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Joseph Meredith Toner Collection at the Library of Congress

About the Collection

Bookplate of the Joseph Meredith Toner Collection, in: Olaudah Equiano. The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. 1791. Joseph Meredith Toner Collection. Library of Congress Rare Book & Special Collections Division.

In 1882, Joseph Meredith Toner donated nearly 50,000 books, pamphlets, scrapbooks, and issues of periodicals as well as maps, manuscripts, and innumerable files of newspaper clippings. The collection chiefly covers the subjects of medicine, natural history, and local and general American history.

The Toner Collection is historically significant to the Library of Congress as it marks, in the words of the Senate Report of May 16, 1882, "the first instance in the history of this government of the free gift of a large and valuable library to the nation." Dr. Toner described his library in a letter included in the same report:

"They are chiefly medical works and general and local American histories; publications relating to our climate and diseases; biographies of medical men...and works on the history of medicine in America from the settlement of the country to the end of the first half century of our national existence...My collection is...measurably rich in the early literature of small-pox, yellow fever, cholera, and the other epidemics, general and local, which have appeared in our country. My special collection of the early contributions to the literature of medicine in American and early American imprints is scarcely second to any in the country."

Aside from the legal works that have been assigned to the Law Library, maps that went to the Geography and Map Division, and an archive that went to the Manuscript Division, the printed material from the Toner Collection is kept in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. The 30,851 volumes and 7,739 pamphlets include extensive runs of nineteenth century medical journals. Books in the donation ranged from the 15th to the 19th centuries, including several incunabula relating to herbs and diseases.

Books in the collection can be found by searching the Library of Congress Online Catalog for "Joseph Meredith Toner Collection (Library of Congress)" as a phrase.

In addition, there are two Finding Aids that provide in-depth descriptions of portions of the collection:

  • Joseph Meredith Toner Collection of Manuscripts, 1741-1896 [online finding aid]
    Correspondence, diaries, addresses, lectures, writings, notes, lists, bibliographical material, genealogical material, printed matter, surveys, maps, and other papers primarily reflecting the personal and professional life of Toner, the history and practice of medicine in the United States, and the life and times of George Washington. Documents Toner's professional activities and leadership in literary, research, and historical societies in the District of Columbia; work in national and District medical societies; leadership in the development of the biographical history of American medicine; and his studies of elevations in the United States.
  • Joseph Meredith Toner Collection, Newspaper Clippings, 1816-1895 [available onsite at the Library of Congress]
    Miscellaneous newspaper, magazine, etc. clippings on a wide variety of subjects, including local history. Includes items on art, biography, business, civic functions, education, government, history, law, medicine, places of interest, recreation, religion, and science.

Collection Highlights

Benjamin Rush. Medical inquiries and observations, upon the diseases of the mind. 1812. Joseph Meredith Toner Collection. Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

The Joseph Meredith Toner Collection contains thousands of books relating to medicine and science, including some high points in medicine and natural history. He was an extremely active physician himself, serving in leadership positions in several medical associations, including as president of the American Public Health Association (1874), vice-president of the International Medical Congress in Philadelphia (1876), president of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia (1886-1887), and president of the American Medical Association (1874 and 1885). In these roles, he was a strong advocate for the use of the laboratory and other modern techniques in diagnosis and treatment, and he was a staunch advocate of public health measures including the availability of clean drinking water in cities and compulsory smallpox vaccination. His private library was rich in medical texts, both current and historic, and his strong interest in the use of statistics in public health is also reflected. Also included are copies of his own book, Dictionary of Elevations and Climatic Register of the United States, which reflects his interests in science, medicine, local history and geography.


The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Narrative of the life, trial, confession, sentence of death, and execution, of Ebenezer W. Cox.1830. Joseph Meredith Toner Collection. Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Joseph Meredith Toner was greatly interested in the local history of Washington, DC, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, as well as American history in general, with a special interest in George Washington. In 1884, he was one of the founders and the first president of the Columbia Historical Society, now the Historical Society of Washington, DC. 

Among his own works on the subject were the annotated publication of several of Washington's journals, diaries, correspondence, and other writings, and he collected letters to and from Washington. He donated his archive relating to Washington to the Library along with his own personal papers; here is an excerpt from the finding aid for the collection: "[Toner's Washingtoniana archive] consists of transcripts and printed copies of financial records, estate papers, and military papers, as well as genealogical records, clippings, lists, notes, and miscellany. In later life (circa 1880-1896), Toner attempted to make a complete collection of all of George Washington's writings. In pursuing this goal, he had verbatim copies made of every item in the Washington Papers that were then in the Department of State. He then attempted to secure exact copies of every original Washington letter in historical societies and library collections throughout the world. Next, accessible and original source materials exhausted, Toner procured copies of every available publication containing a Washington item. In addition, he had transcripts, heavily annotated, begining in 1747-1748, and, except for a few chronological gaps, continue to the day before Washington's death (December 14, 1799). Of the remaining material, perhaps most noteworthy are the transcripts of papers relating to Washington's military career and to his consociates in the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars. Of special interest in this connection is Toner's unpublished account of the services and campaigns of General John Forbes of the British Army during the French and Indian War."


The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Ortus sanitatis. 1497. Joseph Meredith Toner Collection. Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

As a bibliophile with a strong interest in the history of medicine, Joseph Meredith Toner collected early printed books relating to science and medicine, including several Incunabula, which are books printed in the first 45 years of moveable type from 1455 to 1500.

These add to the Library's already incomparable collection of 15th-century printed books, which is the largest collection in North America and includes a Gutenberg Bible.


The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

District of Columbia. Board of Public Works. Exhibit chart showing streets & avenues of the cities of Washington and Georgetown. 1873. Joseph Meredith Toner Collection. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.

Joseph Meredith Toner's interest in climate and geography culminated in his 1874 book, Dictionary of Elevations and Climatic Register of the United States, in which he examined how altitude and other geographic features affected health. It also intertwined with his interest in local and American history, which is reflected in his book collecting.

Many of the maps that Dr. Toner donated to the Library of Congress were eventually deposited in the Library's Geography and Map Division, and many of these have been digitized; you can find these by searching "Toner" in the Geography and Map Division's digital maps collections: https://www.loc.gov/maps/?q=toner.


The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.