Guide to American Medical Biography

Major Sources (post-1946) --  Major Sources (pre-1946) --  Finding More

Significant figures are often the subject of obituaries or historical articles in the medical literature or in the history of medicine literature.

PubMed (1947- ) is an index to medical periodical literature covering all areas of medicine.  When you search in PubMed, you're searching the article description- the citation, abstract and other features- not the full text of the articles within. If too many articles are found using the individual's name on its own, the search may be limited in Advanced Search by searching the name as a
Subject -- Personal name.

Also, try the following Publication Types:

• Biography (includes obituaries)
• Autobiography
• Interview

Although PubMed is a free resource providing some free full text, library subscriptions may connect to full text within PubMed, so log in through your institution where possible.

PubMed Central (2000-) is a free digital archive of articles. Unlike PubMed, Pubmed Central (PMC) searches full text of many papers, so names in many group obituaries are findable.  It also includes many articles not included in PubMed.  Search your person’s name as a phrase (in “”). If there are too many results add obituary or death. 

Many of the articles not available in full text can be found with the person’s name, but for others the records have only titles such as In Memoriam or Obituary. Many of these have the person’s last name (only) in the invisible metadata.  These can be found with a search of the form:  (“In Memoriam” or Obituar*) and Perkins.

More Information: MEDLINE, PubMed, and PMC (PubMed Central): How are they different?

The Index-catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office (U. S. Army), Authors and Subjects (IC), available in print and online, is the richest source of pre-PubMed medical bibliography. About Index-Catalogue. WorldCat Record

• Important: There is a hiatus in article indexing depending on the letter between 1936 and 1947 when PubMed starts. Fill this gap with Index Medicus (see below).
  • Why? The IC volumes covering articles as well as books were published in four series (ser. 5 covers books only).  The first volume of ser. 4 appeared in 1936, so IC indexing for the letter A ends in 1936. Series 4 stopped with entries beginning with Mn covering the literature of 1949. 
• Obituaries and biographical articles can be found in the Index Catalogue by searching the person’s name (try first name and just initials) as a Subject.  The word Obituary is supplied in the metadata if not in the actual title.
• IC lists books under author and subject. Articles can be found in the digital version by searching by author. Obits and other articles about a deceased author are listed at the end of the entry for his/her books. Authors of these articles cannot be retrieved by an author search; use a keyword search. 
• IC can be searched in HathiTrust Advanced Full Text search: put the name in the Full Text field and Index Catalogue as a phrase in the Title field. 
• Online: To get the best pool of results, search both by keyword and by name.
• Print version: Take short citations within biographical notes and then go to the longer listing.

Index Medicus

Index Medicus (1879- ) and related periodical indexes of medical literature offer indexing for the hiatus in Index Catalogue coverage (see above) and for some articles not included in the Index Catalogue.  These indexes, with the several name changes of the Index Medicus and links to HathiTrust full text versions where available, are listed here.

Some names occurring in Index Medicus are not found in HathiTrust searches, presumably due to OCR problems caused by surnames originally having been printed in boldface. 

"Henderson, Thomas J 1925" doesn't work, but "Thomas J 1925" does

Much of Index Medicus can be browsed in HathiTrust.  The Biography section is at the beginning of each issue.

More information:

• The great contribution: Index Medicus, Index-Catalogue, and IndexCat.
• Finding Older Medical Indexes in Print

Cumulative index to nursing & allied health literature (print only) . Glendale, CA, Glendale Adventist Medical Center. v. 22- 1977-2007.
Online version: CINAHL Complete. Peabody, Mass.: EBSCO Pub., 1937-  .
--Continues: Cumulative index to nursing literature (print only). Glendale, Calif.] Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital Association, v. 1/5-21; 1956/60-1976.
--Obituaries under Obituaries until vol 11, thereafter in terminal Names section.

Nursing studies index (print only). Montreal; Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott Company, v. 1-4, (1900-1959)
--Biographies listed in the Biography section in the main alphabetical sequence.

International nursing index (print only). NY: American Journal of Nursing Co., 1966-2000.
--Included in PubMed

Journal of Medical Biography (1993- ) (Institutional login) offers topical and biographical articles on physicians.  Searchable on web site,  full text by subscription.

ISISCB Bibliographic Resources in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine indexes biographical articles in the History of science and medicine literature.  It offers a browse of the Isis Cumulative Bibliographies (1913-1975). Search ISISCB Explore

Medical Obituaries: American Physicians' Biographical Notices in Selected Medical Journals Before 1907 (print only), by L. M. Holloway. NY: Garland, 1981, 513 pp. 
--Not comprehensive, but among the most inclusive compilations of material from 81 state and regional medical journals, 20 homeopathic journals, and other specialized sources including specialized sources on Civil War physicians (Bull Med Libr Assoc., 1982 Jul; 70(3): 342)
--Affectionately termed "Dead Docs" by librarians and archivists, even before it was published.

Physicians' obituaries: an obituary index to the Journal of the American Medical Association (print only). Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1989.

An Index of obituaries published in the Medical Register of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, 1862-1896, by A. White. NY: White, 1943, 32 lvs. WorldCat Record. Available online via free log in at FamilySearch