Thursday, June 25, 2015

National Library of Medicine historian Michael Sappol on WWII animation

The Inside Story

Circulating Now on June 25, 2015

By Michael Sappol

Inside Out, Pixar's latest hit animated feature, is mainly set on the inside of a young girl's brain. Riley, an eleven-year-old, is operated by a committee of characters, each representing an emotion, who collectively try to deal with her troubles at school and home. It seems like a very contemporary way to depict consciousness, and critical reaction from psychologists and neuroscientists has been largely favorable.

But, strangely, the film echoes an older and quite obscure piece of animated cartooning: a 1944 movie made during wartime for the U.S. Coast Guard, The Inside Story. That film, now preserved in the historical audiovisual collection of the National Library of Medicine, deals with the typical emotional problems suffered by men entering the military service and argues that psychotherapeutic approaches may help.

Continued at http://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2015/06/25/the-inside-story/

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Civil War medicine by National Library of Medicine historians

Six Ways the Civil War Changed American Medicine

150 years ago, the historic conflict forced doctors to get creative and to reframe the way they thought about medicine

A ward in Carver Hospital in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War. One key innovation during this period was the division of hospitals into wards based on disease. (U.S. National Archives)

By Helen Thompson

smithsonian.com
June 17, 2015
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/six-ways-civil-war-changed-american-medicine-180955626/?no-ist

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Buffalo medical museum featured on tv

Fascinating, strange collection to discover at UB's Medical Museum

Mike Randall

Jun 1, 2015
http://www.wkbw.com/news/a-fascinating-strange-collection-to-be-discovered-at-ubs-medical-museum

June 3: Civil War medicine presentation at National Archives

Wednesday, June 3, at 2 p.m.
William G. McGowan Theater & YouTube
Civil War Medicine & Surgery
Archives specialist Rebecca Sharp will discuss The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865. This published source contains information about Civil War medical and surgical procedures as well as case studies. Video | Captioning | Presentation slides | Handout 1 | Handout 2.

http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/events/june.html

Who are we?

Mike Rhode was the chief archivist of the Museum from 1989-2011, and is the founder of this blog. I maintain an interest in the course of the museum, and will be posting relevant information.

The Army Medical Museum was founded in 1862 during the American Civil War. After World War II, a parent-child relationship was inverted and the Museum became part of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Since then, the Museum has moved around Washington, stopping for years in Ford's Theatre, and on the National Mall where the building it shared with the National Library of Medicine once stood, until it was demolished in 1968 for the Hirshhorn Museum. For 35 years it was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and now is in Silver Spring, MD.

So what about that blog name?

It's historical. I found it in a quote from one of the former curators. World War II confirmed the Army Medical Museum's primary role in pathology consultation. James Ash, the curator during the war and a pathologist, noted, "Shortly after the last war, more concerted efforts were instituted to concentrate in the Army Medical Museum the significant pathologic material occurring in Army installations." He closed with the complaint, "We still suffer under the connotation museum, an institution still thought of by many as a repository for bottled monsters and medical curiosities. To be sure, we have such specimens. As is required by law, we maintain an exhibit open to the public, but in war time, at least, the museum per se is the least of our functions, and we like to be thought of as the Army Institute of Pathology, a designation recently authorized by the Surgeon General."

After the war, it evolved into the tri-service Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

A Repository for Bottled Monsters

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