Archives and Rare Books – Page 4 – Becker Medical Library

Archives and Rare Books

Todtentanz – The Early Modern Dance of Death

By Elisabeth Brander — December 13, 2023

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]

off white background with fist holding two Pabst beer bottles and words above saying "Pabst Extract"

Archives and Rare Books

When Is Beer Not Beer? When You Say It’s Medicine

By Sarah Bush — December 4, 2023

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.

Archives and Rare Books

Virginia Minnich, Professor of Medicine

By Ellen Dubinsky — October 18, 2023

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]

Archives and Rare Books

Bob Hope’s Cookbook Fundraiser for St. Louis Children’s Hospital

By Stephen Logsdon — October 17, 2023

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]

Gantenbein, Urs Leo, “Thurneisser zum Thurn, Leonhard” in: Neue Deutsche Biographie

Archives and Rare Books

Leonhard Thurneisser and the Secrets of Alchemy

By Elisabeth Brander — October 16, 2023

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]

Archives and Rare Books

The Humors and You! Medieval Health, Diet, and Humoral Theory

By Angela He — August 31, 2023

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]

Woman holding image above her and inspecting it in a library setting

Archives and Rare Books

Travel Scholarships Available for Archives and Rare Books Collections Use

By Paul Schoening — July 21, 2023

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]

Archives and Rare Books

In His Own Words: Julian Mosley, MD on supporting and advocating for Black Students at WUSM

By Sarah Bush — July 10, 2023

“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]

Archives and Rare Books

All the World’s A Stage: The Academic Dialogue in Print

By Elisabeth Brander — May 12, 2023

One of the joys of reading primary sources is that it can provide us with a direct window into the past—browsing through an old distillation manual can lead down the path of researching medicinal cannibalism, or mentions of moon phases can provoke a segue into medical astrology. But it isn’t just the words that can [Read more]

Archives and Rare Books

Comprehensive index to WU medical center publications now available to researchers

By Stephen Logsdon — May 9, 2023

An extensive index to Washington University Medical Center publications is now available via the Becker Archives. This new resource consists of nearly 7,000 index headings for faculty, staff, departments, programs and events related to the School of Medicine and its affiliated hospitals. Collectively, the headings point to over 35,000 unique citations in medical center [Read more]