April 2016 Historical Book of the Month

Image of blackberry from American Medical Botany

In honor of Earth Day, this month’s chosen resource is Jacob Bigelow’s American Medical Botany, a 3-volume set published between 1817 and 1820 and one of the first titles published in the United States containing colored plant illustrations.

Sixty beautiful colored plates were produced using a special process invented by Bigelow himself. Each entry includes a plant’s botanical history, chemical examination, medicinal uses, and dissections of the flower and fruit from the plant.

For more information on the collections of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library, contact Andrea Schorr, Head of Resource Management, at schorr@uthscsa.edu or 210-567-2403.

Article Categories: History of Medicine, News from the Libraries, Treasures of the P.I. Nixon