Reproductive rights in America are constantly changing. But how did we get here? Historical context can help us understand our current moment and even possible futures. Becker Library has a variety of historic materials that shed light on the history of reproductive rights at WashU and in St. Louis.
Using archival records to determine if a friendship between two women was something more is challenging. At first glance, the records are rather ambiguous, perhaps intentionally so. What can we learn if we look closer?
Is your sweetie into immunology? Does your heartthrob have a lab job? If so, send your beloved one of these valentines from the Becker Archives!
You might expect a malt brew with as much as 5% ABV to be a beer, but in the late nineteenth century Pabst apparently liked to think outside the keg.
“I came here with kind of the idea of opening up doors and trying to get the school involved in doing things for minorities” – Julian Mosley, MD, 1990 As a student at Washington University School of Medicine, Julian C. Mosley, Jr., MD, was instrumental in advocating for Black students. In the in the late [Read more]
Becker Library’s newest exhibit, “In Their Own Words: Stories of Desegregation at Washington University Medical Center,” highlights the experiences of Black people and their allies who faced institutional racism and fought for change. Learn more about the stories and topics presented in the exhibit with these resources.
This headband, called an Aurolese Phone, is on display along with more than 60 other hearing devices in a new exhibit at Becker Library called “How did we get hear? Historic hearing devices, 1800-2000.” Compared with the conversation tubes, ear trumpets, and more familiar-looking electronic hearing aids on display in Glaser Gallery, this floral headband seems rather out of place.
If you were in need of cathartic release in the 19th-century, you might reach for Ayer’s Pills — but relief is the last thing you’d be feeling.
The @BeckerLibrary Archives and Rare Books team have been providing a liberal dose of quirky quackery with our new weekly Instagram hashtag #MedicalAdMonday. It’s a showcase of salves, tonics, balsams, and bitters that claim to cure all manner of maladies, from chilblains to catarrh, boils to biliousness. But what was in these patent medicines and [Read more]
While an administrative error led administrators to quietly declare Washington University School of Medicine desegregated in 1947, efforts for truly active integration across the school and its associate hospitals came only after decades of intentional action and advocacy from many dedicated individuals and groups. The Washington University Medical Center Desegregation History Project highlights the stories [Read more]