Its subject matter reflects the broadest spectrum of medical topics, including examples from pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and even veterinary medicine. Significant modern collections of medical images have been formed by private collectors as well as by public institutions, where they serve as resources for research and education.
Representative holdings reside at numerous universities and medical libraries.
By the 1920s, the Philadelphia Museum of Art had begun to form a small general collection of old master and modern prints and drawings, some of which depicted medical subject matter. It was believed that Philadelphia offered an ideal home for such a collection because the study and practice of medicine were deeply rooted in the city's history and the region was home to several major pharmaceutical companies and medical schools, libraries, and publishers. The idea was to create a first-rate collection of drawings and printed images related to the history of medicine that could be conveniently exhibited and circulated as traveling exhibitions to art museums. The Museum's goal was to augment its existing holdings in a meaningful way by placing an equal emphasis on the aesthetic quality and the thematic significance of the works acquired. The early allocated funds spurred Carl Zigrosser, a noted print historian and curator at the Museum from 1940, to embark on an ambitious quest to seek out the widest possible variety of prints, drawings, and, later on, photographs, in order to illuminate the subject.