By Stephen J. Greenberg Anniversaries can be funny things. As we observe (“celebrate” somehow seems wrong in the context) the 100th anniversary of the First World War, it’s not always easy to pick a precise date to mark. What day, exactly, did the war begin? Was it June 28, 1914, the day the Archduke Franz […]
Tag Archives: portrait
A Portrait of the Medical World of 1911
posted by Circulating Now
By Stephen J. Greenberg It is, perhaps, a bit hard for the modern reader to imagine that a coffee table book consisting solely of portraits and brief biographies of contemporary American physicians would ever be a hot consumer item. However, at least in 1911, that may well have been the case. The collections of the […]
Pictures of Nursing: The Zwerdling Postcard Collection
posted by Circulating Now
By Erika Mills For over a century, images of nurses and nursing have been featured frequently as the subjects of postcards—so much so that nursing postcards offer a visual history of the profession and shine a light on the cultural values that inform perceptions of nurses. The imagery that decorates these mailers and mementos reflects […]
Back to School with the Best of ‘Em
posted by Circulating Now
By Courtney Jefferies Around this time of the year, many of us, including myself, are preparing to go back to school. Throughout my summer internship in the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine, I have been delving into Profiles in Science—an online collection of historical manuscripts of twentieth century leaders in […]
Dr. Swan writes from Normandy, 1944
posted by Circulating Now
By Susan Speaker “Operation Overlord”—the invasion of France’s Normandy coast that began on June 6, 1944—was the largest amphibious military operation in the history of warfare, and the turning point for the Allied Forces in World War II. Among the thousands of troops that waded onto the beaches, there were over forty surgical teams from […]
Andreas Vesalius at 500
posted by Circulating Now
By Michael North Today marks the 499th birthday of the great, 16th-century anatomist Andreas Vesalius, born on December 31, 1514. Throughout 2014 Circulating Now will be joining many others in celebrating this 500-year landmark in the History of Medicine. Very fortuitously, the Library has recently acquired a rare copy of a dissection manual edited by […]
Dr. Albert Sabin: A Closer Look
posted by circulating now
By Laura McNulty and Ginny A. Roth Dr. Albert Sabin was born today, August 26 in 1906 in Poland and is best known for developing the oral polio vaccine. This black and white portrait of Sabin, taken in 1953, was donated to the National Library of Medicine by the College of Medicine at the University […]