C LIO ’S CO LUM N: ESSAYS ON THE HISTORY OF THE HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARIES, LIBRARIANS, AND PRINT CULTURE A tale of a dentist and his books: classic dental books in the Becker Medical Library E lis a b e th B ra n d e r, M A , M C S DOI: http://dx.doi.Org/10.3163/1536-5050.103.2.011
The Henry J. McKellops Collection in Dental Medicine is 1 of 9 rare book collections housed at the Ber nard Becker Medical Library of Washington University in St. Louis. It currently contains 760 titles that cover 500 years of dental history, ranging from 1532 up to the mid20th century. The heart of the collection is the personal dental library of St. Louis-based dentist Henry Jerome Byron McKellops, which was assembled between 1850 and his death in 1901 and was greatly admired by his colleagues. McKellops was born August 31, 1823, in Salina, New York, and moved to St. Louis in 1840 with his mother and older sister. He worked as a page in the Missouri Legislature and used the money he earned to study at the University of Missouri in Columbia. In 1846, he began to study medicine at the St. Louis Medical College; however, his brother-in-law George Silvers lured him away from medicine and into dentistry. As a dental practitioner, he was partic ularly well known for his prefer ence of using gold and platinum fillings rather than amalgam. He also demonstrated the use of the mallet to dental societies in En gland and France, and introduced continuous gum work (a method of constructing dentures that in volved soldering artificial teeth to a platinum base and binding them together with porcelain cement) to the St. Louis dental community. Dr. McKellops was highly re garded in the profession and served as the president of the American Dental Association as well as several regional dental organizations. His death in 1901 was marked by obituaries in sev eral dental periodicals, including Dental Cosmos which praised him for his skill as a practitioner and
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school catalog until 1910, when an entry stated that about 600 volumes of the McKellops library had been acquired in 1905 [4].J The books were then housed at the Ridgley Library, located on what is now the Danforth Campus of Washington University, five miles distant from the dental school. In 1912, they were moved to the dental campus itself, but they remained uncataloged and unshelved until 1928, when the school hired a librarian. The collec tion remained at the dental school until its closure in 1991, and it then became part of the Becker Medical Library's special collections. The praise for McKellops's li brary was not unwarranted. The collection contains an impressive number of dental classics from the sixteenth century onward, and most of the major names in the history of the discipline are represented. The earliest work in the collection, and probably the most spectacular in terms of rarity and historical interest, is a 1532 edition of the Zene Artzney printed in Mainz, Germany. When it was initially published in 1530, this relatively slim volume—which consists of excerpts from estab lished medical authorities such as Celsus, Galen, and Avicenna—was the first printed work dedicated solely to dentistry [5]. Following this is Eustachi's treatise Le Libellus de Dentibus, published in 1583. This was the first work on dental anatomy and one of the few works Eustachi published during his own lifetime [6]. The library purchased * Most of McKellops's biographical infor it for the collection in 2013. The great eighteenth century mation is taken from this obituary, t Information about McKellops's collection dental classics are also present.
his contributions to dentistry as a whole [1].* One of McKellops's greatest leg acies proved to be his dental library. He may have started col lecting in 1850, and probably ac quired several volumes while practicing in London and Paris between 1863 and 1865. He also seems to have employed agents working both in the United States and abroad to secure relevant pub lications [2]. The result was a collection documenting the history of dentistry in both the United States and Western Europe that was widely admired by the St. Louis dental community. On May 11, 1901, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch declared that "The only collection of books devoted exclusively to dentistry which approaches [McKel lops's] in completeness is that of the Odontological Society in Lon don." Four years later in 1905, Dr. John Campbell wrote, "Had Dr. McKellops left no other record to insure the perpetuity of his name than this collection, he surely would be entitled to the highest consideration as a promi nent figure in the annals of the dental profession" [3]. The story of what befell McKel lops's collection immediately after his death is unfortunately some what vague.J While it eventually came into the possession of the Washington University School of Dentistry (then simply known as the Dental Department), the collec tion was not mentioned in the
after his death can be found in School of Dental Medicine records that are a part of the Becker Medical Library Archives. They contain correspondence to and from Edna Gordon, who served as the dental librarian in the 1930s.
t A letter from Dr. Hermann Prinz of the Thomas W. Evans Museum and Dental Institute to Edna Gordon states that the books were bought "through the generosity of Adolphus Busch."
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The McKellops collection holds both the 1771 first edition and the 1778 second edition of John Hunt er's The Natural History of the Human Teeth, with its beautiful illustrations by Jan van Rymsdyk. This work is notable for its under standing of the jaw [7], Also present in the collection are the second and third editions of Pierre Fauchard's Le chirurgien dentiste, which is often regarded as one of the founding texts of modern dentistry. While Fauchard did not make any groundbreaking discov eries himself, he set out to collect all existing dental knowledge into one textbook and make an end to the secrecy that had plagued the profession up to that point [8]. Most of the collection's holdings document American and British dentistry during the nineteenth century. They include the 1803 first edition of Joseph Fox's Natural History of the Human Teeth, which is the first work describing how to correct dental irregularities [9]; an 1814 first edition of the first fulllength dental work published in the United States, Benjamin James's A Treatise on the Management of the Teeth [10]; and a first edition of The Dental Art by Chapin Aaron Harris, which was published in 1839 and became one of the century's most popular dental texts [11]. The works of G. V. Black, a highly influential figure in American den tistry who was known for his work
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on cavities, are also present. It also contains some humorous works. The McKellops collection holds both the London and Philadelphia imprints of The Tooth-Ache, a rather charming comic that was written by Horace Mayhew and illustrated by George Cruikshank, two giants of nineteenth century British satire; and the dental poetry of Solyman Brown is also present. During his life, McKellops as sembled an impressive collection of dental literature that is now a valuable resource for researchers with an interest in the history of dentistry. Its holdings document important developments in many aspects of dentistry, including or thodontics, dental disease, and dental anatomy; and they cover a period of five hundred years. The collection has been completely cat aloged and is searchable through the library's website at becker .wustl.edu, and the library is free and open to everyone. Elisabeth Brander, MA, MLS, brandere@ wustl.edu, Rare Book Librarian, Bernard Becker Medical Library, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, 660 South
Euclid Avenue, Campus Box 8132, St. Louis, MO 63110 References 1. F.L.H. Dr. Henry J. B. McKellops [obituary]. Dental Cosmos. 1901;43: 702-5. 2. McKellops BB. Letter to Edna Gor don. 27 Feb 1937. 1 leaf. Located at: Washington University School of Den tal Medicine Records, Bernard Becker Medical Library Archives, Washington University School of Medicine. Box 18, Folder 7. 3. Campbell J. The late Dr. McKellops' Library. Dental Era. 1905;4:534-6. 4. Prinz H. Letter to Edna Gordon. 17 Feb 1937. 1 page. Located at: Washing ton University School of Dental Med icine Records, Bernard Becker Medical Library Archives, Washington Univer sity School of Medicine. Box 17, Folder 8.
5. Norman JM, ed. Morton's medical bibliography: an annotated check-list of texts illustrating the history of medicine (Garrison and Morton). 5th ed. Hants (England): Scolar Press; 1991. 1243 p. Entry no. 3667. 6. Norman JM, ed. Garrison and Morton. Entry no. 3668. 7. Norman JM, ed. Garrison and Morton. Entry no. 3675. 8. Norman JM, ed. Garrison and Morton. Entry no. 3671. 9. Norman JM, ed. Garrison and Morton. Entry no. 3679. 10. Norman JM, ed. Garrison and Morton. Entry no. 3679.3. 11. Norman JM, ed. Garrison and Morton. Entry no. 3680.
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