History Collections
The Laupus Library History Collections offers books, artifacts and archival collections relevant to the history and practice of health care, primarily in eastern North Carolina.
Dating back to 1536, the collection contains materials from across the world encompassing the fields of medicine, nursing, allied health sciences, dentistry, pharmacology, public health and domestic health. All materials are available for research.
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Explore our Collections
Rare Books
Dating back to 1536, the rare book collection contains books from across the world encompassing the fields of medicine, nursing, allied health sciences, dentistry, pharmacology, public health and domestic health.
Manuscripts
Archival materials from the Country Doctor Museum and the library are housed in the library’s History Collections. Patrons are able to research the advancement of health care with the growing collection of more than 180 archival collections.
Our archival materials include our Oral History Collection, which includes a number of interviews that have recently been made available online.
Visit ECU Libraries Collection Guides to browse our manuscript collections.
Artifacts
The library houses over 400 artifacts and the museum houses over 4,000 artifacts related to the history of medicine. A portion of our artifacts have been digitized and are available through our Digital Collections. We invite you to come to library or visit The Country Doctor Museum to explore our artifacts.
Exhibits
We periodically house traveling exhibits from the National Library of Medicine to bring the history of medicine alive. We also curate exhibits from our own library and museum collections.
Country Doctor Museum
The Country Doctor Museum is the oldest museum in the United States dedicated to the history of America’s rural health care. Located in Bailey, NC, the museum invites people of all ages to visit and learn about the history of rural health care in the United States. Docents lead tours through three buildings of exhibits and are available to answer questions. Exhibits contain artifacts relevant to the practice of medicine between the late 18th century and the first half of the 20th century.
The Medical History Interest Group
The Ruth and John Moskop History of Medicine Lecture Series are presentations for the Medical History Interest Group. This group consists of anyone interested to learn about and discuss issues relevant to the history of health care. Each year, scholars from within and outside of ECU are invited to speak about issues relevant to the history of health care.