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.
Here at the Historical Medical Library, we are celebrating Archives Month with “Monster Month.” (And, of course, the launch of our blog.) We’ll be hosting several informal pop-up exhibits as well as a special event featuring some of the ‘monstrous’ items in our collection. We’ll be discussing what is a ‘monster’ and what it meant to be ‘monster’ during the past 500 years. Today, one often thinks of large, fantastical – and often frightening – creatures when one hears the word. The meaning of ‘monster’ has seemingly changed little over the years – but at one time, it was also used to describe people with medical anomalies, not just fabulous creatures out of legends.
To kick off things for our Monster Month, read our first contributor’s blog, “Tracing Monsters Across Medicine.” Dr. Shane Miller is the Associate Professor of Communication and Chair of the Department of Gender Studies at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in Minnesota. Dr. Miller received a travel grant from the F.C. Wood Institute for the History of Medicine in 2014. In his contribution, Dr. Miller writes about the monstrous, and how medicine perpetuated the concept of “the monster.”
