The Cleveland Medical Library Association (CMLA) is an organization that owns and oversees the Allen Memorial Medical Library (including its building) with its collection of antiquarian health care books and documents, as well as the Dittrick Medical History Center with its collection of historic medical tools and artifacts. The Dittrick’s collections are searchable on an online database.
The CMLA (organized in 1894) currently oversees the Allen Memorial Medical Library and Dittrick Medical History Center through an arrangement with Case Western University, and it also continues to provide health care education to the Cleveland and regional community through exhibits and programs.
Allen Memorial Medical Library
The Allen Memorial Medical Library is the hub of the Cleveland Health Sciences Library and the CMLA. Designed by the architectural firm of Frank R. Walker and Harry E. Weeks for the CMLA, the building’s cornerstone was laid on July 23, 1925, and completed the next year. Elisabeth Severance Allen Prentiss (1865-1944) established the library to honor her late husband, Dr. Dudley Peter Allen (1852-1915), scion of a prominent Cleveland medical family and a founder of the CMLA.
Allen Memorial Library Hours:
Monday-Friday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
