Histories of Canadian hospitals and schools of nursing

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INTRODUCTION

The creation of this bibliography began with the aim of listing all separately published histories of Canadian hospitals, it has been expanded slightly to include separately published histories of Canadian schools of nursing and Canadian university faculties of health sciences as these are closely associated with hospitals. Though it is a rather fine line, a few biographies are included if their subjects are closely identified with one institution. If a history appears in frequent 'editions' with almost the same pagination I have usually only included the title once - on the expectation that these 'editions' are really reprints. Histories of hospitals operated in foreign countries by Canadians - primarily armed forces hospitals - are included as are a few general histories of hospitals in Canada . The list includes a couple of videos or DVDs .

The bibliography does NOT include:

• histories which were published as articles in journals.
  
  
• histories published as university theses. Though theses are normally excluded the listing does include a few; these are usually histories of hospitals not covered, so far, by a published history. Most of the theses mentioned are available, often in electronic full-text, from ProQuest or UMI. Some theses have been digitized and are freely available on the Thesis Canada website
  
  
• general city, town or area histories which have separate chapter(s) on local hospitals and
  
  
• general histories of institutions, usually religious, which operated hospitals.

Hospitals get re-named, merge and are closed with great regularity - I have tried to be consistent about names and try to use the name as used by the authors of the book.

Several of the older items are available on fiche or online through the CHIM microfiche or Early Canadian Online projects from Library and Archives Canada. A few others are freely available full-text online as part of the Our Roots-Nos Racines project.  In general, information on microform or electronic versions of printed items is not included.  

The Catholic Health Association of Canada (CHAC) is working on digitizing printed histories of Catholic hospitals and nursing schools; to date the results, though listed on their website, are not yet publicly available. In 2005 the CHAC produced a CD-ROM - A compendium of the Catholic Health Association of Canada; this contains several useful lists of Catholic hospitals, and some of the publications and archival sources connected to them. They list some histories which are not listed here as it is unclear if they were published as separate items.

This bibliography has been produced by searching the Canadian national union catalogue (AMICUS), OCLC's WorldCat, the catalogue of McGill University, the catalogue of the US National Library of Medicine, the catalogue of the Bibliotheca et Archives nationales du Québec and those of several Canadian university libraries. The online catalogues of the various Provincial Archives and the Toronto Public Library have also been consulted. Earlier printed bibliographies have proved helpful - in particular Charles Roland's two volume Secondary sources in the history of Canadian medicine and the History of nursing beginning bibliography edited by Shirley Stinson and colleagues. As the second volume of Roland's bibliography was published in 2000 and the Stinson bibliography was published in 1992 neither have listings from recent years. It should be noted that both volumes of the Roland bibliography are freely available on the web as part of the Alberta Medical History Collection. There is also the excellent website on hospital history in Québec City produced by Archives nationales du Québec and Université Laval. For a very complete bibliography - listing books, articles and theses - on mental health in Canada, including a few institutional histories, see HERE.

As this project was initially, and primarily, undertaken to assist McGill University's Osler Library of the History of Medicine evaluate and improve its Canadiana holdings, it has been annotated with a Martlet () to show that the McGill University Library owns the item. Most of these Martlet annotated titles are held in the Osler Library though a few are in other Branches of the McGill University Library.

There is an interesting general article on Canadian hospital history, written by Barbara Lazenby Craig, in Archivaria 21 (Winter 1985/86.) To quote Craig "... quality [of hospital histories] varies with the purpose intended for the publication. Most are executed by dedicated employees or associates of the hospital to celebrate an anniversary or achievement. They reflect pride in accomplishments, confidence in the future, and reverence for the achievements of medical science and the tradition of selfless service which marked the careers of hospital board members, employees, and volunteers. It may be tempting to dismiss these celebrational efforts as naive, but unquestionably their authors' sharp appreciation of the importance of the hospital eluded the professional practitioners of the historical craft until a few years ago." It is certainly true that the quality, scholarship and completeness of the histories noted in this bibliography varies but I have generally included rather than excluded - particularly where a hospital would otherwise be unlisted.

It is anticipated that there are both omissions and errors in this listing; it would be appreciated if these were reported to me.

The Osler Library - whose collection is already very strong in this area - aims to increase its holdings of medical Canadiana. Offers of either gifts or potential purchases can be addressed to Christopher Lyons at  osler.library@mcgill.ca

The bibliography is regularly updated and the date of the most recent update to each of the six geographic sections is shown at the top of the appropriate page.

DAVID S. CRAWFORD
Emeritus Librarian
McGill University
28 October 2012

david.crawford@mcgill.ca