NWHSU Library & Archives

Exhibitions and materials from Northwestern Health Sciences University's Greenawalt Library, including Special Collections and Archives

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Our new exhibition at the NWHSU library is in celebration of our school’s 75th Jubilee anniversary year.  Founded in 1941 by John B. Wolfe, Sr., D.C., as Northwestern College of Chiropractic (NWCC), we had three different campus homes in Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN, before moving to our current location in Bloomington, MN, in 1983.  The Minnesota Institute of Acupuncture and Herbal Studies, founded by Edith Davis, merged with NWCC in 1999, resulting in our name change to Northwestern Health Sciences University.  Our therapeutic massage program started in 2000, joining programs in chiropractic and acupuncture and Oriental medicine.  Other programs were added in 2011 (undergraduate health sciences), 2013 (post-baccalaureate pre-health/pre-med), and 2015 (applied clinical nutrition).  The materials in this display are drawn from throughout our history, covering different campuses and programs.  Many of the people in the photos are as yet unidentified - if you think you can identify them, please let us know!  The exhibition also includes a timeline of early Minnesota chiropractic history and one of NWHSU history, both of which are attached to the exhibition display case.

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Our first display went in summer of 2014. It featured school catalogs from NWHSU, NWCC (our earlier incarnation), and schools that were around prior to NWCC’s founding in 1941. Former archivist Corinne Florin wrote:

Many of you have noticed the display case in the library; well, now there is a display! Our archives holds some catalogs going back to the 1920s, although there was no NWHSU or even an NWCC around then. I’ve taken a sampling dating from the 1920s to 2000 so you can see how courses, tuition, classrooms, and students have changed over nearly 100 years.

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Our winter trimester 2015 display focused on materials received from Dr. and Mrs. J. Lamoine De Rusha. Dr. De Rusha was a long-time professor and dean emeritus at NWHSU, formerly called Northwestern College of Chiropractic. The display included items such as a pipe on an easy chair pipe holder (shown above), a chiropractic emblem designed to be attached to a car, a 1937 certificate of moral character, and a 1953 Chiropractor of the Year plaque. Our archives is full of photos of Dr. De Rusha and his wife, Klara, both of whom were very active with the school and its events.

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Our summer 2015 exhibition featured a number of school publications and newsletters. As you can see, we have come up with some... well, interesting publication titles over the years (”The Irritated Nerve”?). Carol Jones, profiled in the 1974 issue of The Irritated Nerve shown above, was our first librarian at the then-Northwestern College of Chiropractic. The profile states that the library opened in 1966 - while NWCC had library spaces previously, they were much more casual, including a location on the porch of a historic home. (We shudder to think of the environmental conditions for the books!)

Regarding the publications display, former archivist Corinne Florin wrote: NWHSU (and its former incarnation, NWCC) has had such a variety of in-house newsletters and other such publications, and our archives has a wonderful collection of them. Check out the display case in the library to see a sampling of what our school has produced over the years. We also have many more titles in our archives, should anyone be curious!

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Our fall 2015 exhibition was Meet the Palmers! Former NWHSU archivist, Corinne Florin, wrote:

This trimester we honor D.D. Palmer and his son, B.J., who are the developers of chiropractic. Our archives collection has more items relating to those two men and to the Palmer family in general; this is just a sampling.

Included is a photocopy of a letter written by Mrs. D.D. Palmer II to former NWHSU president John Allenburg, which tells of a Palmer family story about D.D. and B.J. in the early years of chiropractic. The letter is somewhat hard to read, but a transcription is provided.

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Our library has only one small display case, which was attained for us from Craigslist by our valiant library director, but we make the most of it.  Our exhibitions change each trimester.  Here is our winter trimester 2016 exhibition on iridology.  

Iridology, also known as iridiagnosis or iridodiagnosis, is an alternative method of health diagnosis.  This type of eye diagnosis was first proposed in 1665 by Philippus Meyeus.  Proponents claim that by matching a patient’s eyes to various diagnostic charts, they can determine the patient’s health issues.  There are many versions of iridology charts, some of which are shown here.  They denote correlations between iris patterns and characteristics and various organs, nerves, and body systems and regions.  NWHSU doesn’t teach iridology, but we were intrigued by these books on a very unusual diagnostic method.

Most images in this display are drawn from Bernard Jensen’s book Iridology: The Science and Practice in the Healing Arts (vol. II), which is shown in the center of the display case.  Jensen was a chiropractor and naturopathic doctor who became the leading American proponent of iridology.  The cat eye iridology chart was found on the Animal Iridology Center website at www.animaliridologycenter.com.  The far right small homunculus-style version of the iridology chart shown at the right and front of the display case is from www.theenergyhealinginstitute.com/iridology.html.

The books in this display are available for use in the library.  Other books on iridology can be checked out - see 616.0754 in the stacks.  We are open to the public and gladly welcome all patrons interested in using our materials!