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The Medical Lens: Highlights from the Stanley B. Burns, MD, Historic Medical Photography Collection January 27, 2023 - March 10, 2023 (EXTENDED TO MARCH 19TH!) Join us at the Medical Library for our newest Rotunda exhibition! Medicine is a field grounded in the visual world. Over the centuries, illustration became increasingly embedded in the medical field via textbooks, posters, and other visual medium. With the development of photography in the early nineteenth century, medicine acquired a new way of viewing the patient. Besides being integrated in medical education and training, photography became a means of creating professional identity. To the larger world, medical photography helped shape the image of medical care and the profession, promoted technological advancements, sold products, and influenced public policy. The Medical Lens explores the importance of photography in medicine through images selected from the recently acquired Stanley B. Burns, MD, Historic Medical Photography Collection at Yale University. The collection encompasses a wide variety of photographic and print techniques including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes from the earliest years of photography, cartes de visite, cabinet cards, lantern slides, photo albums and collections of prints assembled by medical practitioners, postcards, and publications.  Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS, is an ophthalmologist and Research Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry, and Professor of Medical Humanities at New York University: Langone Health. He began collecting historic photography in 1975, and over time amassed over a million images that he curated in multiple books, articles, and exhibitions. Dr. Burns is pictured standing in front of his photo wall containing some of the most iconic images from the Burns Archive, which he established in 1977. This exhibition is curated by Katherine Isham, MLIS, and Melissa Grafe, PhD, with the valued expertise of Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS. The curators want to thank Chris Zollo, Kelly Perry, Laura O’Brien-Miller, Terry Dagradi, Dana Haugh, and Melanie Norton for their additional assistance in bringing this exhibition to life. Please see the exhibition object list to begin exploring the items on display. Click to open the object list Case 1: Introduction -F. R. Reynolds and classmate before and after receiving their medical degrees at Rush Medical College, tintypes, 1883 -Florence Nightingale photographed by H. Hering, “Photographer to the Queen,” carte de visite, circa 1856-1857 -James Samuel How (Howe), MD, dead from cholera epidemic, St. Louis, Missouri, daguerreotype with obituary notice, 1849 -Ava V. Chadwick-Herns’s Battle Creek Sanitarium pamphlet with added photographs and notations, Battle Creek, Michigan, 1906-1907 -“Synoviales de la main” (dissection of the hand to show synovial system), 1870 and “Pelvi-support contre-extenseur” (counter-tension pelvic support), 1873 from Revue Photographique des hôpitaux de Paris. Gift of Stanley B. Burns, MD, 2020. Case 2: Medical Identity and the Profession (1) Meade brothers studying medicine, Victor, New York, tintype, circa 1860-1865 To be replaced mid-February with: (1) Two medical students studying anatomy with book, bones, and dissected arm, tintype, circa 1860-1865 (2) Dental extraction staged scene, tintype circa 1855-1865 (3) Portrait of Dr. Matthew Gill, “A student of Esculapius,” photographer S. Krausz, Chicago, cabinet card, circa 1891-1892 (4) Portrait of a visiting nurse, photographer John Suchy, Chicago, cabinet card, circa 1898-1900 (5) “Dr. Gridley’s first operation,” amputation surgery staged in a photography studio, photographer W. A. Hopkins & Company, Rapid City, South Dakota, cabinet card, 1891 (6) Elderly pharmacist with bottles of medicines, hand-tinted ambrotype, circa 1860-1866 (7) Physician/pharmacist using microscope, New York, gelatin silver print, circa 1895 (8) Pharmacist and assistant in a pharmacy, gelatin silver print, circa 1900 (9) Portrait of Danish nurse with red cross armband, photographer Mary Steen, Copenhagen, carte de visite, circa 1893 (10) Three nurses on the steps of the Lincoln School for Nurses, Bronx, New York, gelatin silver print, circa 1930 (11) Fordham Hospital medics with horse-drawn ambulance, gelatin silver print, circa 1892-1900 (12) Group photo of women interns at the Children’s Hospital of San Francisco, gelatin silver print, 1925-1926 Case 3: Medical Spaces and their Meanings (1) Dr. Bernstein, dentist, in his office, gelatin silver print, circa 1945 (2) Surgeon William L. Rodman’s clinic in the operating theater of the Medico Chirurgical Hospital, Philadelphia, photographer C. E. Waterman, gelatin silver print, March 26, 1902 (3) Exterior view of Mount Sinai Hospital from series “Views in New York City and Vicinity,” stereoview card, 1893 (4) Operation taking place in a Bellevue ward circa 1880s-1890s, gelatin silver copy print, 1948 (5) Operation led by female surgeon, gelatin silver print, circa 1905-1920 (6) Receiving wards, from George Pfaler E.M.D.’s Old Blockley Hospital photo album, Philadelphia, gelatin silver print, 1900-1901 (7) Boston City Hospital Ward P, gelatin silver print, Christmas 1912 Case 4: The Boom of Medical Innovation and Technology (1) Man in bed with leg in an early traction device, tintype in thermoplastic case, circa 1860-1870 (2) “Artificial sunlight for children,” showing a child receiving a “light bath” treatment at New York Nursery and Child’s Hospital, Keystone View Company, Inc., gelatin silver print, circa 1920-1935 (3) “Making ‘movies’ of the heart,” Kymograph machine combining X-ray and moving picture technology built by Dr. Wendell G. Scott and Dr. Sherwood Moore of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis, International News Photo, gelatin silver print, 1936 (4) “New electron microscope has great range,” Dr. Gordon Scott of Washington University Medical School using an electron microscope, Acme Chicago Bureau, gelatin silver print, 1940 (5) “Machine will act as heart or lung,” created by J. Jongbloed of Holland for use during surgery, shown at conference of surgeons at the Sorbonne, Paris International News Photos, gelatin silver print, 1951 (6) “Skin resistance to sun measured,” Dr. Robert C. Burt of Pasadena, CA demonstrating his device for measuring how long one may be exposed to sunlight without injury, gelatin silver print, circa 1920-1930 (7) “La formule ideale de sang artificiel” (the ideal formula for artificial blood), Dr. Gottendenker of Vienna with his new invention: artificial human blood, Agence Trampus, gelatin silver print, 1937 (8) The “Headshrinker” positron detector invented by James S. Robertson at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a direct forerunner of positron emission tomography scanning, photographer unknown, gelatin silver print, 1961 (9) “Une nouvelle methode de traitement pour le cancere” (a new way to treat cancer), radiation sphere invented by Anton Zeeman and Doctor Erwin Fuhrer for the treatment of cancer, Agence Trampus, gelatin silver print, 1938 Case 5: Diseases, Vaccines, and Treatments (1) Child with smallpox, New York City, gelatin silver print, 1881 (2) Scenes from pneumonic plague in China, gelatin silver prints, 1911. Pictured are four doctors with thick face masks standing in front of a train; a doctor being sprayed with disinfectant; a doctor and medical assistants with horse-drawn carts for living and dead plague victims; and a doctor and military personnel standing outside an infected building that’s being burned down to stop the spread of disease. (3) Hookworm Disease Commission in Jamaica, gelatin silver prints, circa 1918 In these images from a larger album, medical personnel are using microscopes to examine samples and encouraging local people to see the hookworm eggs under the microscope as part of a health demonstration. (4) Elizabeth Kenny demonstrating physical therapy treatment on a young polio patient for nurses at General Hospital, Minneapolis, gelatin silver print, circa 1940 (5) Female scientists preparing vaccines in the Pasteur Institute toxins and antitoxins department, Photograph Trampus, Paris, gelatin silver print, 1943 (6) Adding formalin to transform toxin into antitoxin at the Pasteur Institute, Photograph Trampus, Paris, gelatin silver print, 1943 (7) U.S. Army Captain Daniel Staples administering typhoid vaccine to a young refugee from a flood area, Forrest City, Arkansas, International Newsreel, gelatin silver print, 1927 (8) Man being vaccinated at Pasteur Institute, photo postcard published by Neurdein et Cie, Paris, 1916 (9) Catholic missionary staff administering vaccines, photo postcard published by La Propagation de la Foi, Paris/Lyon, circa 1920 Case 6: War and Medicine (1) Civil War contract surgeon in his tent with books, medications, and medical bag, tintype, circa 1862-1865 (2) Surgical scene in front of a tent at Camp Letterman, Gettysburg, partial stereoview card, July 1863. Gift of Stanley B. Burns, MD, 2022 (3) American Women’s Hospital ambulance driver with her vehicle, photographer E. Belval, France, gelatin silver print, circa 1918 (4) World War I military doctor treating soldier with leg wound in multi-patient clinic, gelatin silver print, circa 1914-1918 (5) Back view of World War I soldier with severe chest injury recovering at Walter Reed Hospital, gelatin silver print, circa 1917-1920 (6) Wounded soldiers posing after recovery with wax models of their facial wounds from Kriegszahnklinik der IV. Armee in Lublin, a German army maxillofacial surgery album, 1916 (7) French World War I veteran photographed with his leg prosthesis from Considérations sur la Rééducation Professionelle Dans les Industries du Bâtiment (Considerations on vocational retraining in the construction industries), one of the first state-funded veteran rehabilitation programs, Charles Vallee, MD, France, 1917 (8) World War II medics administering plasma to battle casualty “on the run” to an L-5 plane for evacuation, Mindanao, Philippines, U.S. Army photograph, gelatin silver print, circa 1941-1942 (9) American Army surgeon operating on wounded soldier in underground surgery, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, U.S. Army photograph, gelatin silver print, 1943 Case 7: Patient Photography and Diagnostics (1) Civil war veteran receiving morphine injection from a physician, photographer B. Perry, Chamberlain, South Dakota, cabinet card, circa 1865-1866 (2) Nurse taking the pulse of female patient in a wheelchair, photographed by Altman and Edelman, Battle Creek, Michigan, cabinet card, circa 1894-1895 (3) Portrait of an obese man with edema of leg, tintype, circa 1865-1875 (4) Portrait of man with facial and neck tumor, photographer J. G. Ellinwood, Manchester, New Hampshire, carte de visite, circa 1871-1910 (5) Photograph documenting the spinal alignment of a young woman from Berkeley Gymnasium log book on student posture, photographer M. K. Wallin, MD, gelatin silver print, circa 1904-1909 (6) “Tubercular sylphide (on a woman’s back). From the collection of photographs of skin diseases of Dr. George Henry Fox,” page from The Medical Record: Weekly Journal of Medicine and Surgery, December 31, 1887 (7) Man with carcinoma of neck before and after treatment and with his family, Allentown, Pennsylvania, gelatin silver prints attached with surgical tape, circa 1915 (8) Lantern slides of a woman with fractured arm: x-rays and with her arm splinted, circa 1920-1930 (9) “Dr. Bordiu, marquis of Villa Verde, studies X rays during operation performed on Spanish child born with heart ailment,” photographer Jose Maria Lara, Pix Incorporated, New York City, gelatin silver print, circa 1950-1969 (10) Microscopic photography by Carlos Finlay, MD, from his research on yellow fever in Havana, Cuba: “Yellow fever blood, first day, fatal case x1450” and “Yellow fever blood, 5th day, fatal case x1450,” cabinet cards, 1879 Case 8: Teaching Medicine -Cartes de visite documenting Civil War veterans’ wounds and recovery, compiled by Dr. Reed Bontecou, Surgeon-in-Charge of Harewood U.S. Army General Hospital, Washington DC, circa 1863-1864, and donated to Army Medical Museum. Gift of Stanley B. Burns, MD, 2022. AND -Annotated teaching prints of injured Civil War soldiers: James Middleton with gunshot wound through the left shoulder and unidentified soldier with wound on left thigh, Dr. Reed Bontecou, enlargements of albumin prints, circa 1864-1865. Gift of Stanley B. Burns, MD, 2020. -Stereo prints from Lernt helfen (Learn to help), a 3D first aid guide for lay helpers that was packaged with a small folding stereoscope viewer, Germany, 1952 -Lantern slides created by Dr. Cutler using pre-made mats from William Garrison Reed, Boston, circa 1890             - On view are slides on “Purpurra haemorrhagica on leg” and “Herpes zoster on eye.” -To be replaced mid-February with slides on “Purpura rheumatica” and “Tinea Versicolor.” -“Tying the artery after the anastomosis is made” stereoview photograph from Transfusion of Blood by G. W. Crile, from Howard Kelly’s Stereo-clinic series, 1913 AND -“Closing the wound. Drainage.” stereoview photograph from Thyroidectomy for Exophthalmic Goiter by A. H. Ferguson, from Howard Kelly’s Stereo-clinic series, 1911. With stereoscope, circa 1890-1915   Opening Tour and Special Program: Thursday, February 9th 4:15pm – 4:45pm - Meet the curators and Dr. Burns and explore The Medical Lens through a short opening tour. Light refreshments will be served.  Cushing Rotunda, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library 5pm – 6pm - “Medical Photography and the Humanities: Connecting History to Practice,” a session with Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS and Chitra Ramalingam, PhD. Co-sponsored by The Program for Humanities in Medicine at Yale School of Medicine. Room 115, just off the Cushing Rotunda, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library. The recording of the session is now available online through The Program for Humanities in Medicine website. Stay tuned for additional tour announcements for this limited time exhibition!

Post by curator Renata Nagy, Ph.D. Candidate, History of Art and Renaissance Studies, Yale University Explore our newest online exhibition: “Natural Interactions in the Book as Art and Making Knowledge” When readers call up early printed books in libraries, they expect to see clean copies. It is a fair belief, for most rare library collections include books with the least signs of wear, which were often cherished by collectors. In addition, a lot of used books either perished over the centuries or remained in private collections. This falsely gives the impression that books were barely used in the past. Books were widely engaged with in Europe between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. This was especially true for books about nature. Readers at the time interacted with their books and created art in them in an attempt to better understand nature and produce knowledge about it.  In Spring 2022, art history Ph.D. candidate and GSAS Professional Experience (GPE) fellow Renata Nagy conducted extensive research into the Library’s holdings. She uncovered books that readers engaged with in relation to their studies about nature. Rich and diverse, the Library’s collection allows for a better understanding of how people thought about natural specimens in the early modern period. Renata curated and authored the exhibition with the generous help of the Library’s colleagues, particularly the John R. Bumstead Librarian for Medical History and Head of the Library, Melissa Grafe. Featuring over seventy images from fifteen different books from the Medical Historical Library’s collection, the exhibition showcases how elite collectors, interested laymen, artists, and naturalists shaped the book as an active work of art and a site of knowledge production about nature via various reading and learning practices. Illustrations of richly colored flowers, book collections of pasted dried plants, translations of wobbly annotations about the rose root plant, and videos of unfolding the oversized microscopic flea in Robert Hooke’s Micrographia (1665) demonstrate the variety of ways in which users processed information and invented new ones about natural specimens. We invite you to explore “Natural Interactions in the Book as Art and Making Knowledge,” which is a safe platform to browse the often fragile pages of these remarkable materials.     

The Medical Historical Library is delighted to announce two new gifts detailing student and patient health care activism starting in the 1960s. Dr. Michael Charney, YSM class of 1972, donated his papers related to student activism in his Yale career. Charney was an editor of the Yale Medical Center Newsletter, a student activism newsletter for Yale School of Medicine produced in the late 60s and early 70s.  Charney also donated materials related to his activism for Ralph Nader and the health rights of workers in New Haven and other places; The Organizer’s Manual, which he was involved in producing as part of a multi-university student strike; and publications from other groups, including the Black Panthers and The Medical Committee for Human Rights. The Charney papers provide insight into healthcare activism at Yale and in other parts of the country, highlighting links between the various student, political, and community activist groups. The Medical Historical Library also received the papers of Lyme disease activist Polly Murray, as a gift from her family. Murray lived in Lyme, CT., and alerted the CT State Department of Health and Yale – particularly doctors Allen Steere and Stephen Malawista—to the outbreak of symptoms that included herself, her family, and other members of the Lyme community. Steere and Malawista investigated beginning in 1975, and by 1977 Lyme arthritis (now Lyme disease) was first identified as a new infection spread by ticks bites.  Murray was a layperson integral to the early investigation, and published an account of her experiences with Lyme disease in her book The Widening Circle: A Lyme Disease Pioneer Tells Her Story (1996). Her papers include correspondence with Malawista and others; the original handwritten list of people in town/symptoms that she showed to Steere in 1975; scrapbooks containing Lyme disease publications including newspaper articles; and other material. This gift complements the Stephen Malawista papers already held in the Medical Historical Library collection. Both gifts are currently unprocessed, so please contact the Medical Historical Library at historical.library@yale.edu for access and further information. Initial records for the Michael L. Charney papers and Polly Luckett Murray papers are in the library catalog and Archives at Yale.

The Historical Library, in coordination with the Department of Pediatrics, is helping to celebrating 100 years of Pediatrics at Yale through a new physical exhibition in the Medical Library’s Rotunda.  Founded in 1921, Yale Pediatrics has always been on the forefront of research and clinical practice. The exhibition features material on some of the department’s initiatives, including: Dr. Ruth Whittemore and the first pediatric rheumatic fever and cardiac clinic in New England in 1947 Development of Dr. Edith Jackson’s pioneering Rooming-In Program at Grace New-Haven Hospital from 1946 to 1953 Creation of the first Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) by Dr. Louis Gluck in 1960 Today, Pediatrics has thirteen subspeciality sections, with 87 residents, 47 clinical fellows, 207 full-time faculty and 73 clinical faculty from the community. The department’s mission can be distilled into three words: heal, innovate, and collaborate. This exhibition was organized by Kaiulani Shulman and Jennifer DeSantis, with assistance from Melissa Grafe, Ph.D, Head of the Medical Historical Library, and contributions from various members of the Department of Pediatrics and Medical Library staff (Kelly Perry, Chris Zollo, Melissa Funaro, Dana Haugh, Kaitlin Throgmorton, Melanie Norton, and Terry Dagradi). Some materials displayed are on loan from Manuscripts and Archives, the Medical Historical Library, and Yale New-Haven Hospital archives.  Several labels were adapted from previous exhibitions curated by Toby Appel, Ph.D, and Susan Dee, Archivist, Yale New Haven Hospital. 

Innovation & Evolution in Hip Replacement Surgery: Highlights from the Keggi–Rubin Hip Implant Collection at Yale University  On view in the Cushing Rotunda, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library January 28th - April 29th, 2022      This exhibit explores the evolution of hip replacement surgery through historic implants selected from the new Keggi—Rubin Hip Implant Collection at Yale University. The displayed implants trace the trials, innovations, successes, and failures of hip replacement surgery over time, providing insight into the dynamic world of surgical history. By archiving and studying these implants, one can witness the remarkable changes that have resulted from design, engineering, biomaterials, manufacturing, and technological advances over nearly a century. The evolution of total hip replacement has been possible thanks to the timeless contributions and collaborations of many dedicated surgeons, researchers, engineers, industry experts, and manufacturers over the past 70 years. This exhibition was organized by Marguerite “Maggie” Gilmore, College of the Holy Cross; Daniel H. Wiznia, MD, Assistant Professor; Kristaps J. Keggi, MD, Professor Emeritus; and Lee E. Rubin, MD, Associate Professor, with the assistance of Melissa Grafe, Ph.D.  Multiple donors contributed materials to the collection.  An online exhibition is available to explore, containing additional content from the collection.