Out of the stacks

Libraries are the gates to the future

Staff Education and outreach, Out of the stacks April 5, 2021April 7, 2021Archives, History of the book, Libraries and museums, Primary source research, Rare books, Special collections librarianship

It’s been just over a year since COVID-19 shut down most of the world, including the United States and Philadelphia. The value of libraries and funding them has always been a hot topic, but with libraries shuttering their doors during the early days of the pandemic, it is even more obvious just how much our communities rely on libraries. In my eyes, there is no disputing the value of public and school libraries (see Further reading at the end for some great articles, including one written by Neil Gaiman!) – they do so much more than “just” lending out books.

A recent article published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Free Library is understaffed, undervalued and budget cuts won’t help”, discusses the issues that many libraries have faced over time: lack of staff, lack of funding, and lack of support. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a valuable resource to all of the neighborhoods and communities it serves, including the scholarly community which makes use of the main branch’s Rare Book Department. The Rare Book Department serves as an example of special collections libraries – which may not be as familiar as public libraries, but face the same problems of lack of resources. So what are special collections libraries?

Patients’ Experiences of Tertiary Syphilis Treatment at the Philadelphia Orthopaedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases

Staff From our researchers, Out of the stacks, Voices from our collection March 24, 2021March 18, 2021Early twentieth century medicine, Nineteenth century medicine, Patient experiences, Philadelphia Orthopaedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases, Tertiary syphilis treatments

– by Janet Lynne Golden, Professor Emerita at Rutgers University

I have always wanted to write about patients’ experiences of illness and ask how new diagnostic tools, treatments, and knowledge changed their daily lives. And I have always wanted to dig into the vast collection of patient records from the Philadelphia Orthopaedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases (hereafter POH). My interest in the records began thanks to the late Larry McHenry, Jr., M.D. who had hoped to write a history of the POH, the nation’s first neurological hospital. The materials from the POH are a goldmine, and include administrative records and, more importantly, casebooks that document the experiences of patients being treated for a variety of ailments.

Prophylaxis, A Medical Advent Still Employed To This Day

Staff #MedievalMedicineMonday, Out of the stacks, Staff research March 8, 2021March 8, 2021Digital image library, Humoral theory, Medieval medicine, Prophylaxis

– by Patrick Magee, Visitor Services/Gallery Associate

Welcome to another edition of Medieval Medicine Monday! On Mondays, I highlight information found through the Digital Image Library and draw connections between the world of the early teen centuries and the world we have come to know since! Using a mixture of primary sources of original content, alongside more modern academic writing, Medieval Medicine Mondays are a peek into the shared knowledge of the past through the applied knowledge of the present.

In the medieval and early modern eras, treatment of the plague was very touch-and-go due to a relatively limited amount of medical knowledge about both the condition and the immune system in general. In prior issues, we have discussed how medical superstitions came into play during times like these, although there is some evidence that more modern medical techniques were already starting to come into play towards the tail end of the medieval era. Enter prophylaxis.

How Thorazine Shows That Medical and Social Histories Shape Each Other

Staff #MedievalMedicineMonday, Out of the stacks, Staff research February 22, 2021May 19, 2021Digital image library, Medical trade ephemera, Mental health, Thorazine

– by Patrick Magee, Visitor Services/Gallery Associate

Welcome back to another issue of #MedievalMedicineMonday! On Mondays, Visitor Services/Gallery Associate Patrick Magee will be exploring the depths of medieval botanical medicine as depicted by woodcuts found in our early printed books. This week is a little different – although there is a theme of medical treatment changing over time present across all #MedievalMedicineMonday posts, for now the focus will be on a more recent time in history that perhaps just feels medieval to certain readers – the 1950s.

Plague Era Woodcuts Shed Light on Shared Beliefs In Action

Staff #MedievalMedicineMonday, Out of the stacks, Staff research February 1, 2021May 19, 2021Bubonic plague, Digital image library, Medieval medicine, Religion, Woodcuts

– by Patrick Magee, Visitor Services/Gallery Associate

Welcome back to another issue of #MedievalMedicineMonday! On Mondays, Visitor Services/Gallery Associate Patrick Magee will be exploring the depths of medieval medicine as depicted by woodcuts found in our early printed books.

This week, we’re going to look at how woodcut creators and the general public made sense of the beginnings of a plague. In Pestbuch, Hieronymus Brunschwig depicted the onset of a pandemic through a series of woodcuts, themselves serving a purpose somewhere between documentation and warning. In the woodcut drawings, Brunschwig depicts a mixture of illness at its worst alongside the continuing lives of everyday folks and doctors/attenders of the sick.

Antikamnia Calendars: 19th Century Medical Advertising

Staff Out of the stacks, Staff research January 20, 2021May 19, 2021Antikamnia Chemical Company, Digital image library, Medical trade ephemera, Nineteenth century medicine, Patent medicines, Pharmaceutical companies

– by Josh Bicker, Visitor Services Floor Supervisor

Among the College of Physicians Medical Library’s collection, we have a number of advertisements for the Antikamnia Chemical Company. Within these, a curious image can be found in an advertising pamphlet of the time, portraying a stout man, dressed in a suit, with an enormous skull atop his neck. With spectacles perched at the bridge of his nose, he closely inspects a round tablet with the letters “AK” monogrammed on it. Rays of light shower over him, and at the bottom of the page we see the phrase “Tis The Genuine”. It is as if he has received some divine inspiration.

Fungus Among Us: How One Type of Mushroom Has Been a Medical Boon Since the 1700s

Staff #MedievalMedicineMonday, Out of the stacks, Staff research December 28, 2020May 19, 2021Agaric fungus, Botanical medicine, Digital image library, Medieval medicine, Woodcuts

– by Patrick Magee, Visitor Services/Gallery Associate

Welcome to #MedievalMedicineMonday! On Mondays, Patrick Magee, Visitor Services/Gallery Associate, will be exploring the depths of medieval botanical medicine as depicted by woodcuts found in our early printed books.

Although commonly held beliefs over medicine change quite a bit over time, one thing that’s certain is the ceaseless documentation of every turn of events within the medical world, from plague to poison. Medicinal science involves a lot of trial and error, and sometimes what seems like an inscrutable idea at first can become the backbone of treatment. In this series of posts on medically significant plants, we wanted to beg several questions – which plants do we still use? Which ended up being effectively snake oil? What was for health, and what was for fun? All of these questions and more will be addressed over time, starting in this case with a fungus.
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