Information for Curators and Registrars
The National Library of Medicine loans items from its history of medicine collections for display in public exhibitions to qualifying institutions on a case by case basis. If you represent an organization that is interested in arranging a loan, please email: hmdref@nlm.nih.gov.
Exhibition Requirements
Borrowing institutions are required to meet museum exhibition best practices and standards to protect collections from unnecessary damage during transportation and exhibition. All items will be reviewed by an NLM conservator prior to loan. Requirements will include specifications for the exhibition environment, monitoring, security, display, and transportation. Please email hmdref@nlm.nih.gov for details.
Recent Loans
NLM and Sackler conservation staff review an 18th century book on loan.
Since 2012, loans have been arranged to:
- Yeshiva University Museum for its exhibition Trail of the Magic Bullet: The Jewish Encounter with Modern Medicine, 1860–1960
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art for The Cloisters’ exhibition Search for the Unicorn: An Exhibition in Honor of The Cloisters' 75th Anniversary. Read more...
- The Grolier Club of New York for its exhibition Extraordinary Women in Science & Medicine: Four Centuries of Achievement. Read more...
- The Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution for its exhibition Yoga: The Art of Transformation. Read more...
- Jewish Museum of Maryland for its exhibition Beyond Chicken Soup: Jews & Medicine in America.
About the Library
The National Library of Medicine is a part of the National Institutes of Health, one of America’s national libraries, the world’s largest biomedical library, and home to a world-renowned collection of historical material related to human health and disease: from archives to monographs, films to ephemera. The Library celebrates its historical collections through its award-winning Exhibition Program, which develops and presents exhibitions and multidisciplinary educational tools that make the National Library of Medicine’s historical collections available to audiences around the world.
