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Friday, April 26, 2013

New medical museums article out

Stephen C. Kenny. "The Development of Medical Museums in the Antebellum American South: Slave Bodies in Networks of Anatomical Exchange." Bulletin of the History of Medicine 87.1 (2013): 32-62.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

New article on Body Worlds and the tradition of displaying human remains

"Skinless Wonders": Body Worlds and the Victorian Freak Show
Nadja Durbach
J Hist Med Allied Sci (2012)
 
This was an overview article - interesting, but not too theoretical.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

New article on Body Worlds and Victorian freak shows

  1. J Hist Med Allied Sci (2012) doi: 10.1093/jhmas/jrs035

"Skinless Wonders": Body Worlds and the Victorian Freak Show

  1. Nadja Durbach

+ Author Affiliations

  1. Department of History, University of Utah, Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building, 215 South Central Campus Drive, Room 310, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112.
  1. Email: n.durbach@utah.edu

Abstract

In 2002, Gunther von Hagens's display of plastinated corpses opened in London. Although the public was fascinated by Body Worlds, the media largely castigated the exhibition by dismissing it as a resuscitated Victorian freak show. By using the freak show analogy, the British press expressed their moral objection to this type of bodily display. But Body Worlds and nineteenth-century displays of human anomalies were linked in more complex and telling ways as both attempted to be simultaneously entertaining and educational. This essay argues that these forms of corporeal exhibitionism are both examples of the dynamic relationship between the popular and professional cultures of the body that we often erroneously think of as separate and discrete. By reading Body Worlds against the Victorian freak show, I seek to generate a fuller understanding of the historical and enduring relationship between exhibitionary culture and the discourses of science, and thus to argue that the scientific and the spectacular have been, and clearly continue to be, symbiotic modes of generating bodily knowledge.

'Medical museum' auction in Canada


 
Odd sale catalogue rattles a few bones
The Age
The skeletons are among 3000 items from the former medical museum at Kryal Castle theme park, being sold in 291 lots. The skeletons are listed as Lot 285 ...




NLM History of Medicine Lecture: Influenza epidemic

Following on the National Library of Medicine's participation in the recent symposium Shared Horizons: Data, Biomedicine, and the Digital Humanities, and as part of its ongoing cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities, you are cordially invited to the next NLM History of Medicine lecture, to be held on Tuesday, April 30, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., in the NLM Visitor Center, Building 38A on the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD.

The speaker will be Dr. E. Thomas Ewing, from Virginia Tech, who will speak on
"'Scourge on Wane; Fatalities Fewer': Interpreting Newspaper Coverage of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic."

 

Please note that this lecture was announced earlier under a somewhat different title.

 

This lecture will describe how a team of researchers is harnessing the power of data mining techniques with the interpretive analytics of the humanities and social sciences to understand how newspapers shaped public opinion and represented authoritative knowledge during the deadly pandemic that struck the United States in 1918. The research methods developed through this project promise new insights into understanding the spread of information and the flow of disease in other societies facing the threat of pandemics.

All are welcome.

Sign language interpretation is provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate may contact Stephen Greenberg at 301-435-4995, e-mail greenbes@mail.nih.gov, or the Federal Relay (1-800-877-8339).

Due to current security measures at NIH, off-campus visitors are advised to consult the NLM Visitors and Security website:

 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/about/visitor.html

Sponsored by

NLM's History of Medicine Division
Jeffrey S. Reznick, PhD, Chief

Event contact:
Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD
Coordinator of Public Services
History of Medicine Division
National Library of Medicine,

National Institutes of Health

Bethesda, MD

301-435-4995
greenbes@mail.nih.gov

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

George Marshall Medical Museum in UK profiled


 
TV antiques show to highlight macabre museum
Evesham Journal
A MEDICAL museum based at a Worcester hospital and known for its ghoulish ... The George Marshall Medical Museum, based at the Charles Hastings Education ...



Monday, April 8, 2013

Bontecou's Civil War medical photographs

Yale's Cushing-Whitney Library has a collection of RB Bontecou's Civil War photographs that is similar to part of the NMHM's one. You can see scans at http://cushing.med.yale.edu/gsdl/collect/civilwar/index.html

 

Some are new to me - especially this one with this neat human artifacthttp://cushing.med.yale.edu/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?c=civilwar&a=d&d=DcivilwarBontecouBABJ
 

Friday, April 5, 2013

Metropolitan Museum of Art's Civil War exhibit

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Civil War exhibit includes photographs of wounded soldiers by Dr. Reed Bontecou that are now owned by Dr. Stanley Burns. Bontecou also sent copies of his photographs to the Medical Museum. Dr. Burns recently wrote a book on Bontecou's pictures.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

New art exhibit at National Museum of Health and Medicine

 
Brain-injury survivors, including war and sports victims, are ...
Washington Post
Portraits Exhibit honors brain-injury survivors 'Whack'ed,' National Museum of Health and Medicine Hemorrhages, blunt-force trauma and bullet wounds don't ...




Saturday, March 30, 2013

Who's buried in Booth's grave remains an issue



Booth mystery must remain so - for now
Philly.com
Their request for access to an alleged Booth specimen - three cervical vertebrae in the collection of the National Museum of Health and Medicine in ...


Friday, March 29, 2013

Death of Lorenz Zimmerman

Dr. Lorenz Zimmerman, a long-time Armed Forces Institute of Pathology staff member, died recently. Much of his work is in the medical museum, including early logbooks for the ophthalmic pathology registry. On a personal note, Dr. Zimmerman was a very nice and pleasant person to work with. An oral history the museum did with him twenty years ago can be seen here.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Brain awareness week at NMHM


Brain Awareness Week looks to make science cool
GIMBY
The National Museum of Health and Medicine include a couple larger-than-life brain models from the 1950's, a far cry from today's real-life educational ...

GIMBY

Medical museum and library staff quoted on 10-year Iraq war

More than 50,000 U.S. troops injured in Iraq and Afghanistan
Medical care, front-line tactics aid recovery rates
By Lee Bowman Scripps Howard News Service
 March 16, 2013

The article quotes Alan Hawk of the medical museum and Ken Koyle of NLM.

Another version is here.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

New issue of The Grog, A Journal of Navy Medical History and Culture

It is with great pleasure that we present to you the latest edition of The Grog, A Journal of Navy Medical History and Culture. In this issue, we offer our readers an original assortment of stories, essays, trivia and book reviews covering the topics of: the life and lessons of the heroic World War I nurse Edith Cavell; a look back at Hennesey, the only Navy Medicine-themed TV sitcom in history; the Navy's 115-year history of Global Health Engagement; Navy's Medicine and the Knickerbocker Theater Disaster; an illustrated look at service with the FMF; oral history interviews and their application to the arts; notes from the Navy Medical Archives; and a short review of Larry Berman's book, "Zumwalt." As always we hope you enjoy this tour on the high seas of Navy Medicine's past.

 

The Grog is accessible through the link below.  PDF versions are available upon request. 
 

Issue 36, 2013

http://issuu.com/thegrogration/docs/the_grog_issue_36__2013

 

 

Very Respectfully,

 

André

 

André B. Sobocinski

Historian/Publications Manager

Office of Medical History

Communications Directorate (M09B7C)

Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED)

Monday, March 11, 2013

Another staff departure at NMHM

I hear through the grapevine that Mike Stanley, director of logistics for the Museum, is retiring. The hiring freeze on DOD may mean that he can't be replaced for a while. I'm sure Mike's job was pretty thankless for a long time as the closing of AFIP and the setting up of both a new museum and a new warehouse occurred on his watch.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Navy Medicine's 1993 John Wilkes Booth issue online now

The January 1993 issue of Navy Medicine is digitized and online. It features the article "Identification and Autopsy of John Wilkes Booth: Reexamining the Evidence" by L. F. Guttridge which argues that the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln may not have been caught and executed. Booth's vertebrae are in the Medical Museum.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Here's a cute article about a mini-medical museum



Hospital receives book with 5000 19th century remedies
Idaho State Journal
SODA SPRINGS — The Mini-Medical Museum at Caribou Memorial Hospital received a book from a descendent of Dr. William H. Anderson, who was a registered ...