Becker Medical Library is pleased to announce that Richard A. Chole, MD, PhD, has generously donated over one hundred rare titles relating to otolaryngology to its rare book collections.
Dr. Chole served as Lindburg Professor and Head of the Department of Otolaryngology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis for 17 years before stepping down in 2015.
This donation will enhance the library’s existing holdings in otolaryngology with a number of fascinating and significant works while complementing nicely the CID-Max A. Goldstein Collection in Speech and Hearing.
Highlights from the donation include:
- A 1684 edition of French anatomist Guichard Joseph Duverney’s “Tractatus de Organo Auditus,” a significant work of early otology that includes several copperplate engravings depicting the anatomy of the ear.
- The 1792 edition of William Buchan’s treatise on domestic medicine, one of the most popular 18th-century medical texts intended for a lay audience.
- An illustrated atlas of the normal and diseased states of the eardrum by Adam Politzer, one of the founding figures of modern otology, that includes beautiful lithographic plates.
- “An Essay on the Human Ear and Plain Advice for all Classes of Deaf Persons” by William Wright, an English aural surgeon who was employed by Queen Charlotte.
We are delighted to add these works and the rest of the Chole Collection to Becker Library’s rich special collections to be freely used by scholars for decades to come.