The Center is grateful for the support of its generous donors. Donors help make the Center's ongoing efforts to get, make accessible, and preserve unique resources in the history of medicine possible. The Center applies all unrestricted financial gifts to its most urgent priority: making collections that researchers are currently waiting to use or that are completely hidden open to the public.

Donations can support Discovery and the Archives for Women in Medicine. Archives for Women in Medicine donations also support the Archives for Diversity and Inclusion. For other opportunities, contact the Director of the Center for the History of Medicine, Scott H. Podolsky, M.D.

The Countway Library also accepts planned gifts, gifts of stock, and other gift vehicles in support of the Center. Please contact Kate Murphy, Managing Director of Gift Planning, for information.

How to Give

By check. To donate using a check, please download and complete the Discovery Fund Donation Form or the Archives for Women in Medicine Donation Form. Please make your check out to Harvard Medical School and mail it with your form to:

Harvard Medical School Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine P.O Box 419720 Boston, MA 02241-9720

By credit card. To donate using a credit card, please use Harvard Medical School's online giving form. Under the "Select a Fund" menu, donors should pick either "Countway Discovery Project" or "Archives for Women in Medicine."

Discovery

Help expand access to the Center for the History of Medicine’s renowned collections. Opening research resources that cannot be discovered—or used—by students, scholars, or the general public is one of the Center's most urgent needs. These research records, teaching records, speeches, and writings are not accessible because they are:

  • Unprocessed. Collections must be analyzed, organized, and described for online discovery and use.
  • Under-processed. Older collection descriptions and indexes are not up to standard. We need to update and put online better collection descriptions so that people know what is in a collection before coming to the Center. Online tools speed research and access.
  • Unavailable for remote use. Digitization makes remote use of collections possible. Digitization empowers researchers to examine our remarkable resources all over the world.

Discovery funding can also be used to support the cataloging and description of thousands of uncatalogued or under-catalogued Warren Anatomical Museum objects. If you would like your donation to support Museum cataloging, please write "For WAM" on your Discovery Form per the directions above.

Every gift makes a difference! Gifts of all amounts help us increase access to research resources. For example:

  • $100 can convert an hour-long lecture or oral history interview for online delivery.
  • $500 buys the specialized containers needed to house fragile one-of-a-kind collections.
  • $1,000 can digitize 500 pages for online delivery to remote users.
  • $10,000 makes it possible for us to create an inventory for every incoming collection for one year.
  • $20,000 pays for the organization and description of between twenty and thirty cubic feet of papers.

Archives for Women in Medicine/Archives for Diversity and Inclusion

The Archives for Women in Medicine, now part of the Archives for Diversity and Inclusion, exists because of the generous support of donors. Donations make it possible to get, make accessible, and preserve records that tell the story of women’s achievements in medicine and the medical sciences. The AWM was founded by Kathryn Hammond Baker, the Center for the History of Medicine's Deputy Director from 2007 to 2015. Her commitment to the Countway Library was instrumental in creating and advocating for acquiring and making accessible the collection of women. Kathryn believed the AWM would help educate and inspire future scholars and physicians through understanding the experiences of women.

On average, a $1000 donation opens one cubic foot of unique 20th-century paper records to research. Your tax-deductible gift in any amount makes an immediate and tangible impact on the description, preservation, and celebration of women’s achievements. We would like to thank the following legacy donors for their generous support of the program.

The Center thanks the following donors for giving in memory of Kathryn: Mary Cassesso and Peter Miller; Margaret Dale; Micheline Federman; Martin Hirsch; Amalie Kass; Mary Loeken; Judith Montminy; Eleanor Shore; Jo and Maxwell Solet; Donna Younger; Roslyn and Stuart Orkin; Isaac Schiff; Andrea Farkas Patenaude; JoAnn Manson; Scott H. Podolsky; and E. Tessa Hedley-Whyte.