American Osler Society 2018

The 48th Annual Conference of the American Osler Society will take place from May 13-16 at the University of Pittsburgh. 

I submitted an abstract to present a paper in November and in early January, I found that my paper had been accepted! My paper is titled How Marcia Noyes and Sir William Osler Built a Library. 

When Marcia became our librarian in 1886, the collection was in complete disarray, with fewer than 5,000 outdated volumes, mostly in boxes from a move several years earlier. 

Working together, Dr. Osler and Marcia began to build the collection bit by bit, exchanging journals with other medical societies, subscribing to new journals, creating the Medical Library Association and planning a stacks library in a not-yet-build new headquarters. 

Theirs was a friendship which lasted until Osler's death in 1919. But the association continued long after that, until Marcia's death in 1946. She was close friends with Osler's nephew and the keeper of his book collection, W.W. Francis. She corresponded with the new Osler Library at McGill University in Montreal and they traded books and letters back and forth. 

In the summer of 2017, I continued that friendship with a visit to the Osler Library where I was welcomed warmly by the staff. 

Once I've presented my lecture, I will post the notes and photographs here.