“The power, too, to study correctly what has been written I consider to be an important part of the art of medicine.”
–Hippocrates (460?-377? B.C.)
In 1872, two years after the University of Iowa medical school was founded, the General Assembly allocated $500 for books for the medical library. At that time, The Medical School (built in 1864) was located in South Hall. No records exist however, regarding the location of the library.
In 1882, a new Medical Building was erected immediately to the south of South Hall. At this time, specific space was allotted to the some 500 volumes that comprised the collection.
The medical library remained in the Medical Building for 19 years, moving from the first floor to the third floor and back again during this time.
On March 10, 1901 a devastating fire destroyed both South Hall and the Medical Building. All but 17 of the 1500 volumes in the medical library were lost.
After the fire, the medical library was moved into North Hall with the other books from the general library collection. North Hall had suffered its own fire on June 19, 1897 in which 25,000 of its 35,000 books were destroyed by a lightning fire.
North Hall was partially restored and continued to house the general library as well as the medical library until more suitable quarters could be located.
The General Library, which had incorporated the medical library after the 1901 fire, moved in January 1902 to the new Hall of Liberal Arts (now Schaeffer Hall). The new quarters, while fire-proof were so cramped, that many departmental libraries grew up within the building and throughout the campus.
Almost from the beginning, the medical library was referred to as the Ranney Memorial Medical Library owing to the generous contributions of Mrs. Mark Ranney of Mt. Pleasant who bequeathed her late husband’s personal collection, first in 1883, and later in 1901 following the Medical Building fire.
The Hall of Natural Sciences (now MacBride Hall), erected in 1904, became home to the General Collection in 1907. The Medical Library was also removed to this location where it remained until 1925.
Because of crowded conditions, the stacks were closed to browsing almost from the beginning; many books were kept in individual offices while many others were kept in small departmental libraries across the campus.
In 1907, the Middletonian described the medical collection as “a large group of books on medicine and surgery and about sixty of the best medical journals printed, both current and back numbers.”
In February of 1925, all of the medical resources of the University Libraries (including many departmental collections that had been purchased with library funds), were consolidated and moved to the Library Annex, a building originally constructed in 1890 and remodeled for library use at a cost of $10,000
The Library Annex was a temporary home for the medical library while construction began on the medical campus on the west side of the river. During this time, a trained medical librarian, Emma Felsenthal was hired to make the library conform to established medical library practices. She reorganized the collection, assigned a uniform classification scheme, initiated interlibrary loan service, filled in the gaps in the periodical collection, and established new circulation procedures and regulations. When the time came for the move to the medical campus, the collection included nearly 12,000 volumes.
The Medical Laboratories was home to the medical library from 1928 through 1974. During this time the collection grew from 12,000 volumes to over 100,000.
Current Periodicals Table, Medical Library, c. 1938
Reading Room, Medical Library, c. 1938
Reading Room, Medical Library, c. 1938
During WWII, a special table was set apart for books relating to war medicine.
Periodical display area, Medical Library, c. 1943
Medical Library, Reading Room, c. 1943
The Medical Library included four floors of open stacks. Typical of many libraries of the time, the passageways were narrow and the floors were separated with low, translucent ceilings. A dumb waiter was used to move the books from one floor to another. [photo, c. 1967]
Finding a space to house the overflowing collection was no easy task as attested by this 1965 letter in which the Director of Libraries turns down (with good reason) some recently vacated space offered by the College of Medicine.
During it’s 46 years in the Medical Laboratory Building, the interior of the Medical Library changed relatively little except for the ongoing expansion of the collection. In 1966, approximately 40,000 volumes were shipped to a storage space on the Oakdale campus. Twice a week messenger services retrieved the needed volumes as requested by users.
Medical Library Reading Room, c. 1967.
A view of the stairwell connecting the stacks, c. 1967.
In 1972, the Medical Library was one of the first institutions in the Midwest to offer the recently developed Medline system. The first Medline searches were performed on a teletype machine nearly identical to the one shown here. The machine printed at a rate of 10 characters per second.
As the 1960’s drew to a close, the space crisis had become so critical that volumes had to be shelved on their back or double-shelved.
As early as 1954, Ralph Ellsworth, Director of University Libraries urged that the University explore the possibility of a consolidated library that would house the combined collections that served the various health colleges. This need was reiterated by Leslie Dunlap in 1961 and by 1966 the Board of Regents tentatively approved a plan to fund and erect a new structure that would fulfill this purpose. Robert C. Hardin took on the task of overseeing the project through to its completion. The Chicago based firm of Skidmore Owens and Merrill was selected to design the building; Walter Netsch was selected as the architect.
As early as 1954, Ralph Ellsworth, Director of University Libraries urged that the University explore the possibility of a consolidated library that would house the combined collections that served the various health colleges. This need was reiterated by Leslie Dunlap in 1961 and by 1966 the Board of Regents tentatively approved a plan to fund and erect a new structure that would fulfill this purpose. Robert C. Hardin took on the task of overseeing the project through to its completion. The Chicago based firm of Skidmore Owens and Merrill was selected to design the building; Walter Netsch was selected as the architect. By 1969, the plans were approved for the building.
No state tax funds were used in the construction. Federal funding in the amount of $2,335,755 was awarded from NIH while the remainder came from Foundation support and individual contributions. 
The Health Sciences Library shortly after construction, 1974
photograph of the interior shortly after completion
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences Extreme Makeover – 2004 
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences Extreme Makeover – 2004 
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences Extreme Makeover – 2004
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences Extreme Makeover – 2004 
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences Extreme Makeover – 2004 
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences Extreme Makeover – 2004 
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences Extreme Makeover – 2004 
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences Extreme Makeover – 2004 
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences Extreme Makeover – 2004 
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences Extreme Makeover – 2004 
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences Extreme Makeover – 2004 
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences Extreme Makeover – 2004 
