Marcia Crocker Noyes: The Librarian Who Never Left

I am so pleased to announce the publication of "Marcia Crocker Noyes: The Librarian Who Never Left," a biography of our librarian of 50 years.

Marcia was hired by Dr. William Osler in 1896 to be the first trained librarian for the Faculty, as it was then known. She was required to live and work on the premises, so that if a physician needed a book in the middle of the night, she could get it out of the stacks.

When we built our current building in 1909, she was highly involved in the design of it, as it was also to become her home. Marcia died in 1946 and her funeral was held in Osler Hall, a fitting testimony to her long friendship with Dr. Osler.

Of course, we've all heard stories about how she's never left the building. In fact, in her latter years, she mentioned that she would stay away for a few days, and then come back to haint (haunt) the building. And indeed, she has!

The book is available in two formats: an 80-page soft-cover edition for $30.00, and a digital format for $5.00. The funds raised by the sale of the book will be used to support the MedChi archives. 

To purchase the book in either format, either scan or click the QR code below. 

I hope that you will enjoy reading the book as much as I did researching and writing it!

More About Dr. Davidge

All of a sudden, after Baltimore Fishbowl published an article, and the University of Maryland's PR Department went into overdrive, we are getting a lot of press about our donation to the UM Medical Alumni Association. 

Here is a list of all media mentions thus far!

Baltimore Fishbowl 

UMSOM Elm 

UMSOM P.R. Office 

WMAR-TV 2 30 second blurb  

UMSOM – Clip from WBAL

Baltimore Sun – Our Mona Lisa

The Daily Mail (US edition)

Capital Gazette

WMAR-TV2

WMAR-TV2 YouTube

The Baltimore Banner

ArtNet News

Smithsonian Magazine's Cool Finds

Hopkins School of Medicine Photos in the Osler Years

I was going through some of our old Osler books, as well as the ones I recently acquired (see last post), and scanned in a bunch of pictures. Because of the age of the books, they are all out of copyright, so I am republishing some of them here. 

See how many of the names you recognize from Old Baltimore Medicine days!

New Acquisitions

I recently found out that Marcia was a big fan of auctions, and when we moved into our building in 1909, she scoured the local auction rooms for furnishings for the building. She collected paintings, rugs and furniture to make the building feel like a warm and welcoming place for the members. 

Over the past 12 years, I've continued the tradition of buying items for the building and collections from auctions. Recently, I made a great purchase, which I got for my favorite hammer price - insultingly low!

I got Sir William Osler, Bart. [Baronet] Brief Tributes to His Personality, Influence and Public Service (Baltimore, JHU Press, 1920; A Way of Life (Baltimore, Remington, 1928) and The Bibliography of the Writings of Sir William Osler, Minnie Wright Blogg (Baltimore, Privately Printed, 1921). Miss Blogg was the librarian at Johns Hopkins Hospital. 

Another book I won was Sir William Osler Memorial Number: Appreciations and Reminiscences (Montreal: Privately Published, 1926) 619 pages. 

The memorial number is FILLED with dozens of photographs, many of which I'd not seen before. It was printed in a limited edition and the copy which I got is number 1424 of 1500.

The book is more than 600 pages and there are numerous essays from each part of Osler's life, including the early years, Montreal, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Oxford.

Many of the essays are reminisces from old friends and colleagues.

It has been fascinating looking through the book, and when I have the time, I will pick and choose the essays I want to read.

Happy Independence Day!

 From Everyone at MedChi

Happy Independence Day 2025!