All posts in Books

A photograph of the Library book display, showing thirteen brightly coloured books on a cabinet surrounding a metal bust of Sir Richard Doll.

London Book Display

As we continue to welcome new and returning students to LSHTM, we have put together a selection of books from our collection about the city of London. From bubonic plague to air pollution, the works collected cover many of the challenges of living in this city over the centuries. Whether…

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World rabies day, 28 September 2022.

28 September 2022 marks World Rabies Day. This year’s theme is “One health ; zero death” : see: https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2022/09/28/default-calendar/world-rabies-day-2022The World Health Organization has a target for the elimination of deaths due to dog-mediated infection…

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Sir Humphry Davy : illustrious former owner of a book on the plague now in LSHTM Library. LSHTM Rare Books Blog series No. 5. August 2022.

Like most books in the Library’s Special Collection our copy of A Treatise on the Plague by A.B. Faulkner, published in 1820, was acquired secondhand. This was probably purchased from an antiquarian bookseller by our first librarian, Cyril Barnard, who was actively adding books of importance to the…

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Under the lens : London’s water examined in the 1853-4 cholera pandemic. LSHTM Rare Books Blog series No. 4. May 2022.

Figure 1:  Colourful organisms in a sample of the water supplied by the Southwark & Vauxhall Company to St. Thomas’s Hospital in 1854 as seen under the microscope (Hassall 1855a : page 248, Plate 19).

This illustration of a microcosm of the natural world in London’s water in…

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Observations on Smallpox by the 9th Century Persian Physician Rhazes (865-925) : LSHTM Rare Books Blog series No. 3.

This is the latest in the LSHTM Rare Books Blog, featuring Rhazes (full-name: Muhammad ibn Zakariyā al-Rāzī). Rhazes made notable contributions to many areas of medicine. His manuscripts, carefully preserved down the centuries, were among the first medical books printed in Europe in the 15th century. After translation into Latin Rhazes’s writings became widely disseminated and were to influence the future direction of western medicine.  

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Library Display: International Day of People with Disabilities

The theme for the 2021 International Day of People with Disabilities is “Fighting for rights in the post-covid era”, something LSHTM knows a lot about.

The 3rd of December is International Day of People with Disabilities, it originated back in 1992 by the United Nations, as a day of…

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Inter Library Loans : update

Image: Abhi Sharma on Flickr (CC BY 2.0 license)

We’re pleased to be able to provide books and other physical materials via Inter Library Loan (ILL) once again. ILL is a useful service for all current LSHTM staff and students in those instances when you’re looking for…

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The Pamphlet Collection: Superman takes on his biggest foe.

Superman says “Never say yes to a cigarette”

Once again we are delving into the pamphlet collection, this time to bring you a glimpse of an early 80s public health campaign, staring Superman.  This can be found in the upstairs gallery at classmark GFW.AH.41.

Public Health Campaign…

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History and politics of vaccination

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) : LSHTM Rare Books Blog series No. 2

Figure 1: Portrait of A.R. Wallace

ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE (1823-1913) : British naturalist, humanist, geographer, social critic… and anti-vaccination activist(!)

Alfred Russel Wallace was one of the founders of evolutionary biology. In 1858 he and Charles Darwin jointly proposed a theory for the process of evolution by natural…

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The Library and students at LSHTM.

LSHTM Library update: Borrow books from 8 November!

We’re delighted to announce that from Monday 8 November all LSHTM students and staff will be able to browse and borrow books from the Library. There will also no longer be a need to reserve a study space in advance. All you will need to access the Library and…

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