Land Acknowledgment
Yale University acknowledges that indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples, have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.
History
Elihu Yale himself donated Yale College’s first medical volumes in 1718. Nearly a century later, Yale president Timothy Dwight and the Connecticut State Medical Society opened the Medical Institution of Yale College. Yale’s first medical library opened in 1814. By 1865, however, the Yale College library integrated the medical library’s 1,200 volume collection into its catalog and shuttered the first medical library.
It wasn’t until 1940, at the behest and bequest of three medical school professors (Harvey Cushing, John F. Fulton, and Arnold C. Klebs), that the School of Medicine opened its own medical library once again.
The current medical library building was completed in 1940 and dedicated to Harvey Cushing in 1941. Located within the Sterling Hall of Medicine, the library was designed in the shape of a Y with wings for the Historical Library Reading Room and the Morse Reading Room, with stacks below for books and journals. The central rotunda honors Harvey Cushing (1869-1939), the father of neurosurgery, who graduated from Yale College in 1891 and returned to Yale in 1933.
The library’s fine historical library was conceived in 1935 when three physicians, Harvey Cushing, John F. Fulton, and Arnold C. Klebs, agreed to donate their major collections of early texts in the history of science and medicine to Yale. These collections, including the incunabula, Robert Boyle, William Harvey, Andreas Vesalius, Hippocrates, and Galen Collections as well as the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Century Collections are shelved in a closed sub-stack area. The Historical Library’s holdings also include an excellent print collection and a world-famous collection of weights and measures.
In June 1990, a gift from Betsey Cushing Whitney, widow of John Hay Whitney and daughter of Harvey Cushing, made possible the completion of a major renovation and expansion project, resulting in the addition of the modern sky-lit Information Room and increased study and stack space. The Library was renamed the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, honoring Cushing and John Hay Whitney (1904-1982), Yale graduate, editor of the Herald Tribune, and patron of the arts.
Today…
The Medical Library serves the biomedical and health care information needs of the Yale New Haven Medical Center and the University, as well as providing service to area physicians and medical libraries. It is strategically positioned in the heart of the medical campus and serves as the main library for the Yale Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, PA programs, and the Yale New Haven Hospital. The collections cover clinical medicine and its specialties, the pre-clinical sciences, public health, nursing, and related fields. They also include the Historical Library’s distinguished holdings. The library now contains more than 416,000 volumes.
Mission
The Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library provides access to an extensive array of information resources and tools, offers research assistance and expertise, and delivers meaningful services to our users, to support innovation and excellence in biomedical research, patient care, and the development of scholars and future leaders in healthcare.
Guiding Principles
- Be vital to the mission of Yale University and the Yale New Haven Medical Center.
- Understand the changing and diverse needs of our patrons, both local and remote.
- Be flexible and quick to adapt to changing needs and technologies.
- Promote and use the best tool for the job.
- Exceed patron expectations in providing high quality collections, services,
and education. - Represent the Library’s ethic of honesty, integrity, and trust.
- Support the staff in meeting the mission and guiding principles of the library.
Staff Values
The staff values, developed by and for Yale Library staff, are intended set the tone for our collaborative work, communication, and interactions with library users. Yale Library patrons and visitors are invited to embrace and practice these values in community with us.
We commit to cultivating a supportive and inclusive work environment. We hold ourselves and each other accountable for embodying these values in our shared work:
- Access We champion equitable, ethical access to the record of human thought and experience
- Diversity We value our differences and promote inclusion and mutual respect in our community, discourse, and spaces
- Creativity We nurture a culture of curiosity and innovation
1718
Elihu Yale donates Yale College’s first medical volumes.
1814
Yale President Timothy Dwight and the Connecticut State Medical Society open Yale’s Medical Institution. Yale’s first Medical Library opens.
1865
The Medical Library’s 1,200-volume collection transfers to Yale College Library. Yale’s first Medical Library closes.
1934
Harvey Cushing, John F. Fulton, and Arnold C. Klebs plan to donate their extensive rare historical book collections to Yale in the hopes Yale would build a separate medical library.
1940
Yale builds a dedicated wing for a new medical library in the Sterling Hall of Medicine.
1941
The Medical Library is dedicated to Harvey Cushing.
1990
Betsey Cushing Whitney’s donation facilitates the renovation and expansion of the Medical Library. The Library is renamed the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.
2019
The Medical Library undergoes a renovation to update and reimagine library spaces to better support teaching, learning, and research