Libraries, museums, and organizations throughout the United States and across the world host National Library of Medicine (NLM) traveling exhibitions. These sites plan and present enriching and engaging programs to connect their communities with the information in the exhibitions and with the wide variety of publicly-available NLM resources. This series, Making Exhibition Connections invites host…
An interview with Namhee Lee, PhD, on her NLM History Talk and her research on mental health in mid-20th century America.
By Allison Hill-Edgar ~ As described in Gendering the Non-binary, 1763, Part I, finding two unsigned engravings of intersex individuals bound in the back of Charles Nicholas Jenty’s Demonstration de la matrice d'une femme grosse et de son enfant a terme (Demonstrations of a pregnant uterus of a woman at her full time) from 1763–1764…
By Erika Mills ~ On a quest to bring together and catalog the world’s medical knowledge, John Shaw Billings, an Army surgeon and book collector who oversaw the U.S. Surgeon General’s library (today known as NLM), acquired approximately 300 pamphlets from the private collection of the renowned French physiologist Claude Bernard in 1878. Later that…
By Jessica L. Adler ~ While undertaking research for a book on the history of medical care in U.S. carceral facilities, I’ve been searching archives for materials related to a variety of types of institutions—federal prisons, state prisons, local jails. The approach requires justification. After all, structures of carceral administration vary widely throughout the United…
By Lindsay Franz ~ Springtime means spring cleaning, but do you include cleaning your teeth as part of your annual efforts, and overall dental health? Dental hygienists have been doing spring cleaning on our teeth for over a hundred years. This week in April is set aside to honor these health workers who keep us…
Explore a range of historically significant biomedical journals newly added to PubMed Central including World War I publications.
A new online exhibition, Making the Greatest Medical Library in America, showcases a selection of 19th century pamphlets acquired early in the NLM’s history from the private library of renowned French physician Claude Bernard. The exhibition also celebrates the NLM’s work collecting and preserving the world’s medical knowledge. This post is the second in a…
By Allison Hill-Edgar ~ For those of us who enjoy immersing ourselves in libraries and special collections, especially those that hold medical treasures such as the National Library of Medicine, there is perhaps no greater thrill than finding an unexpected inclusion in a published work. Finding two prints of intersex individuals inserted in the back…
By Steven Heller ~ Originally published in Hidden Treasure: The National Library of Medicine, 2011. Tuberculosis attracted considerable attention from artists and writers. Along with syphilis and polio it was so rampant that cautionary visual messages appeared in myriad public places, from offices to restrooms. A wall in my third-grade classroom routinely displayed public health…
By Ginny A. Roth and Kenneth M. Koyle ~ In 2011, 30 years after Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was identified, Toronto-based sociolegal researcher Alexander McClelland teamed with artist-activist Jessica Whitbread to develop and curate “a community-based activist street and online art initiative” they called PosterVirus. Working as an affinity group of the activist organization…
By Stephen P. Rice ~ Originally published in Hidden Treasure: The National Library of Medicine, 2011. This multilingual eye-test chart, published in 1907, was the creation of the optometrist George Mayerle (ca. 1870–1929), a “Graduate German Expert Optician” who set up shop in San Francisco in the mid-1890s. Optometry was professionalizing at the time, and…
Circulating Now welcomes Mark Parascandola, PhD, to discuss his research in the Harold Leroy Stewart Papers at the National Library of Medicine. Dr. Parascandola is Director of the Research and Training Branch at the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Center for Global Health. In July 1950, scientists from around the world gathered in Oxford to discuss how cancer incidence varies…
A new online exhibition, Making the Greatest Medical Library in America, showcases a selection of 19th century pamphlets acquired early in the NLM’s history from the private library of renowned French physician Claude Bernard. The exhibition also celebrates the NLM’s work collecting and preserving the world’s medical knowledge. This post is the first in a…
By Erika Mills ~ Today’s artificial intelligence and computer science technologies can identify a person, infer one’s emotions and tendencies, and provide insights about one’s health. They apply cutting edge techniques to an age-old pursuit: to learn about a person’s innerworkings from their outward appearance. In the past, physiognomy, the practice of assessing mental character…
Circulating Now welcomes guest blogger Mackenzie Warren, from the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks to discuss the life and work of Dr. Philip Syng Physick.
In the course of her long and distinguished medical career, Margaret D. Craighill served as dean of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, and became the first woman physician to become a commissioned officer in the United States Army. Born in Southport, North Carolina, in 1898, Craighill graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of…
An interview with Rachael Gillibrand, PhD, on herNLM History Talk and her research on how ocular health has influenced the design of eyeglasses throughout history.
By Christie Moffatt and Susan Speaker ~ The National Library of Medicine recently launched a new thematic Profiles in Science site “Risk Factors: Measuring and Rating Health, Illness, and Mortality,” which now joins 40+ existing Profiles collections exploring the stories of scientific discovery. This new collection presents a curated selection of historical materials from NLM’s…
Wow. It's hard to believe it's been ten years since we launched Circulating Now. Ten years ago, the History of Medicine Division envisioned a dynamic space where staff—librarians, archivists, historians, interns, conservators, and others—could dedicate their expertise to showcasing the National Library of Medicine’s rich and varied collections and the histories they document. We also…
