The Library of Rush University Medical Center has sold its Stanton A. Friedberg, M.D. Rare Book Room collection to the University of Chicago. The collection of rare medical books contains more than 3,700 volumes published between 1500 and the present.

Proceeds from the sale, as well as the current endowment for the Rare Book Room, will be used to create a new endowment in Friedberg's name to support scholarly activities associated with the library at Rush.

In tribute to the former chairman of Rush's Department of Otolaryngology, the collection will be known as the Stanton A. Friedberg M.D. Rare Book Collection of Rush University Medical Center at the University of Chicago. Friedberg graduated from Rush Medical College in 1934, when it was affiliated with the University of Chicago. In addition to being strong supporters of Rush, Friedberg and his wife, Martha, were also longtime friends of the University of Chicago and donated books from Friedberg's library to the Hyde Park university. The affiliation that existed between the University of Chicago and Rush Medical College between 1898 and 1941 makes the University of Chicago an especially appropriate home for Friedberg's rare medical books.
"The University of Chicago will provide outstanding curatorial services and a stable physical environment for the valuable collection," said Christine Frank, director of the Library of Rush University Medical Center. "The history of medicine has been a focus of book collections at the University of Chicago since the early 20th century. These materials are used extensively by historians of science and medicine, art historians and cultural historians."

The University of Chicago Archives maintains the professional papers of physicians associated with Rush Medical College, as well as administrative records related to the University of Chicago's medical school. The papers of University of Chicago and Rush Medical College graduate Morris Fishbein and Rush Medical College faculty member Nicholas Senn are just two examples of the interlocking relationships between the two institutions, reflected in the collections.

When the University of Chicago merged its science collection with the John Crerar Library in the early 1980s, many rare books, the professional papers of Chicago physicians and the archives of Chicago medical organizations came to the University of Chicago Library. These acquisitions further deepened the documentation of personal, professional and institutional connections between the University of Chicago and Rush University Medical Center.

At the University of Chicago, the Friedberg's rare book collection will be open to members of the Rush University Medical Center community as well as other interested researchers who wish to study the history of medicine and the relationships between these institutions and the individuals who built and were associated with them.

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