Medical book exhibit in Australia

Medical books, with their interesting illustrations, make an easy exhibit subject. Here's an article about one at the University of Melbourne's Medical History Museum. Who knew they had a medical museum? We've got to get better organized.

Indiana Medical History Museum

Ange, a volunteer from the Indiana Medical History Museum, has written in to tell us that she's been posting pictures of their collection on flickr as well. I've been there - it's on the outskirts of Indianapolis - and it's a very cool place. In fact, I've referred film crews there because they still have a Victorian-type operating theatre.

Doctor's Day at the National Museum of Health and Medicine on March

Doctor's Day at the National Museum of Health and Medicine on March 30th!

In honor of Doctor's Day on Sunday, March 30, doctors and their families are invited to visit the National Museum of Health and Medicine for a special docent-led tour of our current exhibitions. A discovery cart activity showcasing plastinated human organs will also be featured. Doctor's Day observances date back to March 30, 1933, and mark the anniversary of the first use of general anesthesia in surgery.

Tours begin at 1:00 p.m. Admission and parking are free! Reservations are strongly recommended; phone (202) 782-2456 or email nmhminfo@afip.osd.mil in advance. Learn more about the Museum online at http://nmhm.washingtondc.museum. See you at the Museum!

What: Doctor's Day at the Museum!
Where: National Museum of Health and Medicine/AFIP, Building 54, Walter
Reed Army Medical Center
Date: Sunday, March 30, 2008
Time: 1:00 p.m.

Telemedicine at its most basic

Telemedicine is one of those buzzwords these days, and if you've checked into a hospital for x-rays after say 7 pm, you may very well have participated in it. Radiology is all digital these days - no film anymore - and India with its quotient of well-trained doctors is wide awake at midnight on the US East coast.

But here's another, more personal example from the Washington Times. In The doctor's online 'office' from March 18, 2008 by Karen Goldberg Goff, you can read about Dr. Howard Stark's embrace of the Internet to make life and medicine easier for everyone involved. Up to and including, "I once had a patient who worked for the WorldBank who called me from the airport in Kazakhstan," he says. "He had an abdominal hernia and was
in tremendous pain. I talked him through pushing in his own hernia on the floor of the airport."

Now that's telemedicine.

Women's History Month lecture at the National Museum of Health and Medicine!

Women's History Month at the National Museum of Health and Medicine!

Plan now to enjoy a special lecture on women and the American Red Cross. Thomas B. Goehner, Manager, Historical Outreach American Red Cross National Headquarters, will discuss "American Red Cross Women: Embracing Opportunity," on March 26, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. in Russell Auditorium at the NMHM.

From the time of Clara Barton to the present, the American Red Cross has offered women opportunities for leadership, travel, independence, volunteerism and professional growth. Wherever the Red Cross is serving--either on the battlefront or the home front--women continue to embrace and achieve success with each new challenge. This talk will celebrate the achievements and unique opportunities given to women through the Red Cross, shedding light on the contributions of rank-and-file Red Cross women as well as the pioneers from the past, like Clara Barton and nursing legend Jane Delano.

Admission is free!

What: Women's History Month Lecture: "American Red Cross Women:
Embracing Opportunity"
Where: Russell Auditorium, National Museum of Health and Medicine/AFIP,
Building 54, Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Time: 11:00 a.m.

For more information, call (202) 782-2456 or email nmhminfo@afip.osd.mil. Learn more about the Museum online at http://nmhm.washingtondc.museum.

Internet Archive (archive.org)

As you know, we've been uploading books that we've digitized to the Internet Archive's collection of about 350,000 books. Today Wired.com had an article about the Archive, describing the page-by-tedious-page scanning that's being done there. It's nice to know that even the Big Boys are doing it a page at a time.

Another Veterinary Corps researcher

A short while ago I wrote about Mike Lemish, who's interested in Military Working Dogs used in Vietnam, and said there was another researcher who's found some treasures in our Veterinary Corps collection. Greg Krenzelok's interest lies with the Corps during World War 1, when his grandfather, Sergeant Leonard Patrick Murphy served, and he has a web page where he relates what he's found and solicits information that others are willing to pass along. His particular interest lies with the horses used during the war, and is looking for pictures such as this one showing a horse being prepared for surgery.

Reeve 14727

19th Century French medical equipment

In response to a request from someone interested in our General Medical Products Information (GMPI) collection, we recently scanned two "catalogs" put out by M.G. Trouvé in 1869 and 1872. The person who requested them kindly provided a loose translation that suits both of them: "New apparatus for the use of doctors and surgeons, designed and constructed. Extract from the journal les Mondes, 15 July 1869.... All the apparati were presented at the Academy of Medicine by Mr. Béclard, [at the] session of 10 June 1869 [and May 1872]."

It turns out that these aren't really catalogs, but reprints from the journal mentioned above, les Mondes, that tout Trouvé's products in the guise of a scholarly article. There are some nice illustrations that I haven't yet figured out how to isolate from the PDF to post here.

More medical museum excerpts from the AFIP's annual reports

The rest of the Medical Museum Excerpts from the AFIP Annual Reports:

1996

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2006

After 2006, the report went digital.

These are all laid out by the unsung Fran Card. One of them in the oughts got garbled in the printing process, but I don't recall which it is.

Malaysia's opening a medical museum and...

See the story on the new Malaysian museum here.

Meanwhile the University of Copenhagen's Medical Museion scored a cool mechanical heart device, lucky devils.

Another alumnus story

Does my heart proud... Scott was an assistant archivist who was one of our more... agressive... flickr posters. And now he'd putting up favorite pictures at his new job.

The Emilio Segrè Visual Archives has put up an online gallery of some of our favorite images from the collection and we invite everyone to take a look (more info below).

Thanks,
Scott Prouty
photos@aip.org

****
Every picture tells a story. We've picked 63 of our favorites.

Visit our new Favorite Photos gallery featuring the most popular and striking selections from our collection of more than 30,000 images of physicists and astronomers.

The Emilio Segrè Visual Archives (http://photos.aip.org/?em=esva0308) site includes historical photographs, slides, lithographs, engravings, and other visual materials of many of the best known names in physics and astronomy, including Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Marie Curie, Isaac Newton, Richard Feynman and Hans Bethe, along with other lesser known figures. All are available as digital downloads or high-quality print reproductions.

We hope that you'll browse through the site and enjoy the pictures.

About the Emilio Segrè Visual Archives (ESVA) The ESVA is a leading resource of digital and print images of scientists and their work. It is part of the Niels Bohr Library & Archives at the American Institute of Physics (http://www.aip.org/?em=esva0308) in College Park, Maryland.

For more information
Call us at (301) 209-3184 or visit online at http://photos.aip.org/?em=esva0308

Military Working Dogs again

Today I got an email from Mike Lemish about the post I made yesterday. The Military Working Dog website is not his; he just forwarded an email he received from Debbie Kandoll, whose website it IS. Mike also told me, "Also the MWDs may not be Iraq war veteran's. With over four thousand dogs worldwide it may be a bomb/drug detector dog from anywhere in the world but most likely CONUS [continental United States]." Check it out, folks.

Here's another picture from our collection. This is a shot of elevated kennels in Vietnam.

Interesting World War 1 article

Our colleagues at the the Office of the Surgeon General's Historian's office have put an article about volunteer Americans' experiences in the British Army on their website. Click here to download Yanks in King's Forces. For those who want more information, Mitch Yockelson, who co-curated The Cost of a Splendid Little War exhibit with me, has a new book on the topic coming out, Borrowed Soldiers: Americans Under British Command, 1918, and will be speaking at the Museum at some point later this year.

Medical museum excerpts from AFIP annual reports

Alright, this isn't exciting, but where else are you going to find them? These are links to scans of the Medical Museum section of the AFIP Annual reports. There's some interesting bits off and on.

Medical Museum Excerpts from the AFIP Annual Reports of 1947-1991.

Medical Museum Excerpts from the AFIP Annual Reports of 1992.

Medical Museum Excerpts from the AFIP Annual Reports of 1993.

Medical Museum Excerpts from the AFIP Annual Reports of 1994.

Medical Museum Excerpts from the AFIP Annual Reports of 1995.

Medical Museum Excerpts from the AFIP Annual Reports of 1997.

World War 1 volume on Gas Warfare finally posted

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 14: Medical Aspects of Gas Warfare(1926) would discuss the effects of your poison gases like mustard gas. This completes the World War 1 books available for downloading.

Military Working Dogs

We've had a couple of researchers lately who've looked into our large Veterinary Corps collection. One of them is Mike Lemish. Mike's research has to do with Military Working Dogs from the Vietnam war. Recently he sent me an email announcing a website that promotes adoption of working dogs that have been retired from the Iraq war but are great dogs that still have a lot to give. However, too many of them are euthanized because they don't get adopted and have nowhere to go. As of 2000, civilians have been allowed to adopt these animals (H.R. 5314 on 6 Nov 2000) and Mike's website gives information about how to do so.

Another collection digitized

The museum photographer just photographed a scrapbook of photos for us because the book was too fragile to lay flat on the scanner. The scrapbook was given to Miss Frances Pleasants by students of hers, from when she taught wounded soldiers during the Civil War in Germantown, Pennsylvania. This photo caught my eye, as well as the caption that was handwritten underneath it:


The caption read "Photograph of three children found in the hands of a dead soldier on the battlefield." It took me a couple of reads to see it meant the photo was found in the dead soldier's hands, not the children. Obvious now, but I sure wondered at the time.

New book donation

We're not the Pathology Institute's library and most of what would have been the Museum library left with the National Library of Medicine when it split off from the old Army Medical Museum and Library for good in the 1960s (remind me to post about the split of the photographs and AMML records), but people give us books.

Recently we got 26 books from Dr. Inghram Miller, Newton, Kansas (NMHM Acquisition Number 2007.0038) accompanying a wicker wheelchair. There was also a couple of neat pieces of medical trade literature in the books.

Johnson, Alexander Bryan. Surgical Diagnosis, volumes I, II, and III, 1910

Kelly, Howard A. Operative Gynecology, Volumes I and II, 1898 and 1899

Deaver, John B. Surgical Anatomy, Volumes I, II, and III, 1904 and 1908

Bryant, Joseph and Albert Buck. American Practice of Surgery, Volumes VII and VIII, 1910 -11

International Clinics Vol II, 2nd and 3rd series, 1892 and 1893

Ashton, Willaim Easterly. A Testbook on the Practice of Gynecology. 1906

Flint, Austin. A Treatise on the Principles and Practice of Medicine. 1881

Bartholow, Roberts. A Practical Treatise on Materia, Medica, and Theraputics. 1889

Wood, George B and Franklin Bache. Dispensatory of the United States, 18th ed. By Wood, Remington and Stadtler. 1899

Osler, William. Principles and Practice of Medicine. 1895

Gould, George M. An Illustrated Dictionary of Medicine, Biology and Allied Sciences, 5th ed. 1903

Holt, L. Emmett. Diseases of Infancy and Childhood. 1897

Da Costa, J. M. Medical Diagnosis, 8th ed. 1895

Gray, Henry. Anatomy Descriptive and Surgical. 8th and enlarged ed. 1881 (1878)

Babcock, W. Wayne. A Textbook of Surgery. 1929

Kaltschmidt, J. H. School Dictionary of the Latin Language, Part 1: Latin-English. 1876

Tillmans, Herman. A Textbook of Surgery, Vol II: Regional Surgery. trans from German. 1899

Mathews, Joseph M. A Treatise on Diseases of the Rectum, Anus and Sigmoid Flexure. 1893

Taylor, Alfred Swain. A Manual on Medical Jurisprudence. 11th American ed by Clark Bell. 1892

Museum Linked on Yahoo! Directory Blog Post

Some PR people call it 'current awareness' or 'reputation management' (easier to overbill for the service when the exaggerated amounts are associated with a fancy term, I guess) but I tend to call it what it is - reading or watching the news. In this case, news about the Museum, either in 'traditional' media or elsewhere in the blogosphere.

Thanks to Google, Yahoo!, Topix and Bloglines, and others, it's easy enough to monitor for mention of the Museum out there on the Internet, and it was one of those engines that led me to this blog post on Yahoo! today.

I'm not sure what to make of the Yahoo! blog post; I don't see an 'about' link to tell readers why the stream of posts is being written or published. That notwithstanding, it's great to see a link to the Museum, and the use of one of the Otis Historical Archives' very cool Flickr posts; in this case, a photo from the collections related to the 1918 influenza pandemic.

There is much more about influenza available on the Museum's Web site.

World War 2 booklet

We were asked for a copy of this recently - it's by a pharmaceutical company, but they didn't put too much advertising on it.

Decorations and Medals of the United States of America (1943),John Wyeth
and Brother; reading copy or broadsheet copy.

Batchelor World War 2 venereal disease posters

C.D. Batchelor was a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist whose career lasted for almost 50 years in New York. One can see similarities in the 1937 Pulitzer winning cartoon and the anti-venereal disease cartoons reproduced below from the collections of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.


"Warning: these enemies are still lurking around. Syphilis.
Gonorrhea." Cartoon by C..D. Batchelor of the New York Daily News for the American Social Hygiene Association, 1790 Broadway, New York, N.Y. (Reeve79101-67)


"Two girls I know want to meet you in the worst way." C.D. Batchelor, American Social Hygiene Association. (Reeve79101-62)


"The glory of manhood is strength. Keep clean for the heritage of the cleanly is strength." Cartoon by C..D. Batchelor of the New York Daily News for the American Social Hygiene Association, 1790 Broadway, New York, N.Y. (Reeve79101-52)


"Boys your sweetheart, your wife or your parents may never know it if you contract a venereal disease - but I'll know it and I'll suffer from it." Cartoon by C.D. Batchelor of the New York Daily News for the American Social Hygiene Association, 1790 Broadway, New York, N.Y. (Reeve79101-11)


"Enemy agent. U.S. War Effort. Venereal Disease." Cartoon by C.D. Batchelor of the New York Daily News for the American Social Hygiene Association, 1790 Broadway, New York, N.Y. (Reeve79101-16)


"'My boy was wounded in the African landing.' 'Mine was wounded in this country by a street walker.'" Cartoon by C..D. Batchelor of the New York Daily News for the American Social Hygiene Association, 1790 Broadway, New York, N.Y. (Reeve79101-31)

Note the difference in quality between Batchelor's original above, and the Army's copy below:


"My boy was wounded in the African landing. Mine was wounded in this country by a street walker." World War 2. "Cartoon by C.C. Batchelor of the New York Daily News for the American Social Hygene Asociation, 1790 Broadway, New York, N.Y. Reproduced by Div. S.S.C. for distribution by Surgeon 3rd Armored Div." (Reeve74964-6.jpg)

Collections of his papers are in Witchita State University's Library in THE CARTOON COLLECTION OF C. D. BATCHELOR, MS 90-16 and C. D. Batchelor Papers - An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University.

More downloadable books on Internet Archive

The two newest ones are:

Cantor Lectures: The Microscope (1888). Lectures on the history of the microscope by British collector John Mayall, Jr. excerpted from the Journal of the Society of the Arts, 1885-1888.

A History of the United States Army Medical Museum 1862 to 1917 compiled from the Official Records (1917) by Daniel S. Lamb

For those collecting them, here's the complete list although World War 1 #14 isn't actually working at the moment.

Museum history:

http://www.archive.org/details/TheArmedForcesInstituteOfPathology-ItsFirstCentury - The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology - Its First Century(1962)

http://www.archive.org/details/HISTORYARMYMEDICALMUSEUM - A History of the United States Army Medical Museum 1862 to 1917 compiled from the Official Records (1917) by Daniel S. Lamb

Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion

http://www.archive.org/details/MSHWRMedical1 - The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. (1861-1865) Part I. Volume I. Medical History. (1st Medical volume) (1870)

http://www.archive.org/details/MSHWRMedical2 - The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part II, Volume I. (2nd Medical volume) (1879)

http://www.archive.org/details/MSHWRMedical3 - The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part III, Volume I. (3rd Medical volume) (1888)

http://www.archive.org/details/MSHWRSurgical1 - The Medical and SurgicalHistory of the War of the Rebellion. (1861-1865.) Part I. Volume II.(1st Surgical volume) (1870)

http://www.archive.org/details/MSHWRSurgical2 - The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. (1861-1865.) Part II. Volume II.(2nd Surgical volume) (1876)

http://www.archive.org/details/MSHWRSurgical3 - The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part III, Volume II. (3rd Surgical volume)

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV1 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 1: The Surgeon General's Office (1923)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV2 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 2: Administration American Expeditionary Forces (1927)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV3 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 3: Finance and Supply (1928)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV4 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 4: Activities Concerning Mobilization Camps and Ports of Embarkation (1928)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV5 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 5: Military Hospitals in the United States (1923)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV6 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 6: Sanitation (1926)

http://www.archive.org/details/W1ArmyMedDeptHistV7 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 7: Training (1926)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV8 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 8: Field Operations (1925)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV9 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 9: Communicable and Other Diseases (1928)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV10 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 10: Neuropsychiatry (1929)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV11-1 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 11:Surgery; Part One, General Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Neurosurgery (1927)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV11-2 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 11: Surgery; Part Two (1924)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV12 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 12: Pathology of the Acute Respiratory Diseases, and of Gas Gangrene Following War Wounds (1929)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV13 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 13: Part 1, Physical Reconstruction and Vocational Education; Part 2, The Army Nurse Corps (1927)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV14 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 14: Medical Aspects of Gas Warfare(1926)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV15-1 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 15: Statistics; Part One Army Anthropology (1921)

http://www.archive.org/details/WW1ArmyMedDeptHistV15-2 - The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 15: Part 2, Medical and Casualty Statistics (1925)


http://www.archive.org/details/CantorLecuturesTheMicroscope - Cantor Lectures: The Microscope (1888). Lectures on the history of the microscope by British collector John Mayall, Jr. excerpted from the Journal of the Society of the Arts, 1885-1888.

Blumberg Collection:

http://www.archive.org/details/KennedyAutopsyReportWarrenCommissionReport - Autopsy of President Kennedy (February 01, 1965) by Pierre Finck, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology


General Medical Products Information (GMPI) Collection:

http://www.archive.org/details/CatalogueOfSurgeonsInstrumentsAirAndWaterBedsPillowsAndCushions - A Catalogue of Surgeons' Instruments, Air and Water Beds, Pillows, and Cushions, Bandages, Trusses, Elastic Stockings, Inhalers, Galvanic Apparatus, and Other Appliances Used by the Medical Profession, Maw and Son, 1866

http://www.archive.org/details/AnIllustratedDescriptionOfFirst-classAchromaticMicroscopesApparatus - An Illustrated Description of First-Class Achromatic Microscopes, Apparatus, Specimens, etc., Miller Brothers, 1879

Vorwald Collection:

http://www.archive.org/details/AMedicalSurveyOfTheBituminous-coalIndustry - A Medical Survey of the Bituminous-Coal Industry (1947), Coal Mines Administration, US Department of the Interior

the military's medical school

Our colleagues in Bethesda at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences made it into the Post today - see "Today's Lesson: Major Disaster - Military Medical School Simulates Chaotic Situations," By Jackie Spinner, Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 10, 2008; Page B04. Interestingly enough, the moulage techniques being used in this picture were developed by an Army Medical Museum staffer, Sgt. Cortizas. We've got some historical moulage kits as well as photographs and papers on the development of them including this collection:

OHA 334

* Training Aids Section Files, 1955-1963
* 3.5 cubic feet, 7 boxes.
* No finding aid, part arranged, inactive, unrestricted.
* Records of a defunct AFIP division concerned with medical training, which grew out of work done at the Museum. Includes material on films, moulages, manikins, and other training aids. Many of the products are in Historical Collections.

Creativity, music and neurology article

Museum alum Jenn Heilman passed along this article as being appropriate as the Museum sponsors Brain Awareness Week - "Creativity Jazzes Your Brain," By LAURAN NEERGAARD
The Associated Press, Monday, March 10, 2008.

Jen's now Director of Communications for the non-profit group Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington.

Another museum alum sighting

Jeff Reznick has a book review of Meade and Serlin's edited volume Radical History Review 94: Disability and History in the new issue of the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, v. 82.

European Association of Museums in the History of the Health Sciences meeting announcement

14th Congress of the European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences, Edinburgh, Scotland
17 - 21 September 2008

The Body: Simulacra and Simulation - models, prosthetics and interventions

Models in wax or plastic, wood or metal, plaster or papier- mache are held in almost every medical museum in the world; while the development of surgical interventions and prosthetics has also led to a range of materials being used to replicate and imitate external and internal parts and movements of the body. Congress 2008 will explore aspects of the use, culture, history, art and manufacture of models, prosthetics and surgical interventions. It is hoped that the conference will be the catalyst for the development of a European-wide electronic database of models and prosthetics held in medical collections.

Call for Abstract Submissions
Curators, scholars and collectors in any relevant discipline are invited to submit abstracts that explore the following strands:
Deadline: 15 April 2008 (approx. 250 words and 150 word biog).

Sessions:
* Models
* Prosthetics
* Interventions
* Medical Museums for the 21st Century
Special session Friday 19th September:Invited speakers include, Ken Arnold (Head of Public Programmes, Wellcome Trust) and Thomas Soderqvist (Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen)

Submission Guidelines:

There will be 4 sessions on the main Simulacra and Simulation, topics. Each session will have a moderated discussion.
An abstract (250 words max) and a short bio (150 words max) should be submitted by 15 April 2008, via email to d.kemp@rcsed.ac.uk. Papers should be 20 minutes long.

Due to limited speaker slots, a poster session will also take place during the Congress. Please indicate on your application if a poster presentation is acceptable.

Submissions accepted and presented at the conference may be published, subject to copyright, in a publication of EAMHMS Congress proceedings, the EAMHMS website and/or the Scotland & Medicine website - www.scotland&medicine.co.uk . Please indicate if you do not want your presentation to be published in this way.

Email: d.kemp@rcsed.ac.uk
Tel contact, Dawn Kemp: +44 (0)131 527 1649

Congress Delegate and Accompanying Guest Fees:
The number of delegate places is limited to 150, a waiting list will be drawn up if the Congress sessions are oversubscribed.
Delegates may bring a guest to take part in all social aspects of the programme but please note, guests will not be able to attend sessions unless there is available space on the day.

Congress Fees, include the social and tour programme as detailed (the programme may be subject to change, if necessary) EAMHMS Congress rates:

Before 16 May 2008
Delegate Member 270 Euro
Guest of Member (social and tour programme only) 240 Euro
Non Member 300 Euro

After 16 May 2008
Delegate Member 300 Euro
Guest of Member (social and tour programme only) 270 Euro
Non Member 300 Euro


Congress Accommodation in Edinburgh:

Delegates must make their own accommodation arrangements but group arrangements have been made with the following hotels and guest houses, all within walking distance of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and in the heart of historic Edinburgh. Breakfast is included in the price of the hotels:

MacDonald Holyrood Hotel ****
www.macdonald-hotels.co.uk/holyrood/
Situated next to the Scottish Parliament and the historic royal residence, Holyrood Palace this hotel is less than a 10 minute walk from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. We recommend you book early to secure a room.

Price per night, bed and breakfast, Congress rate: £99single/£109double
Tel: +44 (131) 5288281
quote group code: EURO170908

10 Hill Square ***
www.tenhillplace.com

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh's very own lodge style hotel, situated next to Surgeons' Hall. There are a number of rooms reserved for Congress delegates and guests. We recommend you book early to secure a room.
Price per night, bed and breakfast, Congress rate: £77single/£95 double
Tel: +44 (131) 662 2080
Email:
quote group code: M091029

Edinburgh Best Western ***
www.edinburghcityhotel.com
A ten minute walk from Surgeons' Hall, situated in an area steeped in Edinburgh's medical heritage, the hotel was formerly the Simpson Memorial Hospital, first opened in the 1860s. The hotel is also close to Edinburgh's Old Royal Infirmary and the Edinburgh College of Art.

Price per night, bed and breakfast: £85single/ £95 double
Tel: +44 (131) 6227979
quote group code: 410200/Royal College of Surgeons

Salisbury Green Hotel
University of Edinburgh Hotel
www.salisburygreen.com

In the spectacular surroundings of the Royal Park in the shadow of Arthurs Seat, the imposing volcanic plug which dominates Edinburgh's skyline there is a range of accommodation available in this hotel and residency complex.

Price per night, bed and breakfast: £94 or 104 single/£109 or 119 double
Tel: +44 (131) 662 2000
These rooms can not be held under a group booking and your are advised to reserve a room as soon as possible.

Minto House Hotel
www.edinburghmintohotel.co.uk

Less than five minutes walk from Surgeons' Hall close to the beautiful Royal Park and Arthurs Seat.

Price per night, bed and breakfast: £69/74 single /£109/120 double
Tel: +44 (131) 668 1234

Guest Houses/economy accommodation:
Thrums Hotel, Minto Street

www.thrumshotel.com

Less than five minutes walk from Surgeons' Hall close to the beautiful Royal Park and Arthurs Seat

Price per night, bed and breakfast, Congress rate: £34.5 per person
Tel: +44 (131) 677 5545
quote group: Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh


These are just some of the hotels and guest houses close to Surgeons' Hall, they are all situated in central Edinburgh, close to the historic Royal Mile in the Old Town of Edinburgh information about other hotels in the area is available from:
http://www.visitscotland.com/sitewide/bookedinburgh

Please note that many of these hotels work with web agents and you may be able to book directly through general hotel accommodation websites.

"So big and exciting and new and scary..."

Musematic's author wrote at length today about an interesting topic, something I've heard once or twice around the table at meetings but not in such detail as presented here. The topic is serious and wide-ranging, and almost always a moving target: how to interact and engage with the public, or how to allow our audiences to engage with our collections: clearly, not a new topic for museums but with the rapid changes in technology, something that is increasingly on everyone's minds.

I think about this all the time: it's the job of any marketing or communications professional to engage an institutions' audiences, and the change in the public's attention span in recent years, coupled with the myriad of ways that audiences want to be engaged, has made this task so much more complicated and challenging (and fun, honestly.)

I don't have any silver bullet answers at the moment, though you never know where inspiration lies or where providence leads us next, but I thought the post was an interesting examination by someone clearly very enmeshed in this debate personally. Read on.

Anatomical Art is Cool

Morbid Anatomy has a cool post on comparative anatomical illustrations, and that post links to this blog Medical Illustration Studio Blog. If you're not a Morbid Anatomy reader, you're missing out on great stuff, so grab their feed, and I, for one, added this new art-with-a-medical twist blog to the reader today. Enjoy.

More Brainy Goodies

We'll certainly have much more to tell about our awesome Brain Awareness Week activities in future posts, but I wanted to make sure I thank the good people at SharpBrains.com for linking to us this week (not once, but twice!) and allowing us to spotlight our incredible partners for the upcoming programs. I am told that its an exciting and fun week, my first at the Museum, and I'll be glad to offer some news and photos in the near future.

The Internet and Museums: Perfect Together

I've made an effort (mostly reading other blogs, of course, the source of all real information, right?), since starting at the Museum, to keep an eye out for any sort of 'best practices' papers or research that helps support positive growth and new ideas in the museum world. There's lots of good stuff, for sure, but this came across the wires the other day.

I came across a blog post at museumblogthesis.blogspot.com that links to a new study which tries to put down the theory that the Internet is doing some irreparable harm to museums and libraries. The report was done with the support of several universities and the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. The report itself is online at http://interconnectionsreport.org/ and much like the museum blogger linked above, I've only scanned the main conclusions slides, but it seems persuasive.

I wonder now how much this gets noticed in the community.

New pics on Flickr

I put up five photographs today that were part of last year's scanning project.

This one's been popular:


Poliomyelitis. Transmission Experiment with Aedes aegypti. (although polio is not transmitted by mosquitos).


ANTERIOR POLIOMYELITIS. (MICROPHOTOGRAPH.)


American soldier wounded but still happy. Boureuilles, Meuse, France. 09/26/1918.


"Healthy, Happy Companionship. The community that provides - wholesome family life, - healthy recreation, - V.D. education will protect its young people." Ontario. Issued by the Ontario Provincial Department of Health, circa World War 2.


[summer night crowd watching motion picture, circa World War 1. "Fit to Fight" anti-venereal disease film showing?]

Two more World War 1 books to download

Only one left to go!

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 13: Part 1,
Physical Reconstruction and Vocational Education; Part 2, The Army Nurse Corps (1927)

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 15: Part 2, Medical and Casualty Statistics (1925)

New Bell Daguerretoype acquired and finding aid added to website.

The museum has acquired an 1852 daguerreotype taken by William Bell, chief photographer for the Army Medical Museum during and after the Civil War. Bell took many of the pictures included in the collection of Photographs of Surgical Cases and Specimens and provided his work to Matthew Brady's gallery. The daguerreotype, in a pristine leather case with a velvet lining embossed with "W. Bell, Jenny Lind Gallery, 86 N Second St, Phil[adelphia]" shows a man with ptosis (drooping eyelid). This acquisition was made with the generous assistance of Frederic A. Sharf.

We updated the finding aid for Bell's collection done a few years back by intern Rudolf D'Souza and posted it to the website as well. You can see more of Bell's scenery pictures from the 1882 expedition to photograph transit of Venus (and his obituary) on the website too.

Another WW1 book uploaded - this time with influenza

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 12: Pathology of the Acute Respiratory Diseases, and of Gas Gangrene Following War Wounds (1929)

Collect them all!

JULY 2008, NATIONAL HUMAN CADAVER PROSECTION PROGRAM (IUSM-NW)

And here's a fun program that we've been asked to publicize. These gents donated a set of their dissection dvds (going by memory on that) to the Museum last year.

***** 2nd Notice *****

***** NATIONAL HUMAN CADAVER PROSECTION PROGRAM *****

Indiana University School of Medicine-Northwest Dunes Medical
Professional Building 3400 Broadway Gary, Indiana University

APPLICATION DEADLINE: *** MAY 1, 2008 ***

PROGRAM SPONSOR: ZIMMER, Inc. (Zimmer Orthopedics)

**** Human Cadaver Dissection **** **** Radiology **** **** Orthopedic Surgery Demonstrations ****


Applications for the July 2008, NATIONAL Human Cadaver Prosection Program at the Indiana University School of Medicine-Northwest (IUSM-NW) are now being accepted. The application form is available online at the IUSM-NW Web Site (URL: http://iusm-nw.medicine.iu.edu).
The Cadaver Prosection page is linked to the IUSM-NW front page. [Click on "IUSM-Northwest Educational Programs, and then "Cadaver Prosection"]

The Cadaver Prosection will be held on Wednesday, July 30 and Thursday, July 31, 2008, from 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., and will include 2 evenings of preparatory work in late June.

Selected participants who complete the program will receive a certificate of completion, honorarium and certification for work with biohazards and blood-borne pathogens. All will have extensive hands-on experience professionally dissecting human cadavers, and will receive intensive exposure to human gross anatomy and radiology.

Zimmer Orthopedics will conduct a special lecture presentation and accepted applicants will participate in a hands-on orthopedic workshop.
CME Credit is offered for the NATIONAL Human Cadaver Prosection Program.

You need not be a medical professional or pre-medical student to participate. All are encouraged to apply. Prior participants have included pre-med and pre-vet, nursing, radiological technology, mortuary science students, other undergraduate and graduate students, teachers,
attorneys, lab technicians, etc.

For further information go to the Cadaver Prosection Page, or contact the program director:

Ernest F. Talarico, Jr., Ph.D.
TEL: 219-981-4356
Email: etalaric@iun.edu

Send (ordinary mail or email) your application materials to:
Ernest F. Talarico, Jr., Ph.D.
Assistant Director of Medical Education
Indiana University School of Medicine - Northwest Campus Dunes Medical
Professional Building Room 3028A 3400 Broadway Gary, IN 46408

New Exhibition Opens at NLM..."MOST HORRIBLE & SHOCKING MURDERS!"

New Exhibition Opens at NLM... "MOST HORRIBLE & SHOCKING MURDERS!"

True crime murder pamphlets in the collection of the National Library of Medicine

The History of Medicine Division (HMD) of the National Library of Medicine is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibit, "MOST HORRIBLE & SHOCKING MURDERS: True crime murder pamphlets in the collection of the National Library of Medicine." It is located in display cases in the HMD Reading Room, on the first floor of the National Library of Medicine, Building 38, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. The exhibit is open Monday through Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm, and Saturday 8:30am to 2:30pm, through June 15, 2008.

Ever since the mid-1400s, the public's appetite for tales of shocking murders-"true crime"-has been one of the most durable facts of the market for printed material. Murder pamphlets were hawked on street corners, taverns, coffeehouses, newsstands, and bookshops. Typically, the pamphlets claimed to be true accounts of a murder, consisting of a narrative, trial transcript, or written confession of the murderer
before his or her execution. Sometimes they featured medical commentary. The pamphlets on display in "MOST HORRIBLE & SHOCKING MURDERS" were printed between 1692 and 1881. Some deal with cases of interest to the emerging field of forensic medicine. Others deal with cases in which doctors were accused of-or were victims of-heinous crimes. Still others have no medical connection whatsoever. Today, murder pamphlets are a rich source for historians and crime novelists, who mine them to study the history of medicine, class, gender, the law, the city, religion and
other topics.

The exhibit was curated by Michael Sappol, PhD. For further information on the exhibit, contact Stephen Greenberg, e-mail greenbes@mail.nih.gov , phone 301-435-4995. Due to current security measures at NIH, off-campus visitors are advised to consult the NIH Visitors and Security website at:http://www.nih.gov/about/visitorsecurity.htm


The library is purported to have a large pornography collection as well. Seriously.

Last of Civil War volumes and another World War 1 book online

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 11: Surgery; Part Two (1924)

The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. (1861-1865.) Part II. Volume II. (2nd Surgical volume) (1876)

Collect them all!

More bits from the papers

A few articles relating to the history of medicine in today's papers. All 3 of these articles have in common a condition or diagnosis that's perceived to be increasing, without any good epidemiological work being done:

The Washington Post has its medical mysteries column (as does the NY Times in its Sunday magazine) which looks at the growing diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. See "A Suspect Diagnosis: The Doctors Agreed. So Why Did He Doubt Them?" By Sandra G. Boodman, Washington Post Staff Writer, Tuesday, March 4, 2008; Page HE01. Read to the end to see what the amazingly common diagnosis should have been.

And it's page A1 news that "Immune Systems Increasingly On Attack" By Rob Stein, Washington Post Staff Writer, Tuesday, March 4, 2008; Page A01. Actually, like the MS article above, I have doubts about this, which a doctor from Johns Hopkins also has although we're about 20 paragraphs in before he's quoted. But how many articles do you see recommending dosing one with parasitic worms? Now that's heroic medicine.

And finally this article in the NY Times business section discusses a test for MRSA although one doctor they interviewed suggests that patients would be better off if everyone in the hospital just washed their hands -
A Bug Rises, and With It a Company By ANDREW POLLACK, Published: March 4, 2008.
Patients might not like the new admission procedure at a growing number of hospitals: having an elongated Q-Tip stuck up their noses. But it smells great to Cepheid.

Note the VA is planning on using this test. Is the test a bad idea? Probably not, but one wonders if the money could be spent more wisely.

And without even trying hard, we started every post title with "More" this evening.

Mo' participants

Tim Clarke Jr, the Museum's Public Affairs Officer (aka flack, see also spin doctor) made his first post tonight. That brings the total to four of us blogging - Andrea of Public Programs, Assistant Archivist Kathleen Stocker and Archivist Mike Rhode (aka me). I noticed on one of the blogs Tim linked to in the preceding post that I was given all the credit, but this is a group effort.

More Link Craziness

Links happen, and they make for a safe first post, right? So, click away, but come back. Please.

• We're getting ready for Brain Awareness Week, in case you didn't notice, and so is SharpBrains.
• Morbid Anatomy pointed out Mutter's new photo exhibition.
• People at work will be surprised to learn that I am a bit of disaster preparation fanatic - seriously, I've read too much about this for my own good - so when I saw a post about a museum doing due-diligence crisis planning, I was actually pretty excited. Anyway, now that I've outed my fascination with disasters, I'll link to Musematic's discussion on the topic, with the awesome post title The Big One. (And I'll admit that I too am often excited by the 'prospect of digital disaster' as the post goes on to discuss.)
• I am still learning a lot about museums but I read this very educational blog, and while some of it still blows past me, it's worthwhile reading.
• The Museum itself (notice, I capitalize 'Museum' when I refer to the institution; I do that because we're awesome and the capital letter is just one way to characterize that, at least in my own mind) was the beneficiary of some link love recently, so please consider clicking over and checking these blogs out.
• All good link posts need to come to an end, but not without the capstone link for tonight: Check out 'Photography in the O.R.' over at Medgadget, courtesy of Boing Boing.

More downloadable books on Internet Archive

Two from the Civil War and one from World War 1.

The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part III, Volume I. (3rd Medical volume) (1888)

The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. (1861-1865.) Part I, Volume II. (1st Surgical volume) (1870)

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 11: Surgery; Part One, General Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Neurosurgery (1927)

Alumni Steven Solomon mentioned in paper

Our former public affairs officer is quoted here in Tampa Bay Online. One presumes he's tan, rested and ready, but there's no picture.

More downloadable books on Internet Archive

One Civil War and three World War 1 books today.

The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part II, Volume I. (2nd Medical volume) (1879)

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 9: Communicable and Other Diseases (1928)

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 10: Neuropsychiatry (1929)

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 15: Statistics; Part One Army Anthropology (1921)

Book review on Italian syphilis lawsuit

See "In the 1890s, a wet nurse contracted syphilis from a baby -- and sued."
By Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World Sunday, March 2, 2008; Page BW15.

He reviews:

AMALIA'S TALE
An Impoverished Peasant Woman, an Ambitious Attorney, and a Fight for Justice
By David I. Kertzer
Houghton Mifflin. 237 pp. $24

which is an interesting bit of history of medicine that I hadn't heard of before.

Our (possibly) most viewed Flickr image

We've had almost 1200 views on this photo, which may be the most-viewed of our 500 or so.

CP1855. The caption is: "Amputation of left thigh. [Image is reversed.] CPL Edward Scott, 10th U.S. Calvary. Injured May 3, 1886 at the Battle of Sierra Pinita, Mexico and treated by Dr. Paul R. Brown. Baker & Johnson Photos studio. "

New finding aid for Haymaker collection

Dr. Webb Haymaker was a neuropathologist at AFIP. We have a small collection of his papers and just put online a finding aid for them.

Medical trade literature finding aid online

We've finally had our database of medical trade literature (ie advertisements) converted to html and you can see a listing of items for this collection at the following URL. It's already obsolete as we continue to add material on a weekly basis. This isn't the best solution, but it will give a researcher a rough idea of what type of material we have and it's certainly more up-to-date than the 20-year old book that listed them, The Finest Instruments Ever Made. As we scan more of these catalogues, links to the scans will be added too.

OHA 168

General Medical Products Information Collection, ca. 1815-present
90 cubic feet, 144 boxes.
Finding aid available, arranged, active, unrestricted.
Artificial collection of product information, primarily advertisements and trade literature, on medical equipment, prosthetics, and pharmaceuticals. Arranged by manufacturer. Item-level finding aid.

More downloadable books on Internet Archive

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 8: Field Operations (1925)

The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. (1861-1865) Part I. Volume I. Medical History. (1st Medical volume) (1870)

Autopsy of President Kennedy (1965) by Pierre Finck, AFIP. From the Blumberg collection.

A Medical Survey of the Bituminous-Coal Industry (1947), Coal Mines Administration, US Department of the Interior. From the Vorwald collection.

How pharmaceuticals really are made

I'm sure most of us still hold to the old white-coated scientists in gleaming labs with ingredients never touched by human hands view. So read this fascinating expose.

Twists in Chain of Supplies for Blood Drug
By DAVID BARBOZA and WALT BOGDANICH
New York Times February 28, 2008
Differing statements from the factory owner and traders highlight the difficulty of tracing the supply chain in China for the blood-thinner heparin.

Chinese pig intestines!

New book donated to museum

Civil War Museum Treasures: Outstanding Artifacts and the Stories Behind Them by Kenneth D. Alford, McFarland 2008. Includes a brief mention of the bullet that killed Lincoln and a picture on p. 25.

3 new scanned books on Internet Archive

Free for downloading, but very large files.

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 7: Training (1926) - this has a section on the Army Medical School which spun off of the Army Medical Museum, and in turn spun off the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, but whose role has been taken up by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda.

A Catalogue of Surgeons' Instruments, Air and Water Beds, Pillows, and Cushions, Bandages, Trusses, Elastic Stockings, Inhalers, Galvanic Apparatus, and Other Appliances Used by the Medical Profession, Maw and Son, 1866

The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part III, Volume II. (3rd Surgical volume)

Virtual Museums

I am increasingly amazed and fascinated with the growing presence of virtual museums and online exhibits. The internet is creating the perfect platform for these niche topics. I'd like to see the NMHM do an online condom exhibit. Check out the Museum of Food Anomalies. I like the fetus in the fried egg.

Thursday Lecture on African American Surgeons During the Civil War

Dr. Robert Slawson will be speaking on the topic African American Surgeons during the Civil War. The lecture will begin at 11:00 AM on February 28th. The lecture's for the Museum's docents, but Andrea said it's open to the public.

Ephemera - whadya do with it?

So what do you notice when you look at this box? It's a box of crackers? It's low fat? It's pink? It's a big breast cancer awareness advertisement?

The last is what I noticed. This is the type of ephemera which usually doesn't get saved, but is darn useful for doing exhibits. The question about where to file it then arises of course. We dropped this in a folder on Breast Cancer and didn't catalogue it in our General Medical Products Information trade literature collection.

Pathology article in Washington Post talks about value of saved tissue

See
"In a Va. Lab, Forging Links To Speed Cancer Advances GMU, With Ties to Italy, Aims to Be a Biotech Force," By Michael Laris, Washington Post Staff Writer, Wednesday, February 27, 2008; B01.

New book donated to museum

We just received The Tropical World of Samuel Taylor Darling: Parasites, Pathology and Philanthropy by E. Chaves-Carballo, Sussex Academic Press, 2007.

Dr. Chaves-Carballo used our collection a little bit to write this biography of the pathologist at Panama's Gorgas Hospital. We have Darling's pathological reports and autopsies of the hospital in OHA 177 Gorgas Hospital Autopsies and Pathology Reports, 1900s-1970s. Darling discovered the fungal disease Histoplasmosis (although according to the book he thought it was a protozoa) and a picture from us of a 1905 autopsy report of the first case is on p. 66. The autopsy records also showed how many cases of malaria (called estivo-autumnal fever) was killing people.

6th World War 1 history online

I got the scan of the very large The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 6: Sanitation (1926) up for downloading at the Internet Archive today.

Washington Post article on Walter Reed

"Trying Some Disney Attitude to Help Cure Walter Reed," By Steve Vogel, Washington Post Staff Writer, Monday, February 25, 2008; B01.

When you thought there couldn't be anything better than fabric brains....

Unbelievably, there is also a Gallery of Wood Brain Art. They produce figured wooden brains customized to reflect your research interests or particular features of your own brain, working either from 3D or 4D fMRI scans, jpgs or from psychological or medical diagnoses.

Speaking of Brains....

I am absolutely impressed with a new find in the museum world, The Museum of Fabric Brain Art. Wow. I'm thinking of creating The Museum of Fabric Bezoar Art--I already have one hand-crafted item in my personal collection.

Brain Awareness Week at the NMHM

For the ninth year, the NMHM will host a Brain Awareness Week (BAW) program for middle school students. This year over 800 students from DC, VA and MD will visit the museum between March 10 and 14 to participate in hands-on activities with area neuroscientists to learn more about the brain. Hopes are to inspire the next generation of neuroscientists.

Included in our Partners in Education are several of the National Institutes of Health. This year the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is the lead institute from NIH. They will coordinate the efforts of NIA, NIAAA, NIMH and NIDA. NINDS has just launched a new web page that describes the program.

The NMHM also has a new web page about BAW, including our new BAW mascot.

Some medical trade literature with gender issues

I put up on Flickr 4 scans from 3 pieces of medical trade literature responding to a posting on another blog about gender and advertising. Here they are:

duJur-Amsco's' "Communication Capsules for Inner Space - the new... Stenorette dictating systems" cover. Circa 1961. Accession #2002.0042.

"Essence of Womanhood" Published by Personal Products Corporation, Milltown, New Jersey. Makers of MODESS TAMPONS. Circa 1960. Accession #2002.0042.

"Essence of Womanhood" doctor's ordering form. Published by Personal Products Corporation, Milltown, New Jersey. Makers of MODESS TAMPONS. Circa 1960. Accession #2002.0042.

"Lady, your anxiety is showing (over a coexisting depression)" folder cover for "The Nervous System anatomical illustrations" published by Merck, Sharp and Dohme, West Point, PA. Circa. 1969. Advertises Triavil "a broad-spectrum psychotheraputic agent for the management of outpatients and hospitalized patients with psychoses or neurosis characterized by mixtures of anxiety or agitation with symptoms of depression..." Accession #2002.0042.

Trade literature and advertising can be fascinating.

Plastination and repatriation

Global Museum had links to a couple of articles of interest.

The first is on plastination - Gunter von Hagens developed this technique for preserving tissue in the 1980s and currently has exhibits touring the US including one in Baltimore now. The article deals with the question of where the human remains come from before they're plastinated. The Baltimore Sun's blog goes into more details.

The second is on repatriation, or the return of material originating with another culture. This article focuses on New Zealand, but the NMHM has repatriated material in the past, and has had ceremonies in its space.

Flickr picture viewing, OR What Boing-Boing meant to us

Last month, without us knowing it, Boing-Boing ran a bit about our Flickr sites (links in sidebar). This is what happened to traffic on the 3 sites we have (after we fill the free 200 pictures, we start a new one). This was all a surprise to us because we can't access BoingBoing either.

1/18/2008: 14,386 views, accounts 1 & 2 combined for the previous year and a half.

1/25/2008:

At about 3:30 pm:

1: 18,435 views
2: 5,442 views
3: about 660
-------------
24,537

At 4 pm:
1: 18,896
2: 5,705 - 3 minutes later - 5731
3: 930
-------------
25,557

4:11 pm:

1: 19,030
2: 5,877

6:00 pm:

1: 20,476
2: 6,731
3: 1,230

7:15 pm:

1: 21,231
2: 7,292
3: 1,379

1/26/2008

11:00 am:

1: 25,101
2: 9,752
3: 2,120

9:00 pm:

1: 26,905
2: 10,844
3: 2,439

1/27/2008

Noon:

1: 28,686
2: 11,803
3: 2,738

1/28/2008

9:30 am:

1: 30,589
2: 12,706
3: 3,045
---------
46,340

2/6/2008: 56,232 combined views

Midday, Bill Koslosky called me and did a brief interview so I had a clue what was going on. We could tell that people were suddenly accessing the sites, but had no idea why.

Amazing, isn't it? They might have gotten our name wrong, but boy did they do some good linking for us. We're still putting pictures up daily, and waiting to hear back from Flickr about joining their Commons project so check out the links on the bar on the right.

Morgellons disease and AFIP

A few week's ago the Washington Post Magazine published an article on Morgellons Disease which was not a condition that I was familiar with. Last week I came across an article stating that the Pathology Institute was asked to look into it - see "CDC enlists military to study skin ailment," Washington Times January 18, 2008.

Online artifact catalogues

We're attempting to build one right now with KE Emu software. This article gives an idea of what we're striving towards - "British Museum takes collection online; Ancient history meets cutting edge technology" by Ian Williams, vnunet.com, 14 Feb 2008

Obviously the British Museum is far larger - the article notes, "Around 275,000 of the museum's more than seven million treasures spanning two million years of history have already been uploaded to the new site, and the remaining items will follow over the coming months." I do think though that we'll get plenty of interest in our collections when we are able to make this work.

Museum 'alumni' - Marc Micozzi

Sometimes we're asked what former staff members are doing. Dr. Marc Micozzi became the Museum's director in 1986, and left in the early 1990s for the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. An internet news search on the Museum brought up this press release from last year - "Marc Micozzi Appointed to Prestigious Advisory Board of UC Irvine Extension's 'Spa & Hospitality Management'' Certificate Program."

Museum publication scans online

We're scanning tens of thousands of photographs each year, but also a few books. Here are links to ones that we began putting up on the Internet Archive last week. These are very large files - hundreds of megabytes - and there's a lot of reading that can be done here.

WW1 Medical History:

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 1: The Surgeon General's Office (1923)

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 2: Administration American Expeditionary Forces (1927)

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 3: Finance and Supply (1928)

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 4: Activities Concerning Mobilization Camps and Ports of Embarkation (1928)

The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War volume 5: Military Hospitals in the United States (1923)

Instrument Catalogues:

An Illustrated Description of First-Class Achromatic Microscopes, Apparatus, Specimens, etc., Miller Brothers, 1879

Museum History:

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology - Its First Century by Robert S. Henry (1962)

The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion was written by the Museum's curators, principally George Otis and J.J. Woodward. Not our scans, but we'll be uploading ours as well, including the missing 3rd Surgical volume -

The medical and surgical history of the war of the rebellion, (1861-65) Medical 1

The medical and surgical history of the war of the rebellion, (1861-65) Medical 2

The medical and surgical history of the war of the rebellion, (1861-65) Medical 3

The medical and surgical history of the war of the rebellion, (1861-65) Surgical 1

The medical and surgical history of the war of the rebellion, (1861-65) Surgical 2

Higher Rates of Breast Cancer Linked to Nighttime Lights

The Washington Post published a story last week reporting on the work of researchers in Israel. The scientists "overlaid satellite images of Earth onto cancer registries" and found that women who live in neighborhoods that have a lot of nighttime light, or those who work the graveyard shift, such as nurses and flight attendants, have a greater risk for breast cancer - as much as 60 percent higher. The key may be a lack of melatonin which is produced primarily at night; however, production of melatonin drops when light is present, especially light on the blue end of the spectrum, such as that from computer screens and fluorescent lights.

Museum Doodle

Talk about a hoppin' afternoon at the museum. The Pre-K to pre-teen crowd turned out in hordes to create Jackson Pollack-style artwork at the NMHM.

Jan Holland-Chapman, director of the DC and Montgomery Co. Abrakadoodle mobile art program, volunteered her time and resources to create an Abrakadoodle extravaganza. Expecting no more than 25 or so kids, Jan showed up for story time and a little painting with marbles and tempera paint--unbelievably about 200 people (kids and adults) showed up and created fabulous, one-of-a-kind works of art. This event was planned to compliment "Expression of Hope" an art exhibit of paintings by and about people with lysomal storage diseases to raise awareness about these rare conditions. A big thanks goes to Jan for her generous support of this program (and to docents Regina and Delores for all their help). To learn more about Abrakadoodle and their programs for parties, events, summer camps, etc., visit www.abrakadoodle.com or email Jan at jholland-chatman@abrakadoodle.com.

Social concerns with medical technology

The New York Times has a couple of interesting articles today which deal with how medical technology - in these cases genetic testing and vaccination - may be sidetracked by social issues. This is the type of information that it's hard to carry with an object when you add it to a museum collection, I think. And note that the second article, on Gardasil vaccination for cervical cancer and genital warts ran in the Style section!

The DNA Age
Insurance Fears Lead Many to Shun DNA Tests
By AMY HARMON
Published: February 24, 2008
Afraid of having genetic information used against them, many Americans do not take advantage of its growing availability.

Fashion & Style
Vaccinating Boys for Girls’ Sake?
By JAN HOFFMAN
Published: February 24, 2008
A new front for the fight against cervical cancer involves boys.

Another favorite photo

Here's another photo from the MAMAS collection (introduced below). Paperwork that came with the photo didn't have a name for this creature other than "mooch bug." I think, as a librarian/archivist, that it's a perfectly descriptive term, even if you wouldn't find in the Library of Congress Subject Headings.

Introduction to one of our collections

Hi. I'm Kathleen Stocker, an assistant archivist at the museum. I've been there about 2 1/2 years, fresh out of graduate school and my first foray into the archives world. I love my job.

I was hired to begin processing images for a massive digitization project. The first collection I worked on is known as MAMAS (Museum and Medical Arts Services). MAMAS photographers were sent out by the Medical Museum during WW2 to document medical and surgical cases and, when things got slow, they shot a lot of other things like scenery and calmer activities. Of the hundreds of thousands of images we've digitized in the last couple of years, here is my favorite:



This is the only information we have about this picture: "C-46 air evacuation from Manila, Philippine Islands."

I think the photo's a classic. It portrays such a feeling of calm and control. The soldiers are obviously all wounded, but they're in safe hands now, maybe on their way home. Mundane activities occupy the sergeant at the desk. And the nurse looks like a 1940s movie star, with just enough light on her face to make her the real subject of this photo, an elegant emblem of caring and competence.

Washington Post on dental care

Today's Washington Post has an excellent article on the problems of dental care in Louisiana. It's well worth reading about the volunteer work that Dr. Folse does.

Their ongoing report, "The Other Walter Reed" was on the same page too, so might as well link to it. We in the museum are completely in a different world from the patient care issues beyond passing each other in the cafeteria though.

Pictures of the Museum, its exhibits and its environs

My friend Bruce Guthrie stopped up for a tour a few weeks ago. He's an amateur photographer and took a lot of shots of both the exhibit floor and behind the scenes.

Julius Fabry's infected femur after George Otis' reamputation of it at the hip.

In the behind the scenes shots, you can get a brief glimpse of all 5 collections - Archives, then Historical, Anatomical, Neuropathology and Human Developmental Anatomy. The pictures with an asterisk at the top - * - have a caption you can read by clicking on the pencil.

Brain slices stained and mounted on glass for study.

Civil War bones with the bullets that caused the damage still attached.

Pictures of the Forest Glen Seminary are also on Bruce's site. This former girl's school was used by the Army as part of Walter Reed Army Medical Center during World War 2 and up through the 1990s before part of it was sold for development as condos. The rest is still owned by WRAMC and holds the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research which is doing important work on malaria vaccines. We've got some interesting bits in the Archives about the school, including this large WPA-era painting on display, showing psychiatric patients on the grounds.