The Library is Open!

WE HAVE EXCITING NEWS!

Our Historical Medical Library is now open to the public on weekends, for the first time in its 200+ year history! You’ll find rotating exhibits of rare books, artwork, and more. The best part? Your admission to the Library is included with tickets to the Mütter Museum!

“Up until now, the only way to access our collection was by appointment or viewing our digital collection,” said Heidi Nance, Historical Medical Library Director. “Opening our doors to visitors on the weekends represents a new phase for one of Philadelphia’s greatest hidden treasures, sitting just above the iconic Mütter Museum.”

Thanks to the vision and generosity of our Trustees and our 2021 Giving Tuesday donors, the Library doors are now unlocked and welcoming Museum visitors on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Reserve your weekend ticket >>

Our Library was created by the College’s Fellows in 1788 and was Philadelphia’s central medical library for over 150 years, serving its medical schools, hospitals, physicians, and other health professionals. It contains 300,000 rare books, art, historic medical photographs, medical trade ephemera, first editions, and woodcut art, plus scrolls, stone tablets, lithographs, daguerreotype photos, handwritten letters, and many more remarkable items. The jewel of the Library is a collection of more than 400 books printed before 1501, called “incunabula.” The oldest book on-site was printed in the 13th century.

“As we’ve worked to make The College of Physicians of Philadelphia more accessible in a variety of ways, inviting the public into the Historical Medical Library has long been a dream,” said Dr. Mira Irons, our President and CEO. “The complementary collections within our Museum and Library work together to tell a story of the past, present, and future of medicine.”

“Now, more than ever, it’s important that the public be exposed to medical history. Understanding where we’ve come from helps us to understand, and appreciate, the present — and look towards the future of healthcare,” continued Dr. Irons.

We can’t wait for you to see it!

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Diet and Nutrition in the Early Age of Aviation

by Wood Institute travel grantee Bryce Evans

 

Many people dislike airline food, but that was what brought me to the College of Physicians as a Wood Institute scholar (‘Woodie’)! In the literal sense, the airline food on the American Airlines flight over from London wasn’t bad … I’ve certainly had worse. But the reason for my trip was to further research the scientific history of airline food – certainly a niche topic, but one which is pretty universal and always sure to elicit strong opinions.   

 

My time at the library was spent researching diet and nutrition in the early age of aviation. In ensuring the comfort and wellbeing of passengers and crew, much attention was paid to suitable foodstuffs to consume while airborne. I gained a fascinating glimpse of how theories developed around how the human body copes with altitude, air pressure, turbulence, lack of oxygen, and airsickness and specific thoughts on the gastro-intestinal processes attached to these.  

 

One has to remember that flying is a very recent human experience. Although most people these days have been in an airplane at least once, until recently flying was once the sole preserve of an elite (largely white male) few. Scientists longed for more detail on the short and long term effects on the body, how palatable food could be served in the air, and what the effect was of eating a meal at such altitude.   

 

Of course, much of the material in the library concerns an earlier period, and there were some interesting bits and pieces on those ‘mariners of the upper atmosphere’, the 18th and 19th century balloonists who pioneered understanding of what happened to the body when headed for the clouds. 

 

Picture of journal volumes on shelf.
Journal of Aviation Medicine on display in Norris Room for an event.

 

However, the most valuable resource was the complete set of The Journal of Aviation Medicine, spanning the 1920s to the 1960s. This was a treasure trove, with numerous articles relating to my topic. For example, authors explored themes such as the effect of altitude and oxygen upon primary taste perception, learning how the taste perception of sweet, salt, sour and bitter changes at 25,000 feet. These pioneering studies helped the major airlines to innovate around airline food, working with culinary professionals to develop suitable menus. Although many people deride airline food, the production of half-way appetizing food in the circumstances was, if not quite miraculous, underpinned by hard science. 

 

These were the early days of aviation and much of the material is ‘of its time’: writings on the topic were heavily gendered and racialized and often geared towards the strategic priorities of the US Air Force as the USA headed towards entry into the Second World War and post-war global dominance. Similarly, much of the early experiments into diet and digestion in the air would not meet ethical standards of research today. Nonetheless, it is interesting to chart the development of scientific insight around diet, nutrition and flying. These discoveries were of great use later on as the space race developed during the Cold War and astronauts’ diet assumed great importance. Space food owes a huge debt to airline food. 

 

What’s clear from the material is that, in many ways, aircraft in the early days were flying laboratories where the endurance of the human body was put to the test. Airlines were keen to maintain the physical and physiological efficiency of their crew. At the same time, early aviators were very much the ‘guinea pigs’ when it came to research into airborne diet.  

 

Gastrointestinal considerations were integral to the new science of aviation medicine, which examined phenomena such as pressure breathing, cardiovascular and respiratory dynamics, body temperature responses and – in terms of preventive medicine – longer term disease factors precipitated by the new phenomenon, and career choice, of global air transportation. 

 

To research in such august surroundings was a pleasure. I spent many contented hours in the Gross Library and the Norris Library and the behind-the-scenes glimpse at The Stacks was about as fun as it gets for a professional historian. I’d like to express my sincere thanks to Kristen, Shirley, Mary and Heidi: they were always helpful and always good company, and I’m proud to have worn the yellow lanyard and to have been a ‘Woodie’ for the week!