The New Jersey Historical Society was founded in 1845. The library collections include more than 65,000 printed books and pamphlets; 2,000 maps; newspapers, periodicals, broadsides; more than one million manuscript items. Materials related to the history of medicine are found in both the printed and manuscript collections. The Historical Society's Museum Department contains artifacts relating to the practice of medicine and dentistry. Please contact the Museum Collection Manager (ext. 230) for more detailed information about these items.

The Guide to Health Care and Social Welfare Manuscript Collections at the New Jersey Historical Society (The Library. Newark: New Jersey Historical Society, June 1998) includes detailed descriptions of the medical history collections and includes an appendix with finding aids and container lists. The extensive holdings include: account books of 19th century doctors; the casebook of Marietta Woodruff, 19th century female physician; daybooks, including pharmaceutical and vaccination experiments; various research papers by physicians; and diverse papers on medicine, nurses and nursing, women, drugs, patent medicine, social services agencies and organizations; prescriptions from physicians in all areas of the State; personal journals from 1768 to 1930, but mostly early-mid 19th century; records of births and deaths with coroner's inquest records; lecture notes; speeches; diaries; diplomas; scrapbooks; and materials from troop physicians active in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. The papers of the Medical Society of New Jersey (1766-1888) and the archives of the Academy of Medicine in New Jersey (1775-1968) are an important part of the collection. All of finding guides for the above-mentioned collections are available in full-text and searchable on the Historical Society's archive website at: http://www.jerseyhistory.org/archives_browse.html.