Allen Memorial Library, home of Cleveland Medical Library, Howard Dittrick Museum of Medical History, Cleveland Branch of the Army Medical Library, Cleveland Academy of Medicine.

Date:
1949
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Allen Memorial Library, home of Cleveland Medical Library, Howard Dittrick Museum of Medical History, Cleveland Branch of the Army Medical Library, Cleveland Academy of Medicine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The Association owns the Allen Memorial Library Building, a three-story Indiana limestone structure of classic design situated at the corner of Euclid Avenue and Adelbert Road. On entering the build- ing through the main entrance on Euclid Avenue, one sees a two-story foyer finished in marble. There is a handsome and decorative stairway leading around three sides of the foyer to the second story balcony and the entrance to the reading room. The balcony is decorated with four heroic murals by Cora Millet Holden representing important events in the history of medicine. The main reading room is a two-story room 75 x 150 feet, containing book shelves lining the walls, magazine stands for current periodicals, adequate reading tables, and a display case for museum exhibits. The room is decorated with oil paintings of four members of the Cushing family. To the west of the reading room are the so-called members’ rooms, the Powell Room, the Lowman Room, and the Millikin Room which were generously provided by the families in honor of deceased members of the Association. These rooms contain special collections and are reserved for members’ use where they may smoke and lounge. The entire east end is occupied by the book stacks in an especially constructed fireproof portion of the building. The third floor contains a large exhibit hall in the center, surrounded by a series of special committee rooms, study rooms which may be assigned for members’ use, and a beautiful room especially designed and furnished to house the Howard Dittrick Museum of Historical Medicine. For the past eight years most of the third floor has been occupied by the Cleveland Branch of the Army Medical Library. The building was so constructed as to accommodate the offices of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine on the first floor with unlimited use of a beautiful auditorium accommodating about 550 people. There is also the Herrick Room, a smaller auditorium accommodating about 100 people. The judgment and vision of the Building Committee provided a building which has proven adequate for the needs of the Library for a quarter of a century and promises to continue to do so for at least a like period of time. The trustees have tried to maintain a library to provide a maximum of service with a minimum of cost to the mem- bers of the medical profession in general, with due attention to the needs of the specialists and research workers. The trustees feel that it is their first obligation to provide a sound and practical working library, but they have been able to acquire several notable collections of great cultural and historical value. These include the Nicolaus Pol Collection of Incunabula acquired as an anonymous gift in 1929, the George G. Marshall Collection of Herbals acquired by gift and pur- chase in 1946, and the E. H. Cushing Collection acquired in 1946 on indefinite loan.
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