HerbalEGram: Volume 4, Number 12, December 2007

The Lloyd Library and Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, is launching a new initiative—the “Historical Research Center for the Natural Health Movement.” Through the establishment of this center, the library hopes to become the leading global repository for archives and personal papers documenting the evolution of, and increased consumer and professional interest in, natural health practices.¹ The library is inviting participants of the natural health movement—including individuals, groups, organizations, associations, educational institutions, and businesses—to participate in this initiative by submitting relevant archives, papers, photographs, memorabilia, or artifacts to the Lloyd.

According to a fact sheet recently distributed by the library, the chief purpose of this initiative is to establish a central location for collecting, preserving, organizing, and making accessible documents concerning phytomedicine (herbal medicine). Such materials are intended to include both published and unpublished documents and represent any and all perspectives on natural healthcare, thereby creating a complete body of knowledge for the investigation of a balanced and complete history of the natural health movement.

“I am unaware of any other institutional endeavor to collect such material as widely as the Lloyd Library wishes to do with the establishment of the Historical Research Center for the Natural Health Movement,” said Maggie Heran, director of the Lloyd Library (e-mail, October 22, 2007). “With this initiative, the Lloyd is seeking cooperation from all ‘players’ in the natural health movement to help establish a centralized location—a kind of one-stop-shopping center, if you will—for the study of the ongoing development of phytotherapeutics. Such a center will assist researchers by reducing the amount of travel needed to complete their studies, as well as provide an indispensable contextual environment complete with a vast collection of current and historical works, both published and unpublished.”

The Lloyd Library will officially launch the initiative on March 1 with a “kick-off” celebration in Cincinnati, featuring lectures, exhibits, and special guests.

The Lloyd Library and Museum currently houses over 200,000 volumes of historic and contemporary books and journals, as well as nearly 1,000 linear feet of archival material. Its collections cover such topics as alternative therapies, botany, gardening, natural products, the pharmaceutical industry, and phytomedicine.

“In many respects, the Lloyd already is the Historical Research Center for the Natural Health Movement,” said Heran. “An increased effort to add archival collections to its many other significant resources will enhance its goal of comprehensive documentation in the fields of naturopathic healing and alternative medicine. Perhaps more importantly, this project continues and honors the legacy of [library] founder John Uri Lloyd, who was relentless in his investigation and advocacy of phytomedicine. He and his brothers not only built the library in conjunction with their pharmaceutical company, but also provided for its future, because they understood the critical need to acquire historic and current resources and preserve them for posterity. The establishment of the Historical Research Center for the Natural Health Movement underscores their commitment and reflects their spirit—they knew that the past was the path to the future.”

The Lloyd Library and Museum, founded by John Uri Lloyd (1849-1936) and his two brothers, is the largest herbal medicine library in the western hemisphere. More information about the Lloyd Library and Museum is available through its website, http://www.lloydlibrary.org/. Additional information about the Historical Research Center for the Natural Health Movement is available at the following web page, http://www.lloydlibrary.org/hrcnhm.html.

—Courtney Cavaliere

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