Rare materials DO NOT circulate.
All rare books can be found in the Library Catalog. "Available at Moody Medical Library Blocker Collections (3rd Floor)"
Please make an appointment to request access to rare books.
Photography is permitted and scanning is available (depending on condition of item).
The Blocker Collections holds over 20,000 rare books, pamphlets, offprints and reprints, and journals dating to the late 14th century. The holdings of incunabula (books published prior to 1501) place the collection among the top medical sciences libraries in the United States. The strengths of this collection include both fundamental and secondary works in anatomy and surgery, anesthesiology, immunology, occupational medicine, and psychiatry.
The oldest work in the collection is John of Gaddesden's Rosa Medicinae. This edition was published in the 1390s and is handwritten on vellum. Other highlights of the collection include:
Titus Harris was UTMB's first professor and director of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology. In 1960, a small group of Dr. Harris' former residents formed the Titus Harris Society. Following Dr. Harris' death in 1969, the Titus Harris Society decided to memorialize the Chief by purchasing a 4,700 volume collection of rare books dating to 1479 on eclectic topics relating to psychiatry.
Highlights of the Titus Harris Collection include:
Items from this collection are noted in the catalog with the call number TH.
The Blocker Collections holds the most significant collection of materials once owned by Louis Pasteur outside of the l'Institut Pasteur in Paris. Included in this collection are several handwritten letters by Pasteur, all of his offprints and reprints, and materials from his personal library.
Highlights of the Pasteur Collection include:
Charles A. Berry, MD was the first "doctor to the astronauts" and worked with NASA through the Apollo program. In 1967, he was appointed the first director of the division of aerospace medicine at UTMB. The Berry Library was established in 199? with a donation from Dr. Berry. The library currently holds over 200 titles.
Highlights of the Berry Library include:
Items from this collection are noted in the catalog with the call number CB.
Additional archival materials relating to the history of aerospace medicine are also held in the Blocker Collections.