Category: Archives and Rare Books

Announcements, Archives and Rare Books

‘Making a Monster’ exhibit explores developments in science and anatomy that shaped ‘Frankenstein’

By — September 19, 2018

Mary Shelley’s seminal novel “Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus” was published 200 years ago in 1818. Since then it has never gone out of print, and it has been reinterpreted in film, theatre, and even ballet. Its enduring popularity can be attributed to the timelessness of its themes. “Frankenstein” is not just a simple story  [Read more]

Archives and Rare Books

Part Medical Text, Part Work of Art

By — September 4, 2018

The Becker Library Rare Book Collections include approximately 23,000 volumes chronicling the history of medicine. The books and journals are organized within nine distinct collections that primarily document western medical history, and are typically written in Latin, German, French and English. There are, however, many medical texts among the rare book collections that are not  [Read more]

Archives and Rare Books

Descartes’ ‘Treatise of Man’

By — August 21, 2018

Rene Descartes’ “Treatise of Man” is my favorite work of the 35 in “Brain Localization: Images and ideas through 500 years, an exhibit of rare books” currently on display in the library’s Glaser Gallery. According to “Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine, #627,” “it was the first European textbook on physiology” and noteworthy  [Read more]

Announcements, Archives and Rare Books

Travel Scholarships Available for Archives and Rare Books Collections Use

By — August 20, 2018

Bernard Becker Medical Library is fortunate to have robust collections in archives and rare books that document the history of medicine from the late 15th century up to the present. Subjects in which the library’s holdings are particularly strong include ophthalmology and optics, neurology, deaf education, and the history of dentistry. In order to encourage  [Read more]

Announcements, Archives and Rare Books

Read along with the Special Collections Book Club

By — July 30, 2018

After a great start with Nina Siegal’s “The Anatomy Lesson,” we’re excited to announce that our next book selection will be “Year of Wonders” by Geraldine Brooks. Published in 2001, the novel was inspired by the true story of Eyam, England. “When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid  [Read more]

Archives and Rare Books

The Anti-vaccination Movement: History, satire, and body politics

By — July 23, 2018

Vaccination. The word, coined by Edward Jenner (1749 – 1823) as a combination of the Latin word for cow, “vacca,” and the Latin word for cowpox, “vaccinia,” has carried emotional weight from its inception as a scientific endeavor to control smallpox, an infectious disease. Today, the word “vaccine” likely provokes immediate, charged associations with other words  [Read more]

Archives and Rare Books

Arshav Nushan: Immigrant, Orderly and Jazzerino

By — June 26, 2018

When the United States entered World War I, Base Hospital 21, the medical reserve unit based at the Washington University Medical Center, placed a call for volunteers as the U.S. had yet to institute the draft. There was a great response from the public. In a nation of immigrants, many enthusiastically joined up in support  [Read more]

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