601 West Lombard Street
Baltimore MD 21201-1512
Reference: 410-706-7996
Circulation: 410-706-7928
In May 1925, the Clarence J. Grieves Library Foundation was created by the Maryland State Dental Association to honor the contributions of Dr. Clarence J. Grieves to the profession. The foundation library opened in October of 1926 at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, Dental School, University of Maryland Library. It opened with 687 books and journals, some of which were from Dr. Grieves' personal collections. In 1938, the foundation library and Dental School library officially merged.
The Grieves Collection contains historic dental texts as well as some general medical texts. The collection dates from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries and includes texts written by Chapin Aaron Harris and Horace Hayden, the founders of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, the oldest dental school in the world. The collection also contains volumes written by influential Dental School faculty, including Dr. Ferdinand James Samuel Gorgas and Dr. J. Ben Robinson, as well as early dental works by Carl F.W. Bodecke, Horace Wells, Johann Jakob Joseph Serre, Philip Pfaff, and G.V. Black.
The Grieves Collection continues to grow through donations and transfers from the Library's circulating collection.
Related Links and Collections:
To search the collection use the Library Catalog.
Additional information on the Grieves Collection can be found in the 1935 Clarence J. Grieves Library Foundation Report and in the detailed collection description.
Dental Illustrations Digital Collection
St. Appollonia Artworks Digital Collection
Baltimore College of Dental Surgery Letters Collection Finding Aid
Clarence Jones Grieves was born in Wilmington, Del., on October 23, 1868, and moved to Baltimore, Md., with his family as a teenager. An early graduate of the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Grieves went on to graduate from the University of Maryland Dental School in 1888.
After graduating, Dr. Grieves was appointed assistant demonstrator in operative dentistry at the University of Maryland. He was promoted to assistant professor in crown and bridge work in 1892. In 1906, he left the University to accept a professorship of comparative anatomy and histology at the competing Baltimore College of Dental Surgery (BCDS). In addition to these teaching positions, he maintained a private practice in Baltimore and was chief of staff at Johns Hopkins Hospital Dental Clinic from 1913 to 1925. During World War I, Dr. Grieves left his position at BCDS and became a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve, serving as instructor at the Army and Navy Dental School in Washington D.C.
Dr. Grieves resigned his positions and gave up his practice in 1925 because of ill health. In May 1926, the Maryland State Dental Association honored him by creating the Clarence J. Grieves Library Foundation. He married Hannah Ramsey Grieves and had a son, Edward W. R. Grieves. Dr. Grieves died on November 4, 1927.
Additional Biographical Links:
A more extensive biography on Dr. Clarence J. Grieves is available in the Digital Archive.