The McGovern Research Center collections include rare books, photographs, postcards, manuscripts, medical portraits, and a small number of medical instruments and artifacts. The book collections focus on the history of medicine, rheumatology, and public health in North America. The manuscript collections document health care institutions and physicians in Houston, Texas, and the work of rheumatologists throughout the United States. Postcards depict hospitals, spas, and physicians' homes throughout Texas. SERVICES: Reference service onsite, by mail, or e-mail. Photocopying available. In-house database Gazetteer of Texas Physicians. Catalog web accessible (see address above). Books are listed in OCLC.

McGovern History of Medicine Collection: 8,000 (est.) titles with emphasis on 19th and early 20th century American imprints; Cora and Webb Mading Public Health Collection: 2,000 titles with emphasis on contagious diseases and U.S. public health; Burbank/Fraser Collection on Arthritis, Rheumatism and Gout: 3,000 (est.) titles; Menninger Clinic Collection of Rare and Historical Titles: 3,000 (est.) titles on psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Photographs: 40,000 (est.), includes 10,000 images of local physicians and health care institutions, and the photo archive of the journal Medical World News. Manuscript Collections: 3,400 (est.) linear feet includes papers from members of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, Philip Hench (Nobel Laureate), local physicians, the NASA Life Sciences Collection from the Johnson Space Center, and the Melnick Collection on the History of Poliomyelitis Research. The Gazetteer of Texas Physicians database provides biographical information, references to obituaries, and locations of portraits for over 12,000 deceased physicians licensed in Texas after 1907. The Postcard Collection: 1,100 images of Texas hospitals, clinics, spas, and physicians' homes. The Medical Arts Publishing Foundation Collection: c. 1,500 paintings and drawings of notable historical figures in medicine, cancer research, and Texas medicine. Printed Catalog: A Guide to the Papers of Hilde Bruch. Other guides available on the McGovern Web Page.