Request Materials

Researchers can request locked Medical Historical Library books and archival material through Orbis, Quicksearch, and Archives at Yale. Please do this for access to locked stacks materials to use in the Medical Historical Library Office/Secure Reading Room. These collections do not circulate.

Once in Orbis or Quicksearch, click the following link in the record:

The first time you “Request for Use in the Medical Historical Library,”  you will be prompted to register, unless you have previously registered as a patron at another Yale Special Collections, such as the Beinecke Library.  After that, the information will automatically populate in the form. Put in the date you are planning to come to the Medical Historical Office to view the materials, and Submit the request.  For requests to see materials not in cataloged in Orbis, please email historical.library@yale.edu with any questions.

Please make sure that you are only requesting materials with a location of Medical/Historical. At this point, materials from other parts of the Yale University Libraries cannot be transferred to Medical Historical Library for viewing. Learn more about requesting materials for other Yale Library special collections through "Using Special Collections" website.

Many, but not all, of the Medical Historical Library collections can be found through Orbis and Quicksearch, the Yale University Library catalogs. Please consult the Library's Digitized Collections for a selection of materials that are not contained within Orbis, including parts of the Prints and Drawings collection, Posters, Yale Medical School photographs, Postcards, Bookplates, Medical and Scientific instruments, and more. 

There are also multiple books and articles on the Library collections which are helpful in discovering materials. Please see the bibliography on the Medical Historical Library collections. 

Also note that two of the Cushing catalogs are available online: