The Henry & Janet Claman Medical Humanities Collection was established in May 2007 through an endowment gift by the Drs. Claman to the then Health Sciences Library, University of Colorado Denver. Dr. Henry Claman was well known on the health sciences campuses as the driving force behind the Medical Humanities Program and its popular “Arts and Medicine” lecture series. He was a Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, School of Medicine. Dr. Janet Stewart Claman is Associate Professor Emerita of Pediatrics. The Library had previously housed an “Arts and Medicine” collection of materials donated in great part by Dr. Henry Claman and including recordings of the lecture series speakers and presentations held on the UC Denver Health Sciences campuses Those materials have been incorporated into this collection.

Medical humanities is an interdisciplinary field of medicine which includes the humanities (literature, philosophy, ethics, history and religion), social science (anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, sociology), and the arts (literature, theater, music, film, and visual arts) and their application to medical education and practice. Works in the collection develop and nurture skills of observation, analysis, empathy, and self-reflection to promote humane medical care. Social science materials foster understanding of cultural and social contexts of the individual experience of illness and the way medicine is practiced. The collection will provide insight into the human condition, suffering, personhood, our responsibility to each other, and offer a historical perspective on medical practice.

The majority of the Claman Collection items are located in the Special Collections Room on the third floor of the Strauss Health Sciences Library, except for a few electronic or serial items. All collection items are cataloged and available through Library Search, using keyword “Henry and Janet Claman Medical Humanities Collection”.