History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

470 History of Medical Practice in IllinoisFather August Reyling, the librarian at Quincy College and a memberof the Board of Directors of the Quincy Free Public Library, reported thathe had no knowledge either of Dr. Rooney's or Dr. Byrd's library, and ifsome of their volumes were included in the collection from the QuincyMedical and Library Association he would have no way of verifying thisfact. 24Nicholas Senn, a familiar figure in American medicine, was a noted bookcollector. A description given by Dr. Bayard Holmes 17 gives a conceptionof the magnitude of Senn's library. Alluding to Christmas-time of 1885idea of medical literaturewhen Dr. Holmes visited Dr. Senn's home in Milwaukee, he said:. . . ."There I saw his enormous collection of medical books and got my firstHe had bought a fine old mansion in Milwaukeeof the vintage of 1865, but the foundations of this structure were notequal to the carload after carload of books he placed on the walls of everyroom and hall—the kitchen and a few bedrooms alone excepted. Greatrents broke the plaster here and there as if the place had been bombarded,and supports filled the cellar, reminding one of a coal mine."This library which Dr. Senn had been assembling for years in the pursuitof his studies and his professional practice was a select one, containing thebest medical and surgical literature in English, German and French. Laterhe acquired the extensive and famous personal library of Dr. WilhelmBaum, professor of Surgery in the University of Gottingen and one ofthe founders of the German Congress of Surgeons.This great collection was given to the Newberry Library for public usein 1894, and, at that time, it was said, represented a monetary value of$50,ooo. 30 Dr. Senn had become anxious for the safety of its priceless possessionsbut it was Mrs. Senn, appreciating the value of her husband'slibrary, who emphasized the insecurity of a private house from fire andother casualties. In April 1894, this accession to the medical departmentof Newberry Library commenced to be received, and in a short time a totalof more than 7000 books, volumes and rare sets of periodicals were theresafely stored and shelved. By the terms of the donation they were to beknown as the "Senn Collection," were to be kept together on the shelves,retained as a library in their entirety and separately catalogued. In 1906,this collection was conveyed to the John Crerar Library.The Senn Collection leads one to inquire further about the fate of theprivate medical libraries which were assembled in Chicago between thetimes of Elijah Dewey Harmon and the Great Fire of 1871. Because therewas no appreciable concourse of books in any public library, zealous physiciansto gain access to medical literature had to build up their own libraries,and we may assume that many such collections—most of them, perhaps of30 Stone, R. French (editor): Biography 0/ Eminent American Physicians and Surgeons.Carlon and Hollenbeck, Publ., Indianapolis. 1894.