An unofficial blog about the National Museum of Health and Medicine (nee the Army Medical Museum) in Silver Spring, MD. Visit for news about the museum, new projects, musing on the history of medicine and neat pictures.
Showing posts with label Smithsonian Institution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Smithsonian Institution. Show all posts
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Medical exhibit at Smithsonian Folklife Festival
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is going on this week, and in the Wales section is a small exhibit on the history of medicine.
Wales turns out to be a major source for medicinal leeches, sold by Biopharma.
There is also a small display of historical pharmaceuticals.
Pill rollers aren't all that uncommon even now, but that's a nice ledger and some good ephemera in the labels.
The largest section was a medical garden.
The exhibit is up through July 5th
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Smithsonian anthropologist profiled in Post
Doug Owsley is profiled in "Old West Mystery, Solved in D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Forensic Anthropologists Unravel Buffalo Soldier's Story," By Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, June 16, 2009 .
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Sec of Smithsonian on future
Our friends at the Medical Museion linked to this first - "Wayne Clough is still trying to connect the Smithsonian Institution"
Friday, January 30, 2009
Long Tail idea, continued
I've gone on about this topic in the comments to Tim's post from earlier this week, but here's another example from the Smithsonian in today's Wash Post - "Going to Meet Its Public: Indian Museum Will Put Entire Collection Online," By Jacqueline Trescott, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, January 30, 2009; Page C01.
This Museum has a built-in lead - they were moved down to Washington recently (in Museum terms) and I'm sure they had excellent records and photos created at that time. When they set up the Museum, they decided to forego exhibit labels in the cases and instead provided a computer screen in front of the exhibit where you could look up what you were actually looking at (I despised this, because only 1 person at a time could look at an exhibit label and I didn't understand why they didn't just put that on the web back then).
So even with a running start, we read "The online project, part of the museum's regular Web site, will begin with 5,500 items and photographs. The goal is to have all 800,000 objects on the Web site, but it will take at least four years to achieve that. ... The museum has raised $750,000 for the first four years of the project, and Gover said a deadline has not been set for the Fourth Museum completion."
So that long tail takes a while to get long enough to trail off...
This Museum has a built-in lead - they were moved down to Washington recently (in Museum terms) and I'm sure they had excellent records and photos created at that time. When they set up the Museum, they decided to forego exhibit labels in the cases and instead provided a computer screen in front of the exhibit where you could look up what you were actually looking at (I despised this, because only 1 person at a time could look at an exhibit label and I didn't understand why they didn't just put that on the web back then).
So even with a running start, we read "The online project, part of the museum's regular Web site, will begin with 5,500 items and photographs. The goal is to have all 800,000 objects on the Web site, but it will take at least four years to achieve that. ... The museum has raised $750,000 for the first four years of the project, and Gover said a deadline has not been set for the Fourth Museum completion."
So that long tail takes a while to get long enough to trail off...
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Civil War photos from Museum on display in Smithsonian
Toby Jurovics, a curator of photography at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, borrowed some William Bell pictures from us last year. Bell's work is often confused with the more famous Matthew Brady. They're on display in a small gallery of Civil War photos, along with more famous pictures by Gardener and Sullivan.
Here's roughly how they look although I should have turned the flash off:
Here's roughly how they look although I should have turned the flash off:
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Cell-sorting tech
Here's a story about recent biomedical history - "From the World of Modern Cell Science, A Long and Sorted Coming-of-Age Story, by David Brown, Washington Post Staff Writer, Monday, April 7, 2008; A06. For years, in our AIDS exhibit, we had displayed a Fluorescent Activated Cell Sorter on loan from the Smithsonian. I imagine it's the same piece mentioned in this article. In this online discussion, "Science and Medicine: Cell Technology," by David Brown and J. Paul Robinson, Washington Post Staff Writer and Professor, Purdue University, Tuesday, April 8, 2008; 11:00 AM, one can find a comment from the Medical Sciences curator Ray Kondratas who led the division at the Museum of American History for many years.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)