The H. Richard Tyler Collection of the American Academy of Neurology Library

Detail of the spinal cord from Charles Estienne’s La dissection des parties du corps. Paris: chez Simon de Colines, 1546. Page 366.

H. Richard Tyler (b. 1927) received his medical degree from the Washington University School of Medicine in 1951. He led the Neurology Division at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston from 1956-1988 and is an internationally renowned neurologist at Harvard Medical School.

Although neurology became a specialty late in the 19th century, its origins are in early anatomical atlases and general medical works that depict and describe the nervous system, or specifically the brain or the spinal cord. As such, works in the H. Richard Tyler Collection cover the 15th to 19th centuries.  Of the 7,000 volumes in the collection, the majority are landmarks in neurology and neuroscience. Dr. Tyler’s donation ensures that future neurologists and medical historians will be able to uncover and interpret the beginnings and development of this significant field in medicine.

If you would like more information about the collection, please visit the digital exhibit Rare Books at Becker.