Education and outreach

All History is Local: Using Philadelphia Collections in National History Day Projects

Staff Breaking news, Education and outreach, Out of the stacks December 21, 2015April 18, 2018History of medicine, National History Day, Outreach, Philadelphia history, Primary sources, Student research

I have been involved with National History Day (NHD) since 2001 as both a judge and as a librarian. Judging this competition is exciting – middle and high school students put their heart and soul into projects, some of which are of exceptional caliber. Working with NHD as a librarian can be frustrating – students seem to stick with the same 10 broad topics, all of which can be researched with little more than a few clicks on Google.

I am going to tell students a deep, dark secret held closely by NHD judges: if we, the judges, read another paper, or see another exhibition, about the atomic bomb, or about the Salem witch trials, or about Alice Paul, we might start screaming. The impact of the atomic bomb on international relations, or the impact of the trials on the development of government in New England, or Paul’s impact on women’s suffrage cannot be denied. However, I’ve read a paper each year since 2001 about the atomic bomb, regardless of the annual theme of NHD, papers with bibliographies that are created using nothing but sources that are found online.

Special Collections Aren’t For Only Librarians and Archivists

Staff Education and outreach, Happenings December 3, 2015April 18, 2018Archives, Exhibits, Monsters, Outreach, Teaching with primary sources

October and November were busy months for the Historical Medical Library! We launched our blog, announced that our collection of anthropodermic (human skin) books is the largest in the United States, held several impromptu pop-up exhibits, and hosted an Archives Month Philly event.

Our pop-up exhibits have been received with enthusiasm and we love surprising Museum visitors with the opportunity to visit the Library and see our collections. The exhibits in October were focused on the concept of “monster” as used as a medical term over the past 500 years, and culminated in our Archives Month Philly event, “The Monstrous, Fabled & Factual: Exploring the Meaning of ‘Monster,’ 1500-1900.” (You can read our previous post about Archives Month here.) The exhibits in November displayed our “Favorite Things.”

This year was our first time participating in Archives Month Philly. It was fantastic to invite everyone, show off our collections, and talk about them with our peers. We feel like our Library has been “hidden” for so long – especially to the general public – and Archives Month was the perfect opportunity to show people that we exist and have interesting collections!

A Collaboratively Created Corpus: Digitizing the State Medical Society Journals

Tristan Dahn Digital spine, Education and outreach, Happenings, Out of the stacks, Staff projects November 16, 2015August 4, 2020History of medicine, Outreach, State Medical Society Journals

Starting in March 2015, the Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia (HML) embarked on its second large scale digitization project. Under grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Arcadia Foundation, and in conjunction with our partners at the Medical Heritage Library (MHL), a digital curation collaborative, we are working to digitize the entirety of State Medical Society Journals published in the US throughout the 20^th Century.

The culmination of the project will be over 2.5 million pages of fully searchable digitized content. Patrons will be able to access this material through the MHL, as well as the Internet Archive, whose facilities in Princeton will be doing the digitization. This will be the first time that all of this content will be available in one place, either in print or digitally.

A selection of State Medical Society Journals on the shelf in our stacks.

Louis Pasteur, Joseph Lister, and the Mystery of the Smudged Date

Staff Education and outreach, Out of the stacks November 3, 2015January 29, 2016Archives, Correspondence, Dating historical manuscripts, History of medicine, Louis Pasteur, Robert Abbe, Vaccines

by Karie Youngdahl, Project Director, History of Vaccines

Robert Abbe (1851-1928), a New York surgeon and Fellow of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, was an avid collector of medical and archaeological objects. Here at the College’s Historical Medical Library, we hold a number of Abbe’s items, including mementos from his friendship with Marie Curie. Of particular interest to the History of Vaccines project is Abbe’s collection of Louis Pasteur memorabilia, much of it dating from the 1922 centenary celebrations of Pasteur’s birth.

The collection includes a scrapbook with photographs of Pasteur and his family, French postage stamps featuring Pasteur as a national hero, postcards of monuments dedicated to the scientist, and commemorative tags picturing key moments from his life. However, what stands out in the collection is a letter in Pasteur’s handwriting. The letter is intriguing both because it involves several of the 19th century’s most eminent scientific figures and because it presents something of a mystery.

On Archives, the Monstrous, and the Medical

Staff Education and outreach, From our researchers, Happenings October 5, 2015April 18, 2018Archives, Exhibits, Human abnormalities, Monsters, Outreach, Scholarly contributions

Did you know that October is American Archives Month? Each October since 2006, archives and special collections across the United States throw open their doors and show off the amazing “stuff” (Yes, that IS a technical term!) in their collections while educating the public about what archivists do; why archives are important to society’s past, present, and future; and how these materials are made accessible to anyone who wishes to use them. You can check out some of the great events planned for Archives Month Philly here.

The Skin She Lived In: Anthropodermic Books in the Historical Medical Library

Staff Education and outreach, Out of the stacks, Voices from our collection October 1, 2015May 13, 2019Anthropodermic books, Dr. John Stockton Hough, History of medicine, History of the book, Human skin bookbinding

-by Beth Lander

On Wednesday, July 15, 1868, a 28 year old woman named Mary Lynch was admitted to Old Blockley, Philadelphia’s almshouse, officially known as Philadelphia General Hospital (PGH). Old Blockley was located at what is now the intersection of 34^th Street and Civic Center Boulevard, on the southeast corner of the University of Pennsylvania. Blockley was where you went when you could not afford care in a private hospital.

Exterior view of the Ward Building, Philadelphia General Hospital, 1888. PGH 1.23, Records of the Philadelphia General Hospital (1884-1941).

The Women’s Receiving Register from PGH lists a small amount of information for each patient: name, birthplace (a country, if other than the United States. Mary was born in Ireland.), age, temperate or intemperate habits (Were you a drunk, or not?), date of admission, ward, color and diagnosis.

Mary suffered from phthitis, an archaic term for tuberculosis of the lungs. She was listed as being of temperate habits.