Photographic Collections - Portraits of Physicians and Scientists

Area:	Library
Start:	15 June 2009
End:	15 February 2010
Description:	The library of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science houses several photographic collections which include portraits of physicians and scientists. They have been recently catalogued and are now available in the cumulative data bank. The approximately 650 items, available in different formats, have been taken by important Italian and foreign studios and date back to the period between 19th and 20th centuries. These items are accompanied by a large number of photographs of paintings, drawings, engravings and other works of art pertaining to prominent figures in the history of medicine and physical-mathematical sciences. The photographic collections include the following: Caricatures of Italian physicians; Business cards portraying medical doctors and scientists; Postcards portraying doctors and scientists; Photographic portraits of doctors and scientists; Artwork portraying physicians and scientists. The existence of these collections is perhaps due to one of the main aims that our Institute had proposed to achieve since its foundation which is "to have an iconography of scientists". A great number of the portraits was certainly acquired to become the iconographic set for the biographical index of the Great Catalogue which had been planned for the 1st National Exhibition of the History of Science (Florence, 1929) but never published.
Link:	biblioteca.imss.fi.it/acquisti/lista_ritratti.pdf

.................................