Collection Guide
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Los Angeles County Medical Association Collection of Prints and
Ephemera
priLACMA
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Los Angeles County Medical Association collection of prints and
ephemera
Identifier/Call Number: priLACMA
Physical Description:
18.82 Linear Feet
(7 boxes, 1 oversize folder)
Date (inclusive): 1644-1951
Abstract: The Los Angeles County Medical
Association (LACMA) collection of prints and ephemera contains over 200 printed items
related to the medical profession, including satire, medical curiosities, significant
figures in the history of medicine, architectural views of hospitals, and the early years of
LACMA itself. Many of the prints are engravings, some are lithographs, and a small selection
are reproductions printed during a later period. The collection also includes personal
correspondence, medical certificates and photographs of members of LACMA. The materials date
from 1644 to 1946, although the bulk of the material dates from the late 18th to early 19th
centuries. The collection covers topics including medicine, health, pharmaceuticals, patent
medicines, quacks and quackery spanning over five centuries, as well as social perspectives
on both the practices and practitioners in these fields.
Language of Material: Materials are predominantly in
English, but also include materials in French and Latin.
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at
the Huntington Library for more information.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Los Angeles County Medical Association collection of prints and
ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
On long-term loan from the Los Angeles County Medical Association, 1992.
The Los Angeles County Medical Association was founded on January 31, 1871 by a group of
seven physicians, including Dr. Levi Dorr, Dr. William Edgar, Dr. John Griffin, Dr. Henry
Orme, Dr. T. H. Rose, and Dr. Joseph Widney. Over the remainder of the 19th century the
group contributed to the founding of several medical institutions in Southern California,
including the first hospitals and clinics in Los Angeles, and in 1885 the medical school at
the University of Southern California, with Joseph Widney serving as dean. In 1891, Joseph
Widney became president of USC while remaining dean of the medical school. In addition to
curing disease and caring for patients, the organization today emphasizes its commitment to
social advocacy for physicians by battling escalating healthcare costs, intervening in
malpractice lawsuits, and defending the autonomy of physicians.
The Los Angeles County Medical Association (LACMA) collection of prints and ephemera
contains over 200 printed items related to the medical profession. The materials include
satirical prints, medical curiosities, significant figures in the history of medicine,
architectural views of hospitals, and the early years of LACMA itself. Many of the prints
are engravings, some are lithographs, and a small selection are reproductions printed during
a later period. The collection also includes personal correspondence, medical certificates
and photographs of members of LACMA. The materials date from 1644 to 1946, although the bulk
of the material date from the late 18th to early 19th centuries. Noted artists from the
collection include British caricaturists Isaac Cruikshank and Thomas Rowlandson, French
engraver Pierre Roch Vigneron, German portrait artist Adolf Eckstein, and French anatomist,
painter, and printmaker Jacques Fabian Gautier d'Agoty.
Materials are arranged by genre or item type, and prints are loosely grouped topically:
British caricatures, medical curiosities, portraits, architectural prints, and general
medical prints. Prints are described at the item-level, with artists, printers, and
publishers indexed by name when available. Manuscripts, photographs, and ephemera are
described at the folder level and include a variety of materials, including trade cards,
medical advertisements, booklets, leaflets, periodicals, and printed billheads and
letterheads (with and without manuscript text). Notable items include a series of obituaries
(from approximately 1938) concerning the death of Dr. Joseph Pomeroy Widney, co-founder and
second president of the University of Southern California (Box 4, folder 3); a 1789
manuscript import certificate regarding surgical instruments imported from London for the
Pennsylvania Hospital (Box 4, folder 4); and an 1880 photo business card (printed in both
English and Spanish) for physician and surgeon Dr. Tom She Ben, a Chinese doctor who
practiced medicine in late 19th-century Los Angeles (Box 4, folder 6). A scrapbook assembled
in approximately 1920 by members of LACMA contains print and manuscript material related to
"Doctors and Specialists," as well as a specimen of human hair.
The collection offers information regarding medicine, health, pharmaceuticals, patent
medicines, quacks and quackery spanning over five centuries, as well as social perspectives
on both the practices and practitioners in these fields. Also of particular interest are the
medical curiosities prints. The images document the history of medical practitioners,
methods, and materials in Britain and the United States as well as ailments and illnesses
common during this period. Several items also help document the professionalization of
medicine in Southern California. As graphic materials, the collection highlights developing
techniques and trends in printmaking while documenting the artists, engravers,
lithographers, printers, and publishers involved in the creative process.
During processing, a small amount of widely published mid-to-late-20th century booklets and
clippings were deemed out of scope and deaccessioned by the Curator for the History of
Medicine and Allied Sciences.
- Collection forms part of the Los Angeles County Medical Association Collection.
In August 2019, Erin Severson, an intern through the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship
program, identified and described the prints in Series I as well as sorted materials in
Series II under the supervision of Charla DelaCuadra. In September 2019, Charla DelaCuadra
completed processing and created the finding aid. In May 2022, Mari Khasmanyan processed
additional materials into Box 7 that were previously separated from the collection.
The collection is arranged in the following series and subseries:
- Series I. Prints
- Subseries A. Architecture
- Subseries B. British caricatures
- Subseries C. Curiosities
- Subseries D. General medical
- Subseries E. Portraits
- Subseries F. Other
- Series II. Manuscripts and ephemera
- Subseries A. Certificates
- Subseries B. General ephemera
- Subseries C. Letters and receipts
- Subseries D. Scrapbook
- Series III. Photographs
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Advertising -- Drugs
Advertising -- Medicine
Medicine
Physicians -- Pictorial works
Sick
Certificates
Lithographs.
Photographs
Ephemera.
Printed ephemera
Engravings.
Intaglio prints
Portraits
Prints.
Relief prints
Architecture -- Pictorial works
Scrapbooks
Angerer,
V.
Blechinger, Jacob, active
approximately 1880
Boilly, Louis,
1761-1845
Bollinger, Friedrich Wilhelm,
1777-1825
Brödel, Max,
1870-1941
Buttre, John Chester,
1821-1893
Cooper, Robert,
1777-1857
Cruikshank, Isaac,
1756?-1811?
Dähling, Heinrich
Anton, 1773-1850
Delpech, François Séraphin,
1778-1825
Eckstein,
Adolf
Engelmann, G. (Godefroy),
1788-1839
Folkema, Anna,
1695-1768
Grégoire et Deneux
Grignion, Charles,
1721-1810
Harding, Chester,
1866-1936
Haughton, Matthew,
(Engraver)
Hogarth, William,
1697-1764
Houbraken, Jacobus,
1698-1780
Justyne, Percy
William, 1812-1883
Lairesse, Gérard de,
1640-1711
Leonardo, da Vinci,
1452-1519
Lowndes,
Francis
Maurin,
Nicolas-Eustache, 1799-1850
Nilson, Johann
Esaias, 1721-1788
Pugin, Augustus,
1762-1832
Reynolds, Joshua, Sir,
1723-1792
Ribera, Jusepe de,
1591-1652
Riggs, Robert,
1896-1970
Roth, Ernest David,
1879-1964
Rowlandson, Thomas,
1756-1827
Sand, Maurice,
1823-1889
Sargent, John Singer,
1856-1925
Stoufs, Jos
Vigneron, Pierre
Roch, 1789-1872
Wandelaar, Jan, 1690 or
1692-1759
Woodward, George Moutard,
approximately 1760-1809
Bluck, John,
(Printmaker)
Delpech, François Séraphin,
1778-1825
Stadler, Joseph
Constantine
Bowles, Carington,
1724-1793
Bowles, Thomas,
-1721
Fores, S.
W.
Hogg, Alexander, active
1778-1819
Holland, William, active
1782-1817
Hooper, S. (Samuel)
McLean, T. (Thomas)
Neumann, L.
T.
Nilson, Johann
Esaias, 1721-1788
Smeeton, George, active
1800-1828
Tegg, Thomas,
1776-1846
Virtue, George,
1793?-1868
Los Angeles County Medical
Association
Gautier Dagoty,
1717-1785