AMVM Caras-Shomer Library Collections

The AMVM is honored to be the recipient of the more than 4,000-volume book collection from the estate of Roger A. Caras, who was president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, an Emmy-Award winning news commentator, and author of more than five dozen books on animals and wildlife, and of the Rare Book Collection from the late Dr. Robert and Leona Shomer.

The Caras book collection was donated to the AMVM by his widow, Jill Barclay Caras. In addition to his books, the Caras collection includes his personal scrapbooks recording his trips around the world. Jill Caras, a member of the AMVM board of directors, gifted her husbands' collection to the AMVM in January of 2005. The ASPCA has provided financial support for this collection.

The Roger A. Caras collection is being assembled in a downstairs non-lending library for adults and in a children's section in the AMVM farmhouse and is being organized by AMVM volunteers led by Judy Ressler, chairman of The Caras Library Collection,
and by Mrs. Caras.

About Roger Caras

Interview with Jill Barclay Caras

Literary History of Veterinary Medicine

    Care of animals has its literary roots in 1900 BC in Egypt with the oldest veterinary prescriptions described in the Papyrus of Kahun. It was not until 450 AD, however, that the Roman, Vegetius, wrote a series of papers titled Books of the Veterinary Art. These works were finally put into book form in 1528, becoming the first printed book on veterinary medicine.  Vegetius was a layman who wrote decrying the low state of the veterinary art of that period.
     Veterinary literature was essentially absent until the 14th Century when Laurence Rusius, an Italian, wrote the Hippiatria that was widely circulated in printed editions after 1530.
   It was not until the 16th Century that printed material relating to the practice of veterinary medicine became widely available. The Italian, Carlo Ruini, published Anatomia del Cavallo that was the first anatomy of the horse text. This was said to mark the beginning of veterinary science.
   Literary works in the 17th Century were focused on describing treatment practices that were crude and ineffective. One book, written by Andrew Snape in 1687 called The Anatomy of an Horse, was considered well-written but contained plates stolen from Carlo Ruini’s work.
   The opening of veterinary schools in France in 1761 and England in 1791 changed the practice of animal treatment from the farrier to the veterinary practitioner and with it the increase in publications on the practice of veterinary medicine.
   In 1802, Delabere Blaine wrote Outlines of the Veterinary Art that was the first reasonable scientific exposition of veterinary medicine in English. This was followed in 1817 with the publication Canine Pathology identifying canine medicine as a veterinary specialty.

The Shomer Collection

  Comprising over 1,000 books and pamphlets relating to the practice of the veterinary art, the breadth of these collections gives the student and researcher interested in veterinary history the opportunity to discover how veterinary medicine has evolved since its inception. The books in this collection include some of the earliest accounts of the profession, books by Andrew Snape, Delabere Blaine, W. Gibson, and George Stubbs. The oversized Anatomy of the Horse text, published by George Stubbs in 1766, is exceptional in its detail of horse anatomy. These books will be available on a non-lending basis to the individual pursing the study of veterinary history. In 2006, the AMVM negotiated a contract with Microsoft to have some of the rare book collection digitized so it could be made available through our Internet website. In 2008, 279 books taken primarily from the Shomer collection were digitized and will become available on our website in the near future.

 About Dr. Robert. R. Shomer

  Dr. Shomer was a 1935 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. He practiced veterinary medicine in Teaneck, N. J. for 60 years. Dr. Shomer was a true lover of history and had an extensive collection of books on Jewish history and human medicine in addition to his collection of books on veterinary medicine. He was the co-founder of the Society for Veterinary Medical Ethics and was the first president of that organization. In 2005, the first Robert R. Shomer Award for Outstanding Achievement in Veterinary Medical Ethics was awarded to Dr. Carl Osborne of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr Shomer also originated the International Veterinary Academy on Disaster Medicine that became official at the 1983 World Veterinary Congress. He served as co-chairman of the Academy from 1982 until 1992. His love of veterinary history led him to become one of the founders of the American Veterinary Medical History Society, a branch of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Dr. Shomer died in 1999 at the age of 85. His wife, Leona, preceded him in death in 1996.