood cut of a man standing outdoors in a mountain setting.

Viktor L. Arnet,
woodcut,
n.p., c. 1935,
15.3 x 11.8 cm.

Frederick G. Banting's book plate featuring a photograph of a laboratory with the words Ex Libris below it and Frederick Banting's signature.

Frederick G. Banting, M.D.,
lithograph,
c. 1925,
10.8 x 9.2 cm.


Bookplate for Ex Libris Dr. J. Catasus. It is a red colored lithograph of a skull with the words Ex Libris between the cranium and the mandible. The cranium is actually two naked women sitting on the mandible holding their arms up while holding snakes toward a bowl held by the woman on the right in the center of the cranium.

Ex Libris Dr. J. Catasus,
color lithograph,
n.p., 1952,
13 x 8 cm.

Bookplate for Henry T. Child, M.D. featuring an engraving on the left side of a man holding a flag with the word Excelsior on it. On the right side is printed Henry T. Child, M.D. No 634 Race Street, Philadelphia. Number 553 has been handwritten in the lower half.

Henry T. Child, M.D.,
engraving,
Philadelphia, c. 1875, 6.5 x 10.4 cm.


An engraving of a man sitting on a bench with one leg crossed over the other and holding a book open on his lap. He is barefoot and there is a heraldic shield resting on the side of the bench and a rod of Asclepius lying on the ground beside the shield.

John Currier,
engraving by Bartolozzi after Segueuira,
England, 1805,
12.3 x 8.3 cm.

A color lithograph bookplate with the words Ex Libris Dr. Med. A. Frank on the bottom. A red cross shining white light is surrounded by four dark pillars with barbed wire on them. Below the words and the illustration is a drawing of an arm holding a sword over a countryside. Below that is the signature Ch Kunst.

Ex Libris Dr. Med. A. Frank,
color lithograph by Ch. Kunst,
n.p., c. 1935,
17.5 x 10 cm.


Bookplate of Ex Libris, Knowledge is Power, Jean Hersholt. It features a lithograph of a naked person sitting on an open book in front of a scale. On the sides are braziers with billowing smoke leading up to a Danish flag on the left and an American flags on the right.

Ex Libris, Knowledge is Power,
Jean Hersholt,
lithograph,
n.p., c. 1950,
9.2 x 7.4 cm.

An engraved bookplate for Oliver Wendell Holmes. At the top is a sea shell with the words Per ampliora ad altiora below it in a banner. Below the banner in script is Oliver Wendell Holmes' name.

Oliver Wendell Holmes,
Per ampliora ad altiora,
engraving,
Boston, c. 1875,
10.3 x 7.4 cm.


A hand colored bookplate etching of Ex Libris Dr. Fritz Murath. The etching is of a surgical operation room with a doctor leaning over the patient with five other surgically garbed people in the scene. On the bottom is an illustration of a mountain with a backpack, pickaxe, and skis on the ground.

Ex Libris Dr. Fritz Murath,
hand colored etching by K. Horby (?),
n.p., 1932,
13.3 x 8.2 cm.

Printed bookplate stating that this volume belongs to Prichard's Circulating Library, engraving, Baltimore.

This volume belongs to Prichard's Circulating Library,
engraving,
Baltimore, c. 1870,
10.9 x 7.5 cm.


A colored lithograph of a fat pig walking on two feet with a cane in its left hand using its right hand to shake the left hand of a man holding up a hat in his right hand. The caption at the top says Die die dir zu rohkost raten Essen Selber Schweinbraten!. The words Ex Libris Dr. K. Schultz are at the bottom with the signature Fingesten in the bottom right corner.

Dr. K. Schultz,
Die die dir zu rohkost raten Essen Selber Schweinbraten!,
colored lithograph by Michel Fingesten,
n.p., c. 1925,
12.4 x 10.3 cm.

Engraved book plate for Yale University Library, From the fund in memory of Albert DeSilver, Yale. In the center is a reproduction of La Pharmacie by Jacques de la Joie.

Yale University Library,
From the fund in memory of Albert DeSilver, Yale, 1910,
engraving reproducing La Pharmacie by Jacques de la Joie,
New Haven, c. 1925,
8.7 x 6.7 cm.

Last Reviewed: January 25, 2024