Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini was born in Turin on the 22nd of April 1909. She was one of 4 children, 3 girls and 1 boy, born to Adamo Levi, a gifted mathematician, and Adele Montalcini, a skilled painter. While both parents were considered highly cultured and had a strong appreciation for intellectual pursuits, certain educational [Read more]
In February 1974, Dr. Jerome Cox, Jr., gave a speech at his alma mater, MIT, which asked, “Why Don’t We Have a Medical-Industrial Complex”? While the use of technology in medicine had certainly progressed since the 1950s, he suggested “a gap exists between expectations and accomplishments,” noting “[t]hings haven’t moved as they have in the [Read more]
What makes a good memory? How about a good meal? For members of the Washington University medical center who served with Base Hospital 21 during the First World War, special dinners were an important part of maintaining morale for the unit’s doctors, nurses, and enlisted men who were often overwhelmed with the wounded soldiers streaming [Read more]
Modern medical texts tend to be straightforward in their content, presenting the necessary information without artistic embellishment. Their medieval and early modern counterparts, however, made ample use of visual allegory. We’ve already talked about several famous examples, such as Vesalius’s evocation of classical statuary and the various Greco-Roman deities tucked into frontispieces, but today we’re [Read more]
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.
This short biography of Virginia Minnich (1910-1996) was researched and written by Ellen Dubinsky and first appeared in Becker Medical Library’s digital exhibit, Medical Journeys: Transplanting medical knowledge across the world (2007-2009). Born on January 24, 1910, Virginia Minnich was raised on her family’s farm in southern Ohio. Economic conditions forced Virginia to delay starting [Read more]
The famous actor and comedian Bob Hope raised money for St. Louis Children’s Hospital throughout his career. On numerous occasions throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, he visited with patients, served as the host at Children’s Hospital fundraisers, and organized several celebrity golf tournaments in St. Louis — with all benefits going to the hospital. [Read more]
There are plenty of treasures scattered throughout our rare book holdings, but we’re currently enamored with Leonhard Thurneisser zum Thurm’s Quinta Essentia, a wonderfully illustrated alchemical poem that’s a definite highlight of the Robert E. Schlueter Paracelsus Collection. Like Paracelsus himself, Thurnheisser led an itinerant life. Born in 1531 in Basel, he learned the craft [Read more]
Practitioners of humoral theory took the idea of a balanced diet to a whole new level as they incorporated the consumption of food and drink into their medical belief system. A prevalent medical practice in medieval and early-modern Europe, humoral theory has its roots as far back as Hippocrates and Galen in ancient Greece. The four [Read more]
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. To encourage researchers living [Read more]