Erik Soiferman, DO
Physician, collector, and writer on the medical and printing history of eighteenth-century Philadelphia.
Erik Soiferman is a practicing physician who has spent the better part of two decades building the Soiferman Collection, housed in suburban Philadelphia. He reads the eighteenth century from inside medicine: what Rush's bleeding felt like to order, what a syllabus of lectures tells you about a school, why a hospital's promissory notes are the most honest document it ever produced.
The collection is housed in a dedicated gallery room, catalogued in full, and organized in zones such as Franklin and electrical philosophy, Rush and medical practice, Abolition, Public Service, Politics, and Indian Affairs, and the instruments and books of Philadelphia's medical world. The collection also contains some items that are connected peripherally, such as items related to the repeal of the Stamp Act. The collection is open to researchers by appointment.
How the collecting works
Three tests apply to every acquisition. It must carry a provenance argument that can be displayed beside the object. It must be Philadelphia or colonial American in origin, or belong to the European conversation relevant to the collection's focus. And it must fit the years between Franklin's beginnings as a printer and Rush's death — roughly 1721 to 1813 — closely enough that it can be placed on a shelf next to something with which it once shared a room.
Rarity alone is not a reason to buy. The question is whether an object closes a documented gap in the network: a name that appears in one letter and is missing from the shelf, a press run that is represented by its books but not its job-printing, a physician who disagreed with Rush and whose pamphlet is not yet beside his. These are just examples; the goal is to tell the whole story, not just the highlights.
Standards
Museum-grade authenticity is the floor. Objects are examined and, where the class of object warrants it, independently verified; condition reports and examination dates are part of the public catalog record. Archival housing, conservation-grade display materials, and reversible mounting are used throughout the room.