The DITTRICK MUSEUM OF MEDICAL HISTORY, named the Museum of Cultural and Historical Medicine in 1928, is owned by the CLEVELAND MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSN. (CMLA) and located on the 3rd floor of the Allen Memorial Medical Library in UNIV. CIRCLE. The museum evolved from a collection of artifacts documenting medical history begun when the CMLA was founded in 1894. Museum exhibit space did not exist until 1926, when the CMLA built the Dudley P. Allen Memorial Medical Library at 11000 EUCLID AVE. Under the direction of Howard Dittrick, M.D., for whom the museum was named in 1945, the collections grew rapidly. During World War II, the rare books belonging to the Surgeon General's Library (now the National Library of Medicine) were moved to Cleveland for safety, to the space occupied by the museum. The museum moved into smaller quarters in the building, with much of the collection put into storage. In 1960, when the Surgeon General's Library moved to Bethesda, MD, the museum was reestablished in its original quarters. The museum's 60,000 objects are the basis of an exhibit museum emphasizing medical practice in the Western Reserve in the 19th and 20th centuries and a source for medical historical research.
See also LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES & HISTORICAL SOCIETIES, MEDICINE.