Dental education has a long history in Louisiana, dating as far back as 1861, with the establishment of the New Orleans Dental College (1861-1877). The Dental Library has a collection of historical photographs documenting the various dental schools which have operated in the area. There are also various commencement programs and yearbooks from these schools. This collection is held in the Dental Library’s workroom and is available by request.

The LSUHSC Libraries collect archival material relating to the early Medical School as well as all the later schools of the New Orleans campus. Materials include the Catalogs and graduation programs.

The Isché Library has a capsule collection of monographs (books) that highlight the history of Louisiana Medicine. These are shelved on the 3rd floor. There is also a collection of 158 pamphlets that were acquired in the early years of the campus which mostly contain reprints. These are housed in the Library’s rare book room. 

The Librarians at the Isché Library have created a Resource Guide on the history of South Louisiana Hospitals. Additionally, the library owns archival boxes about hospital history compiled by James T. Nix (1887-1945) as his contribution to the Rudolph Matas History of Medicine in Louisiana. The Library also houses some material relating to the history of Charity Hospital in New Orleans.

The LSUSD News was first published in 2001 and continues today. It documents the achievements of the students, faculty, and staff of the School of Dentistry as well as announcements and updates concerning the school. The LSUSD Alumni Newsletter, Dental Connections, was published from 1973-2005.  This collection is held in the Dental Library’s archives office and is available by request.

The Dental Probe was a newspaper published by the students at Louisiana State University Dental School from 1971-1976. This collection is held in the Dental Library’s archives office and is available by request.

Some comments contained within these newspapers may be offensive to modern readers. These publications are products of their time and presented here for their historical value. LSUHSC Library New Orleans in no way condones these statements nor do they take any responsibility over statements contained herein.  

Documents related to the 64th General Hospital, a World War II medical unit organized by the LSU Medical School. Materials included in the collection are declassified US Army reports, transcripts of interviews conducted in 1971 with medical officers, personal photographs from soldiers as well as professional Army photos, and hospital newsletters from training (The Roar) and while abroad (64th General Observer). Material originally collected by Dr. Charles Watkins.

The Tiger and The Tiger Rag were newspapers published by the students of the Louisiana State University Medical Center. The Tiger, first published on September 19th, 1932, produced 8 volumes of issues from 1932-1940. From 1940 to 1946 it became Journal of the LSU School of Medicine and took a more scholarly approach. Following a brief hiatus, The Tiger Rag was published 1950 to 1994 by the LSU School of Medicine, New Orleans.

Some comments contained within these newspapers may be offensive to modern readers. These publications are products of their time and presented here for their historical value. LSUHSC Library New Orleans in no way condones these statements nor do they take any responsibility over statements contained herein.  

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the Libraries are collecting materials relating to Katrina and the LSUHSC campus in New Orleans.

This growing archive will include oral histories collected by the library for the 20th anniversary of the storm, photos and videos (some available digitally), bibliographies, and other materials from the years after the hurricane.

Louisiana was the location of the only National Leprosarium in the continental United States in Carville near Baton Rouge. The Isché Library worked with the National Hansen’s Disease Center in 2011 to digitize the entire collection of the patient newsletter, The Star. The Leper Home Report (1896-1916) was digitized in 2016. 

The Isché Library has a collection of early medical supply catalogs. The oldest catalog is dated from 1856 and the newest from 1952. There are 49 catalogs in the collection, the majority of which were acquired from D. H. Worsley about 1950.

Since 1933, the LSUHSC Library Staff have searched and saved articles relating to the campus and Charity Hospital from The States-Item, The Times Picayune and NOLA.com. This collection is currently broken into two sections, 1933-1984 and 1985-present. The oldest part of the collection has been digitized through 1972. 

The Yellow Fever Collection is comprised of two sections: The Aristides Agramonte Yellow Fever digital collection and the pamphlet collection.

The Agramonte Collection is comprised of over 140 full text historic books and journal articles, dating from 1790 through 1930. This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. N01-LM-6-3505 with the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library.

Additional pamphlets, primarily reprints, are also owned by the Isché Library. These may have been in the collection of Aristides Agramonte (1868-1931). Agramonte was a member of the first Yellow Fever Commission (1900), sponsored by the US Army. He was appointed as the first head of the department of Tropical Medicine. Unfortunately, he passed away before classes started in 1931. The original name of the LSUHSC Library was the Agramonte Memorial Library, a name it retained into the early 1950s.

The Isché Library has the Conquest of Yellow Fever by Enrique Alferez on display in the Library Commons. It was created for the 1930s era original medical school building and features Alferez, as well as Walter Reed, James Carroll and Jesse Lazear.