Nine volumes of memoirs and three essays by physician and author Robert Tomes.

The first seven handwritten volumes are early memoirs recalled when Tomes was 62 years old and living in Wiesbaden, Germany. They cover the period beginning with Tomes's immediate ancestors through his birth in 1817 and boyhood in New York City, his schooling through college in American and his medical school in Edinburgh through graduation in 1840. The last three volumes were published in 1880 by Harper & Brothers and entitled My College Days, available in the Newberry Library (Call Numbers LB 2397 .T6 1880 (original publication) and folio LB 2397 .T6 1880 (reprint) [both in General Collections]).

The next two volumes, which are loose leaves arranged in mylar sheets and bound, is called My Later Days and is an autograph autobiographical account by Dr. Robert Tomes, of his travels and adventures between 1840 and 1849, following his graduation from medical school at the University of Edinburgh. Vol. 1 contains the first fourteen chapters of the account, relating Tomes' subsequent experience at the Medical School and hospitals in Paris from 1840 until 1842, when he sailed for New York via Liverpool aboard the "Independence." Vol. 2 continues with chapters 15-25, in which he describes his two years as the assistant physician of the Almshouse Department of New York, and three years in private practice. The account concludes with Tomes' appointment in 1848 as ship surgeon on the steamer "Panama," sailing from New York, around South America, and up the coast of Mexico to San Francisco. He returns to New York in 1849 via the Isthmus of Panama. My Later Days was most likely penned around 1881, since Tomes mentions in the memoir, "Gerardus Boyce, is now dead, but I met him little more than a year ago (c.1880)..." (see typescript, p. 35).

There are also three essays included. The first essay, "Our boys and girls," comments on the physical and social differences between boys and girls, as well as on the different attitudes of American and European families towards children. In particular Tomes criticizes the lax discipline and boundless indulgence of American youth. "Travelling for health" concerns the penchant of certain "invalids" to roam the world seeking some cure for their often vaguely-defined malaise, and Tomes believes that most such invalids could be cured without leaving home, especially if they engaged in more frequent activity, and exercised restraint at the table. His criticism is especially directed at physicians who customarily send abroad those suffering from consumption. Other topics discussed include the curative effects of German and other mineral springs, sea voyages, and changes in climate. Finally, "Hygiene of pleasure" deals with the beneficial effect of play and pleasure on the human body to alleviate the strain of physical or intellectual efforts. However, Tomes advocates moderation in both work and the pursuit of pleasure, and comments specifically on the often over-indulged in pleasures of eating and drinking, dancing, card-playing, reading newspapers and magazines, and music.