Although we are a medical library, not every single volume in our rare book collections takes medicine as its focus. Our shelves also have 19th century novels, 18th century poetry, and 19th century poetry of questionable quality. We also have quite a few travelogues! Today we’ll look at Mungo Park’s account of his explorations in West Africa in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Beginning in 1942, the staff of the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis created and mailed “The Green Sheet,” a monthly newsletter which earned its nicknamed from the colored paper it was printed on. Officially named “216 South Kingshighway,” the missive was sent to members of Jewish Hospital serving in the military during World War II, and contained both news of the staff left at home, as well as excerpts from deployed staff members’ letters. The 31 issues held in the Bernard Becker Medical Library Archives provide an intimate glimpse into the global experiences of St. Louis servicemembers during the Second World War.
Prophetic works began to be printed as soon as Gutenberg developed his system of printing with movable metal type. In the early modern period, illustrated prophetic texts provided a way for people to try and understand the political and religious upheavals that surrounded them.
On a fall day in September 1972, the medical campus was on high alert for an escaped research patient. A small rhesus macaque somehow broke loose from his quarters on the tenth floor of McMillan Hospital. Now free to wander around on his own, this clever monkey was able to climb outside through an open window.
William R. Gowers (1845-1915) died 101 years ago. I was first introduced to Gowers by an American Academy of Neurology fellow who requested many editions of his Manual of diseases of the nervous system. I continue to be amazed that he could capture so much of neurological signs and symptoms in line drawings.
Dr. Moon joined the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine in 1998 and was promoted to Professor of Surgery in 2005. In 2014 he was honored as the John M. Shoenberg Chair in Cardiothoracic Disease.
Some of the most fascinating objects in the CID-Max A. Goldstein Collection in Speech and Hearing are works that contain examples of early modern manual alphabets. One of the most significant of these is Juan Pablo Bonet’s Reduction de las letras, y arte para enseñar a ablar los mudos (Simplification of the Letters of the [Read more]
Park Jerauld White was born to Sophia Banker White and Park Jerauld White in Green Ridge, Staten Island on December 31, 1891. He entered Harvard College in 1909, after attending Staten Island Academy (Harvard College Class of 1913; 1917).
On December 2nd, 2015 Becker Library’s Archives and Rare Books will host its annual display of rare anatomical atlases from 1:00pm–4:00pm in the King Center.
Galen (129-216) was an immensely influential physician whose theories on humorism, anatomy, blood circulation, pharmacology, and neurology guided the field of medicine for nearly 1200 years after his death.