Department of History of Medicine: picture archive

In view of the importance attached to the illustration of medical history in scientific publications and in the media, it was obvious when Erna Lesky was appointed chief of the institute in 1960 that the wealth of deposited pictorial material had to be compiled and made generally accessible in archives specifically created for this purpose. Max Neuburger's collection, which he began to amass in 1906, formed the core of these archives. His rich and diverse collection comprised portraits and descriptive illustrations in every conceivable form of reproduction, namely paintings, copperplate engravings, woodcuts, watercolours, pencil drawings, photographs, colour prints, etc. Moreover, it contained original drawings and watercolours by Anton Elfinger and Carl Heitzmann, the eminent illustrators of the Vienna Medical School of the 19th century, as well as caricatures produced by Nikolaus Damianos of the Billroth-Klinik, in addition to thousands of portraits of medical personalities of every nation and era. The most prominent otologists of the world around 1900 are particularly well represented in numerous original photographs. These come from the collection of Adam Politzer, the great Viennese otologist of the time, and were presents from his pupils to their mentor. Another group of medical portraits originates from Theodor Billroth's collection, which was in the possession of the Gesellschaft der ƒrzte until transferred to the institute in 1966.

The catalogue of the picture archives requires constant updating, owing to continual augmentation through legacies, gifts and permanent loans of illustrative material representing all areas of medicine.

Particularly noteworthy collections are the watercolours which served as basis for the illustrations of skin diseases in Ferdinand von Hebra's "Atlas der Hautkrankheiten" , as well as Leopold Metzenbauer's original gouaches covering the subject of organ transplantation, which have been widely reproduced in specialist text-books.

These archives, which currently comprise around 40,000 individual items, are supplemented by a collection of about 9,000 diapositives for the illustration of lectures given to students and also to the general public, as well as about 700 ectachromes primarily used in the publication of high-quality illustrative plates.

The fact that the picture archives are very frequently consulted has ensured that sufficient funding has been allotted by the Ministry of Science for full computerisation of the facilities. Adaptation of the new premises in accordance with the approved plans for accommodating the picture archives has already commenced.