Seeking Perfect Motherhood: Women, Medicine, and Libraries

Knowledge about health and medicine expanded dramatically in the first half of the twentieth century. This expansion raised an important question for women, especially mothers, who are traditionally responsible for the health of their families: where could they learn the most up-to-date information? One possible significant venue was the public library. This close study of five public libraries analyzes the diverse sources of scientific and medical information available in Midwest rural libraries. It documents the critical role that individual librarians played in bringing new sources to their patrons, and discloses that such collections reinforced contemporary medical orthodoxy.