The United States National Library of Medicine in Bethseda, Maryland has some interesting old documents in its vast archive. Recently it dusted off its collection of true crime pamphlets, some of which go back to 1692, and put them on display. The collection is open for viewing through mid-June.
The library has this to say about its murder pamphlets:
Ever since the mid-1400s, the public's appetite for tales of shocking murders-"true crime"-has been one of the most durable facts of the market for printed material. Murder pamphlets were hawked on street corners, taverns, coffeehouses, newsstands, and bookshops. Typically, the pamphlets claimed to be true accounts of a murder, consisting of a narrative, trial transcript, or written confession of the murderer before his or her execution. Sometimes they featured medical commentary.
The pamphlets on display in "MOST HORRIBLE & SHOCKING MURDERS" were printed between 1692 and 1881. Some deal with cases of interest to the emerging field of forensic medicine. Others deal with cases in which doctors were accused of-or were victims of-heinous crimes. Still others have no medical connection whatsoever. Today, murder pamphlets are a rich source for historians and crime novelists, who mine them to study the history of medicine, class, gender, the law, the city, religion and other topics.
Images from past exhibitions at the library are available online.
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