Historical Library News
Jul 5, 2018
Want to learn more about the smart and dedicated women who supported the work of our namesake, Harvey Cushing? Explore our newest exhibition, curated by Emma Brennan-Wydra, Stanley Simbonis Intern for the Medical Library, and now on view in the Cushing Center! Throughout his career, Dr. Harvey Cushing employed a team of women who assisted him as secretaries, typists, medical artists, operative photographers, laboratory technicians, and more. Cushing's female associates referred to themselves jokingly as his “harem,” but they were far more than that. These working women were indispensable... Read More
Jan 30, 2018
(by Melissa Grafe) Yale University’s Medical Historical Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of an important collection of ephemera, photographs, and rare books related to disability, the Robert Bogdan Disability Collection. Professor Robert Bogdan compiled an archive guided by the ideas of the field of Disability Studies, an approach that focuses on “disability” as a social, cultural, and political phenomenon. Bogdan, an early pioneer in that field, has taught courses related to it since 1971. He started collecting disability ephemera in early 1980s in order to advance his... Read More
May 18, 2017
New Lives for Old Specimens May 25th-November 3rd, 2017 Cushing Rotunda, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library Is there any use for old anatomy and pathology specimens, usually consigned to dusty basements for storage or destroyed after a number of years? In our new exhibition “New Lives for Old Specimens,” the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library features current medical research using historical specimens from Yale’s collections. Multiple curators drawn from inside and outside the School of Medicine, including a Yale medical student, Yale faculty, and Connecticut... Read More
Sep 12, 2016
A drawing from "'The AIDS Suite,' HIV-Positive Women in Prison and Other Works by Artist/Activist Sue Coe" YaleNews recently profiled the Library's upcoming exhibition of “’The AIDS Suite,’ HIV-Positive Women in Prison and Other Works by Artist/Activist Sue Coe." As YaleNews' Mike Cummings reports, "The exhibit... features 27 drawings and prints by Coe, whose work has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone": Coe’s artwork is represented in the collections of major museums, including (the) Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum... Read More
Jul 26, 2016
(by Erin Travers*) Drawing after Jacob van der Gracht's Third Figure, Cushing Manuscript, Yale University. Early-18th century. Red and Black Chalk On the back of a letter from the antiquarian and bookseller Menno Hertzberger, dated 29 March 1927, Harvey Cushing recorded his observations concerning a manuscript of Jacob van der Gracht’s printed drawing book, the Anatomy of the outer parts of the human body (The Hague, 1634; Rotterdam, 1660), which had been sent to Boston from Amsterdam. This text, prepared by the seventeenth-century Dutch painter and engraver for the use of “Painters,... Read More
Jun 15, 2016
The Medical Historical Library, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, is pleased to announce the following recipients of the Ferenc Gyorgyey Research Travel Award for 2016-2017: Whitney Wood, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, Birbeck, University of London A New Way to Birth? Herbert Thoms and the International Natural Childbirth Movement Whitney Wood’s research explores the natural childbirth movement in Canada. As part of this research, Wood will be examining the Herbert Thoms papers (https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ru.0656), as Thoms was an... Read More
Jun 9, 2016
On June 3, 2016 the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library hosted a talk titled "Harvey Cushing and John Fulton: Two Founders Bonded By Science, Medicine, And Books." The focus of this event was a conversation between Drs. Dennis D. Spencer and Gordon M. Shepherd, moderated by Cynthia Tsay, YSM ’18. The panel spoke about the personal and professional relationship of these men, and touched upon the founding of the Yale Medical Library and how they worked together to make it a reality. At the post-lecture reception, we also took a few photos of attendees with Harvey Cushing himself: Dr. Cushing's... Read More
May 10, 2016
The Cushing/Whitney Medical Library is delighted to announce the appointment of our new director, John Gallagher. John joined the staff of the Yale Library in 1999 as a library services assistant in the Library Shelving Facility. He moved to the Medical Library in 2000 where he took the position of evening & weekend circulation supervisor, and was quickly promoted to the head of the circulation department. After completion of his Masters of Library Science in 2004, John was promoted again to the head of Access and Delivery Services. He was instrumental in pioneering and establishing the... Read More