Home News Exhibits

Exhibits

Unveiling Medicine’s Past: Medical Historical Collections Online

April 19, 2013 - 3:22pm by Melissa Grafe

The Medical Historical Library’s digital collection includes School of Medicine photographs, portraits of 16th Century anatomist Andreas Vesalius, Harvey Cushing, and others, medical and surgical instruments, prints, posters, and drawings, and much more!  Recently, thousands of medical works from the 19th and early 20th centuries have been added to the Medical Heritage Library, an online resource of free and open historical resources in medicine.  This exhibit, on view in the Medical Library Rotunda, Hallway, and Foyer, showcases a selection from the thousands of items currently available online, and describes the process of digitization, bringing medical history to users throughout the world with a few simple clicks.  On view April 11 to July 5, 2013

We've Still Got A Job To Do!

March 14, 2013 - 11:17am by Susan Wheeler

Howard Scott U.S.A. 1902-1983 We Still Have a Big Job to Do! 1943 U.S. Government Printing Office for the U.S. Navy, Industrial Incentive Division Purchased through the John F. Fulton Fund 2012 During World War II, the Industrial Incentive Division of the U.S. Navy sought to improve morale among workers in U.S. industrial plants by emphasizing the importance of the plant’s products in the overall war effort. The morale initiative, begun in May of 1943, employed audio interviews and other messages piped in through speaker systems in the workplace;  exhibited combat action photographs, specially commissioned posters and combat motion pictures in the workplace; and arranged for returned combat personnel to visit the plants engaged in war production. This recently acquired poster, created to boost the morale of defense industry workers during World War II, is on view through April 12, 2013  

Exhibit: War

January 28, 2013 - 3:04pm by Susan Wheeler

On view in the Library CorridorWarSelections from the Collection of Prints and Drawings and the Historical Medical Poster CollectionEyewitness renderings of medicine in the field during World War I and World War II, together with posters from various wartime agencies, show part of the war experience and its effect on individuals. 

"Nearly Well"- the story of Civil War soldier Robert Butcher

January 27, 2013 - 10:04pm by Melissa Grafe

Robert A. Butcher, Co. H, 82nd Infantry, Pennsylvania Robert A. Butcher was 21 when he enlisted in H Company 82nd Infantry Pennsylvania. Before the war, he was living with his mother, father, brother and sister in Philadelphia. His head was struck by a sabre on April 6th 1865 at Burkes’ Station, Virginia and he suffered two major cuts across the top of his head. He was admitted to Harewood Hospital on April 16th and, although the wounds healed rapidly, he began complaining of severe headache and intolerance to light. His anterior head wound re-opened a month later and began discharging unhealthy pus. After the wound opened, his headache gradually subsided and the wounds healed again. Physicians discharged him on June 9th and listed him as “nearly well.” Robert moved through three different homes for disabled veterans over the course of the next sixty years until he died in 1933. The first was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second was in Grant, Indiana, and the third was in Chesapeake, Virginia. He varied from being listed as an inmate to being listed as a mental patient. He is buried in Hampton National Cemetery. On view now, the Medical Historical Library explores Civil War medicine through the haunting photographs of wounded soldiers in an exhibit, "Portraits of Wounded Bodies: Photographs of Civil War Soldiers from Harewood Hospital, Washington, D.C., 1863-1866." Selections from a set of 93 photographic portraits, including Robert Butcher's, from Harewood Hospital, Washington D.C. are on display in the Rotunda of the Medical Library. In the foyer of Sterling Hall, the exhibit expands to include a larger discussion of Civil War medicine and surgery, including hospitals and nurses, using images and materials from the Medical Historical Library. On view until April 1st, 2013.  An online version of the Harewood Hospital photographs is available in the Digital Library.

Portraits of Wounded Bodies

January 7, 2013 - 2:28pm by Melissa Grafe

Portraits of Wounded Bodies:  Photographs of Civil War Soldiers from Harewood Hospital, Washington, D.C., 1863-1866 January 16th-April 1st, 2013 Tours open to all on Wed. Jan. 23rd, 4 p.m., and Friday Jan. 25th at noon! One hundred and fifty years ago, the Civil War raged throughout the United States, creating thousands of casualties.  On view now, the Medical Historical Library explores Civil War medicine through the haunting photographs of wounded soldiers.  Curated by Heidi Knoblauch, a doctoral student in Yale’s Section of the History of Medicine, and Melissa Grafe, John R. Bumstead Librarian for Medical History, selections from a set of 93 photographic portraits from Harewood Hospital, Washington D.C. are on display in the Rotunda of the Medical Library.  These images, some quite graphic, depict soldiers recovering from a variety of wounds, including gunshot wounds.  The soldiers’ case histories and stories, analyzed by Heidi Knoblauch, are part of a larger examination of medical photography and Civil War memory as America commemorates the 150th anniversary of the war.  In the foyer of Sterling Hall, the exhibit expands to include a larger discussion of Civil War medicine and surgery, including hospitals and nurses, using images and materials from the Medical Historical Library.  An online version of the Harewood Hospital photographs is available in the Digital Library of the Medical Historical Library. This exhibit is on display at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, 333 Cedar Street. For more information, contact Melissa Grafe, Ph.D, John R. Bumstead Librarian for Medical History, at melissa.grafe@yale.edu.

Exhibit: Medicine at Work

October 9, 2012 - 2:45pm by Melissa Grafe

Medicine at Work: A Selection of Instruments and Materials from the Medical Historical Library September 22nd, 2012-January 13th,2013 Medicine at Work, on view beginning September 22nd in the Rotunda of the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library and foyer of Sterling Hall, exhibits instruments, prints, catalogs, fee bills, and books describing and depicting a variety of medical work. Surgical operations and tools, trepanation, electrotherapy, anesthesia, bandaging, and dissection and toxicology are a sample of some of the medical work that happened in the past, and continue today. This exhibit will use selections for the collections of the Medical Historical library to provide context for the tools and materials used in medicine and surgery.  Among its significant collections, the Medical Historical library has approximately 600 medical and scientific instruments and over 7000 prints, posters, and drawings.  

Exhibit: Food and Nutrition Posters

July 5, 2012 - 3:32pm by Susan Wheeler

On view June 22through September 17 in the Medical Library Foyer.     Avoid Fatigue: Eat a Lunch that Packs a Punch! 1943 Published by the War Food Administration United States Department of Agriculture Gift of George M. Smith 1943 During World War II, responsible food habits were promoted as a contribution to the war effort by the U.S. government. The Eat to Beat the Devil series published in 1942 by Servel, Inc., makers of the gas refrigerator, fostered the idea of “eating for victory” and promoted good nutrition as an expression of patriotism. Eat to Beat the Devil 1942   Published by Servel, Inc. Purchased through the John F. Fulton Fund 2007

Exhibit: Grant Wood's "Family Doctor" and More

July 2, 2012 - 2:39pm by Susan Wheeler

"Family Doctor" by Grant Wood and Works by Other Mid 20th Century American Artistson view  June 22-September 17 in the library hallwayGrant Wood's iconic lithograph "Family Doctor," for which he used his personal physician as a model, is currently on view with twelve other prints and drawings by American artists.  "Family Doctor" by Grant Wood, 1940Lithograph"Children's Ward" by Robert Riggs, c.1940Lithograph

U.S. Food Administration Posters from World War I

October 10, 2011 - 3:53pm by Susan Wheeler

On View in the Library Corridor through January 6Selections from the Historical CollectionsL.C. Clinker and M.J. DwyerDon’t Waste Food While Others Starve! c.1918Lithograph printed by Heywood Strasser and Voight Lithograph Company, New York, for the U.S. Food AdministrationPurchased through the Lucia P. Fulton Fund 2010Harvey T. Dunn U.S.A. 1884-1952Victory is a Question of Stamina, 1917Lithograph printed by Latham Lithograph and Printing Company, Brooklyn, New York for the U. S. Food AdministrationPurchased through the Lucia P. Fulton Fund 2010

Anti-Drug and AIDS Awareness Posters

October 10, 2011 - 3:20pm by Susan Wheeler

Anti-Drug and AIDS Awareness Posters from the 1980’s and 1990’sOn View in the Library Foyer through January 6Selections from the Historical CollectionsAndrej PagowskiPolish b. 1953                Narkotyki to gówno [Drugs are Shit]                Published for Fundacja Wspierania Tworzcosci, Kultury i Sztuke                ARS [Foundation for Supportof Culture, Art, and Creativity]                Purchased through the Madeline E. Stanton Fund 2008 GANG (a New York art collective)after Leo Burnett (creator of the Marlboro Man, 1954)AIDS CrisisWarning:  While Bush spends billions playing cowboy, 37 million North Americans don’t have health insurance.  A North American dies of AIDS every eight minutes.Published by ACT UP 1990Purchased through the John F. Fulton Fund 2005
Subscribe to RSS - Exhibits