A. W. Calhoun Medical Library records

The Abner Wellborn Calhoun Medical Library opened on January 1, 1924 and was housed in the Wesley Memorial Hospital, predecessor to today’s Emory University Hospital. The library was established from funds provided by F. Phinizy Calhoun in memory of his father, A. W. Calhoun who was professor of Ophthalmology in the Atlanta Medical College and other Emory’s predecessor medical schools from 1874 until his death in 1910.

The library replaced the medical school library which was housed in the Anatomy Building of the Medical School and had outgrown its space. It was intended to serve not only students in Emory’s School of Medicine and doctors who practiced at Wesley Memorial, but all members of the medical profession. In 1924, Myrtle Tye was chosen as Emory’s first full-time medical librarian. During her tenure as Librarian, she directed the steady growth of the collection. Despite financial limitations imposed by the economy in the early 1930s, she was able to raise funds to purchase a 1543 first edition of Andreas Vesalius' De Humani Corporis Fabrica.

Following Myrtle Tye's death in 1933, Mildred Jordan was appointed librarian and served until her death in 1965. Miriam H. Libbey served as library director from 1966 until her death in December or 1984, at which time Carol Burns, Director of Public Services for the library, was appointed to the position.

The A. W. Calhoun Medical Library was renamed the Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library when it moved to new quarters in the Dental School Building in 1988.