Dr. Byron Robinson was a Wisconsin native and graduate of the University of Wisconsin who became a highly respected gynecologist and surgeon. With his wife, Dr. Lucy Waite, he collected many medical books. An article in the American Medical Compend published in 1907 describes their collection:
“In the library of [Dr.] Byron Robinson and Dr. Lucy Waite may be seen an extensive collection of books on the abdomen, of gynecologic works and over 125 volumes on anatomy which includes the standard anatomic text books for over a century. Their library contains Compendious Anatomy (1792), the anatomy of William Cheselden, published exactly 100 years ago—1806, the greatest and most extensively illustrated anatomy ever published—that of Bourgery and Jacobs in eight giant volumes (1833) as well as the latest editions of Toldt, Gray, Cunningham, and Sobotta. For a decade and a half Robinson has collected scores of theses on special subjects in the abdominal and pelvic viscera, in different languages”
In 1910, Drs. Robinson and Waite donated 750 volumes to the University, forming the core of the medical library’s collection at an early stage of its development. Theirs was a working library of texts used in the practice of medicine, a theme which has continued through subsequent collecting activities.