In 1932, not long after the building of the Welch Medical Library, physician and philanthropist Henry Barton Jacobs gifted his collection of books, prints, and medals to the Institute of the History of Medicine. This collection, housed in its own room at the Southwest corner of Institute, holds a large and growing selection of the works of notable physicians such as René Laennec, Louis Pasteur, Edward Jenner, and William Osler.
Join Michael Seminara, Curator of the Historical Collection at the Institute of the History of Medicine, for a look of the life, the room, and the books of Henry Barton Jacobs.
Michael Seminara is the Curator of the Historical Collection at the Institute of the History of Medicine. In this role, he oversees the development of the rare and circulating collections of about 70,000 books, along with manuscripts, images, and artifacts. With 10 years of experience in library special collections, Michael is an advocate for the use of primary sources and is always happy to discuss research with students and scholars. He holds a BA in Comparative Literature from Stony Brook University and an MLIS from Rutgers University.
Working as a professional librarian since 1979, Ms. Hesson brings solid experience in information services and management. She has been employed by Johns Hopkins University for over thirty years in various information services and information management capacities. Her current role as a Public Health Informationist is to serve the information needs of the faculty, staff and students of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In that role she provides instruction on how to access the wide-ranging resources through the Welch Medical Library and Sheridan Libraries websites, instructs how to use citation management products, collaborates with researchers in various literature reviews, and provides information sessions as well as one-on-one instruction on how to effectively search the various literature databases.
Event DateFriday, April 24, 2026Start Time: 12:00pm EDTEnd Time: 1:00pm EDT
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ContactOffice of Alumni RelationsPatrick BurkeLifelong Learning(800) JHU-JHU1hopkinsathome@jhu.edu
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