Published by Claire Olszewski. Poisons, while not common in everyday life today, were abundant in the medical sciences of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. We all know the symbol for poison, the skull and crossbones, that marks lethal substances. Within the International Museum of Surgical Science’s collection are examples of various concoctions that were … Continue reading A Note from the Collection: Pick Your Poison
Published by Sally Monroe. When we catalogue texts at the Thorek Manuscripts and Rare Books Collection, one of the pieces of information we are sure to record is a book’s provenance. Often, this means looking for the name of a donor. Recently, it came to my attention that one of the most prolific donors to … Continue reading A Note from the Library: Dr. Louis Shapiro, International Man of Medicine
Published by Claire Olszewski. Over the last two and a half months, the Museum has proudly hosted Justus Harris as Artist-in-Residence. At age 14, Harris was diagnosed with Type-1 Diabetes, a condition in which blood sugar is elevated due to the lack of insulin production in the pancreas. Harris’s work highlights the importance of being able … Continue reading A Note from the Collection: The Surgical History of Diabetes
Published by Sally Monroe. One of the most exciting things about the Thorek Manuscripts and Rare Books Collection is that it contains no shortage of strange and enigmatic books. One of these unusual texts is, according to the inscription on its spine, Pfann’s Receptbuch.[1] Written in both Latin and German in a beautiful, ornate script and dated … Continue reading A Note from the Library: Dr. Paulus Pfann’s Mysterious Book of Medical Recipes
2018 Winter Artist-in-Residence Announced Justus Harris January – March 2018 The International Museum of Surgical Science is proud to present our Winter 2018 Artist-in-Residence: Chicago-based artist Justus Harris. Justus Harris (US, b. 1990) combines medical data visualization and 3D modeling to understand health trends. His work is inspired by using continuous monitors for his type … Continue reading 2018 Winter Artist-in-Residence Announced: Justus Harris
Published by Lorca Jolene. Tremendous advances in facial reconstructive and plastic surgery occurred during the 1940s due to the sheer number of World War II soldiers who sought treatment for disfiguring injuries that they sustained in combat. At the beginning of the war, surgeons would have prepared for such cases by consulting texts like Samuel … Continue reading A Note From the Library: Facial Reconstruction in the 1940s and the Guinea Pig Club
The saddest part of the culmination of any research or creative project is realizing how many pieces will be left out of the final whole—whether for reasons of focus, relevancy, or space. Finding books that actually gave voice to the experiences of women in medicine was rare enough, so it is extra difficult to have to choose to elide some from the final work. And so, I’d like to offer a sampling of quotations from inspiring women physicians alongside some peeks into the pages of the books otherwise locked up in the glass cases of the museum library. Continue reading Quotes and Marginalia from Inside the Woman Doctor’s Life
