Anaesthesia history - making connections
  • Home
    • The story behind the website
  • International Symposia on the History of Anaesthesia
    • 1st International Symposium held in Rotterdam 1982
    • 2nd International Symposium held in London in 1987
    • 3rd International Symposium held in Atlanta, Georgia in 1992
    • 4th International Symposium held in Hamburg in 1997
    • 5th International Symposium held in Santiago, Spain in 2001
    • 6th International Symposium on the History of Anaesthesia held in Cambridge in 2005
    • 7th International Symposium on the History of Anaesthesia, held in Crete 2009
    • 8th International Symposium on the History of Anaesthesia held in Sydney in 2013
    • 9th International Symposium on the History of Anaesthesia held in Boston in 2017
  • Resources
    • Free searchable archives
    • Searchable archives requiring log-in
    • Patent searches
    • Organisations with useful archival resouces
    • Financial calculators
  • Collections
  • Current events
  • Famous anaesthetists
  • Oral histories
  • Organisations
    • History of Anaesthesia
    • History of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry
  • Publications
    • Biographies and autobiographies
    • Equipment
    • Anaesthesia history
  • Contact us
Many journals have articles on the history of anaesthesia but most charge for access or require a library log-in. These links connect to free sources of information. Please note, these links and access conditions may change, and may vary from country to country.

Anesthesia and Analgesia has a free archive dating back to 1922, more recent issues require a log-in or membership


Anaesthesia Progress (1966-2013)

Anesthesiology has a free archive dating back to 1940, more recent issues require a log-in

Annals of Surgery (1885-2007)


Boston Medical and Surgical Journal (1828-1922)

British Medical Journal Archive includes earlier journals with different names, including the London Journal of Medicine and  Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal


Canadian Journal of Anesthesia has a free archive dating back to 1954, more recent issues require a log-in


Dental Cosmos (1859-1936)

Journal of the Royal Society  of Medicine including Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine (1908-1977) and Medico-Chirurchigal Transactions (1809-1907)

London Journal of Medicine_

Medical History (1957-2013)


Pediatric Anesthesia has recently commenced a series of articles on the history of anaesthesia. It can be found at this link but the entire journal is also available through the same pages.

Proceedings of the History of Anaesthesia Society  (1986- current) is searchable and accessible here. The proceedings contain many useful articles on a wide range of subjects.


Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal

The Bulletin is the publication of the Anesthesia History Association and all issues are available in pdf format here

The Journal of Clinical Investigation (1924-2013)


The Medical Heritage Library is an invaluable resource. It is a digital collaboration among some of the world’s leading medical libraries to promote free and open access to quality historical resources in medicine. The MHL’s growing collection of digitized medical rare books, pamphlets, journals, and films number in the tens of thousands, with representative works from each of the past six centuries, all of which are available through the Internet Archive. Founded in 1996 and located in San Francisco, it is extremely comprehensive. Many google searches will eventually lead you here but searching this site will be a quicker route to many items you need. 


Picture