Darwin Symposium: Finished Proofs? A symposium to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species (1859)

The History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine and the Office of History at the National Institutes of Health are pleased to announce a symposium:

 

Finished Proofs? A symposium to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species (1859)

 

Location:        Lister Hill Auditorium, National Library of Medicine (NIH)

                8600 Rockville Pike, Bldg. 38A

                Bethesda, MD

Date:            1 October 2009

Time:            9:00 AM – 6:15 PM

 

 

SPEAKERS:

 

Janet Browne, Harvard University

Eric Green, National Human Genome Research Institute

Michael Ruse, Florida State University

Barry Werth, Independent Author

Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University           

 

COMMENTATORS:

 

Nathaniel Comfort, Johns Hopkins University

Alan E. Guttmacher, National Human Genome Research Institute

Joe Palca, National Public Radio

Maxine Singer, Carnegie Institution for Science

 

Program: http://history.nih.gov/about/conferences.html

 

All are welcome.

 

 

 

Michael J. North, northm@mail.nih.gov
Head of Rare Books & Early Manuscripts
History of Medicine Division
National Library of Medicine
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD  20894

(301) 496-9204 * fax (301) 402-0872
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd

National Institutes of Health
Department of Health and Human Services

 

Inventor of medical ultrasound has died

Interesting obituary for him in JOHN J. WILD, 95; Doctor Advanced Medical Uses of Ultrasound, By Patricia Sullivan, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, September 24, 2009.

Civil War Reenactment at NMHM next Saturday, 10/3, 10am-5pm

“Civil War Reenactment at the Medical Museum”

 

When: Saturday, October 3, 2009, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

 

Where: The National Museum of Health and Medicine

Building 54

 

What: The grounds of the nation’s medical museum will be transformed into a living history experience of Regular Army life during the Civil War. Displays on Civil War medicine and the role of the Sanitary Commission will be available along with exhibits on camp life, infantry drilling exercises and 19th century weapons displays. Children will enjoy hands-on activities such as building a replica of the hospital ship USS Red Rover, making a medical unit flag and creating a pin-hole camera.

 

Performances by the Federal City Brass Band at 10:00, 11:00, 1:30 & 2:30.

 

The reenactment is made possible by members of the 3rd U.S. Regular Infantry Reenactors. AFIP’s very own YN2(AW) Kelly Cochran is a member of the 3rd U.S. and will participate in the program!

 

While visiting the reenactment, visitors are encouraged to tour the Museum's permanent exhibition "To Bind Up the Nation's Wounds: Medicine During the Civil War." NMHM was founded in 1862 to study battlefield medicine in order to improve the care of the soldier.

 

The event will take place on the west grounds of the museum and in the museum galleries. This family event is open to the Walter Reed community and the general public.

 

Cost: FREE

 

Free parking available. Photo ID required.

 

For more information: nmhminfo@afip.osd.mil or (202) 782-2673

 

http://www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum

NY Times on insurance falling behind medical technology

Insurers Fight Speech-Impairment Remedy
By ASHLEE VANCE
Published: September 15, 2009
Devices like iPhones and netbook PCs that can help the speech-impaired are not covered by Medicare or insurers.

Flickr picture statistics

Since the Flickr site is blocked at work, we've been spending less time updating it - it's no longer a useful tool for showing researchers a picture we're trying to describe over the telephone for example. But our current statistics are 1,605 items / 870,097 views. I put up a new Korean War-era prosthetic photo tonight.

Ruminations on the latest issue of museum & society

This rolled in recently:

 

 

Hello, Subscribers to museum & society ,

 

The latest issue of museum & society is now available online at: www.le.ac.uk/ms/museumsociety.html.

 

contents

 

‘Journey without maps’: unsettling curatorship in cross-cultural contexts

Lisa Chandler

 

Translations: experiments in dialogic representation of cultural diversity in three museum sound installations

Mary Hutchison and Lea Collins

 

Objects, subjects, bits and bytes: learning from the digital collections of the National Museums

Siân Bayne, Jen Ross and Zoe Williamson

 

Review Article

 

Simon J. Knell, Suzanne MacLeod and Sheila Watson (eds),

Museum Revolutions: How Museums Change and are Changed

Kylie Message

 

 

Best wishes,

 

Jim Roberts

Production Editor

museum & society

 

******************************
Jim Roberts Hon FMA
Webmaster
University of Leicester
School of Museum Studies

 

http://www.le.ac.uk/museumstudies

 

The third article is of interest to me. One point that I think wasn’t emphasized enough is that non-art museums can only put about 1%, in a best case scenario, of their collections on display. Therefore the online museum gives people an opportunity to access objects that no one else, including the curators, are using or paying attention to. In our scanning project, we have over 700,000 images created. Some of them are books, but the great majority are photographs that nobody had looked at since they were taken and the only record of them had been an index card in a nondescript building in Washington, DC. Someday soon, these will be available to anyone in the world who has Internet access. To me, that’s a big change in the status quo.

 

Interesting public health article on social media and hapiness

This has some very interesting ideas in it - I think I believe they're correct. Any opinions?

Is Happiness Catching?
By CLIVE THOMPSON
Published: September 13, 2009
Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler say your friends — and even your friends’ friends — can make you quit smoking, eat too much or get happy. A look inside the emerging science of social contagion.

Excellent water public health article in NY Times

The Times has an excellent investigative report on the public health issue of clean water in today's paper -

Toxic Waters
Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Human Suffering
By CHARLES DUHIGG
Published: September 13, 2009
In the past five years, companies and workplaces have violated pollution laws more than 500,000 times. But most polluters have escaped punishment.

Today's Post has an editorial on Walter Reed

The New Walter Reed: Less Than 'World Class'?
By Stephen Schimpff
Sunday, September 13, 2009

Teddy Bear Clinic on Saturday

Teddy Bear Clinic to take place Saturday, September 12

On Saturday, September 12 from 1-3 p.m., the National Museum of Health and Medicine will its first Teddy Bear Clinic. It should be a lot of fun!

 

We’re asking kids in PreK-3 to 2^nd grade to bring their favorite stuffed animals to be checked out by the experts. First they’ll visit a craft station where they’ll make doctor’s headbands, nurse’s hats, and doctor’s bags. Then, they’ll visit several stations where their stuffed animal’s vitals and teeth will be checked, shots will be administered, and healthy eating and exercising habits will be discussed.  (Hopefully the kids will learn a few things, too!)  At the end of the program, their friend will be issued a clean bill of health certificate.

 

This will be the last in a series of programs that were designed to complement the exhibition entitled “David Macaulay Presents: The Way We Work.” The exhibit closes on September 20, so stop by soon if you haven’t had a chance to see it.

 

The Public Programs staff would like to thank Aileen Mavity, one of the museum’s summer interns, for her help in designing this program!

 

On a couple of nondescript stereographs

Here's a couple of stereographs I bought over the weekend, due to their rough relationship to the Museum:


The 'Dutch Courtship' was probably intended to be humorous.


This crowd scene is meaningless now without its caption.

So, why did I buy these?




Both are by William H. Rau.

So?

He was William Bell's son-in-law. Bell was the Museum's best photographer of the 19th century who took photographed many of the Civil War soldiers at the Museum. He was the subject of a small exhibit at the American Art museum last year.

We've been blogged

A couple of our flu photos have shown up on the blog e-l-i-s-e. When I saw the title of yesterday's post - GRIPPE ESPAGNOLE 1918 1919 - SPANISH FLU - INFLUENZA - I had I feeling I'd see something from our collection. She used our ever-popular NCP 1603 and Reeve 14682.

Museum to Participate in Cultural Tourism DC's Fall WalkingTown DC

Museum to Participate in Cultural Tourism DC’s Fall WalkingTown DC

 

Below is the listing from Cultural Tourism’s website (www.WalkingTownDC.org) for the walking tour that the Museum will take part in on September 19. If you’d like to join in, make your reservation soon because we can only accommodate 30 participants. Last spring, we participated in WalkingTown for the first time with rave reviews.  This year, John Pierce, Walter Reed Society historian, will lead the walking tour of the Walter Reed campus—he plans to take the group into the lobby of Building 1 to share the history of that beautiful structure. He will end his portion of the tour at the Museum, where Andi Sacks, Museum Docent Extraordinaire, will provide an introduction to the exhibtions and walk around with the group to describe highlights.

 

Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Museum of Health and Medicine
Saturday, September 19
9 - 11 am
Meet at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Building 1 (enter Georgia Avenue/Elder Street gate)
Nearest Metrorail/Metrobus: Takoma Park Metro station (Red line), 70 Metrobus
End at National Museum of Health and Medicine, Building 54
Reservations required: Online
Explore the 100-year history of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and learn how one man’s dream led to one of today’s leading medical facilities. Landmarks include the original US Army General hospital, where Eisenhower and General of the Armies John J. Pershing spent their final days, the new hospital complex, the formal Rose Garden, the Memorial Chapel, the Walter Reed Memorial, and the spot President Lincoln was nearly shot during the Battle of Fort Stevens. Then tour the National Museum of Health and Medicine to learn about the history of military medicine, including a special exhibit about the medical care given to President Lincoln during his last hours. Tour is just over one mile long. Led by John Pierce, a retired Army physician and historian of the Walter Reed Society and Andi Sacks, a National Museum of Health and Medicine Docent.
Note: Photo ID required.

 

Development of the Historical Archives

The Registry of Noteworthy Research in Pathology disgorged another treasure this morning. We have a copy of the AFIP Letter, this particular issue from April 1969, which has a feature on the "Old Red Brick" closing. The Old Red Brick was the museum's home on The Mall, when the Museum was the parent organization and the AFIP the child. This article notes we vacated it January 7, 1969 and everything was put in storage. We knew that. What's interesting here is that an "extremely active" program in the museum during the prior year was the development of the Historical Archives. At the time of this article, the archives had amassed a collection of more than 1169 items. I think I have that number of items sitting on my desk right now, a tiny little drop in the now vast bucket of the archives.

Bring your kids! Teddy Bear Clinic at NMHM, Saturday, 9/12, 1:00 p.m.

“Teddy Bear Clinic”

 

When: Saturday, September 12, 2009 (1:00-3:00 p.m.)

 

Where: National Museum of Health and Medicine

 

What: Bring your favorite stuffed friend and explore the Teddy Bear Clinic with activities and crafts designed to highlight the body, nutrition, physical fitness, and healthy habits.

 

Recommended for grades PreK-2.

 

Cost: FREE!

 

Information: nmhminfo@afip.osd.mil or (202) 782-2673

 

www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum

2 pictures of Sickles

One of our main Civil War attractions is General Sickle’s legbones, which he sent into the Museum. I found two pictures of him on the web today, at New Jersey’s Archives website at http://www.state.nj.us/state/darm/links/guides/sdea4010images7.html . They’re at the bottom of this page.

Swine flu

Another cool find from the Registry of Noteworthy Research in Pathology - I just opened the Richard E. Shope folder which contains his original, handwritten research records documenting the first isolation of swine influenza. In an article from the Medical Tribune of June 17, 1963, Dr. Shope "described the appearance of a new respiratory disease among swine in the Midwestern states, in the autumn of 1918. Since there existed at that time a widespread outbreak of human pandemic influenza, and since the disease in swine, both clinically and at autopsy, resembled the human disease, it was named swine influenza." He said that swine flu was suspected to be as a result from an infection from humans, but because no virus from the human disease was yet available, it was impossible to make the connection.

But!! When the human influenza virus was discovered in 1933, it was found to be closely related to the swine virus, which supported the notion that swine flu originated in humans. So why did swine flu continue to appear once human flu more or less disappeared, at least as a pandemic, in about 1920? Dr. Shope maintained that the virus found a way to perpetuate itself in the hog population, which was ultimately proven when the swine lungworm, a nematode parasitic in the respiratory tract, was discovered. It serves as a reservoir and intermediate host, which is why the flu sticks around. If not for this reservoir, swine flu would have subsided about the same time as the human influenza virus.

Still with me? The article in the Medical Tribune, where I got all this information, is illustrated with a photo of Dr. Shope receiving the Ricketts Award from the son of Howard Taylor Ricketts, the doctor I wrote about yesterday, and for whom the award was named.

Rickettsial spotted fever

As part of the work I'm doing on processing the Registry of Noteworthy Research in Pathology collection, I've just come across a little bit of material on Howard Taylor Ricketts. This is the man who discovered the bacterium that causes Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (called rickettsia) and epidemic typhus. We have a copy of a letter he wrote to his wife, which is the first mention of his having seen the micro-organism of typhus, nine days after his arrival in Mexico City. The letter was dated December 20, 1909.

"I kept at the microscope this afternoon because I felt pretty sure that I was finding some micro-organisms in the blood taken from the spots of the patients. I think I am not mistaken. They resemble the spotted fever bacilli somewhat, but stain poorly. I hope within a day or two to feel pretty sure one way or another. They are so hard to recognize that I doubt whether any one else here would see them. But I have so strongly suspected a relationship between spotted fever and typhus that I was looking for that very thing. Don't get excited over it, for it may be some accidental affair. However, I shall push it as rapidly as I can, and as soon as possible shall begin a paper so that there would be little delay in publication..."

Think of the excitement he had to have been holding in check, and hoping he wasn't seeing something that wasn't there.

Within six months he died from typhus, at the age of 39.

Commercialism, merchandising and the role of a museum

This is an interesting article - Kennicott's got a good perspective on the issue. As someone who's interested in popular culture, I personally feel that more could be done. He cites the National Portrait Gallery as a good example of an institution that let time decide some issues... however, they're way behind in collecting movie posters as a result, even though they were some of the most evocative images of artists of the 20th century. Read the article and let us know what you think in the comments.

Artifact or Artifice?
If Simon, Randy and Paula's Desk Sits in the Smithsonian, Is the Institution Performing Its Proper Role in Chronicling Our Culture?
By Philip Kennicott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 30, 2009

NY Times op-ed on Sigmund Freud's visit to the US

Here's an interesting bit on the history of medicine...

Freud’s Adirondack Vacation
By LEON HOFFMAN
Published: August 29, 2009
How an invitation from a prominent American scientist 100 years ago gave psychoanalysis its start in the United States.