By Ken Koyle, Ginny Roth, and Krista Stracka Hedley Vicars was not a war hero. He was not a renowned strategist or tactician; his presence
Tag: 1800s
A Piece of Pi: Historical Perspectives from NLM
By Kenneth M. Koyle and Jeffrey S. Reznick Today is Pi Day, the internationally-recognized event when communities of various disciplines come together to celebrate the
Sitting by the Fireside: African American History, Women’s History, and Food
Circulating Now welcomes guest blogger, Psyche Williams-Forson, PhD. Dr. Williams-Forson is an associate professor and chair, Department of American Studies, University of Maryland-College Park and
The Lay of the Lonesome Lung, 1881
By Krista Stracka Since the end December, the aisles of most drug stores have been awash in red and pink products in anticipation of today,
Cough Killer’s Secret Ingredient
By Ginny A. Roth Whereas the statement from Dr. Seth Arnold Medical Company on this late 19th century advertisement, “we are all liable to catch
Behind the Scenes on Mercy Street
Circulating Now readers recently learned about a unique register of patients from Mansion House Hospital dating from the 1860s and 1870s, which NLM holds in
Sup on a Syllabub
By Anne Rothfeld Want an intriguing dessert from the past to satisfy your present day holiday palate? Serve the syllabub: a cream-based treat, mixed with
Mr. Kris Kringle, 1893
By Margaret Kaiser It is Christmas eve, a Christmas with no presents and the loss of the family home, until a surprising visitor appears… Mr.
America’s National Parks: Preserved for Public Health
By Anne Rothfeld The National Park Service (NPS) celebrates its centennial on August 25, 2016. From Maine to Hawaii, the breadth of NPS includes parks,
Memories of the Civil War
By Stephen J. Greenberg Although the American Civil War was not the first armed conflict to be extensively photographed (that dubious distinction belongs to the
“Beyond Chicken Soup” with a Taste of NLM
By Karen Falk and Jeffrey S. Reznick During the past few years, the NLM History of Medicine Division has loaned items from its collections for
Early Journals: What’s in a Name?
By Atalanta Grant-Suttie The journal is so much a part of the current apparatus of scholarly communication that one never really thinks where and how
“Wrapped in flesh”: Views of the body in East Asian Medicine
Circulating Now welcomes guest blogger Yi-Li Wu. Dr. Wu is a Center Associate of the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan,
Photography of the Invisible and Its Value in Surgery
By Tal Golan Originally published in Hidden Treasure: The National Library of Medicine, 2011. Dr. William J. Morton (1845–1920) hurried his book The X-Ray: Or, Photography
Medical Identity and Ethnicity in 19th-Century New Orleans
Dr. Amy Wiese Forbes spoke today at the National Library of Medicine on “Medical Identity and Ethnicity in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans.” Dr. Forbes is Associate
Ready… Set… CLICK!
By Ginny A. Roth After a long winter, Spring is greeted with much anticipation. There is no better time to dust off those cameras, head
The Lincoln Autopsy
By Jill L. Newmark and Roxanne Beatty This week, Circulating Now marks a pivotal event in American history with a short series of posts. 150
Lincoln’s Last Hours
By Jill L. Newmark This week, Circulating Now marks a pivotal event in American history with a short series of posts. 150 years ago on
A Day that Changed American History
By Roxanne Beatty and Jill L. Newmark This week, Circulating Now marks a pivotal event in American history with a short series of posts. 150
NLM’s Unique De Fabrica
By Michael J. North and Laura Hartman This year we commemorate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564) who is best known
Dangers to Health in Our Own Home, 1877
NLM historian Michael Sappol was a recent guest blogger at The Ultimate History Project. The post explores a whimsically illustrated and persuasive Victorian era
First editions of Darwin’s Origin of Species
By Margaret Kaiser On November 24, 1859, Charles Darwin’s On the origin of species by means of natural selection… was published in London. From the
What’s Your Quit Day?
By Ginny A. Roth For nearly 42 million Americans, smoking is a hard habit to break. The American Cancer Society (ACS) calls tobacco use the
Mongolian Manuscript comes to Turning the Pages
By Michael J. North The latest addition to the Turning the Pages collection is a Mongolian manuscript entitled, Manual of Astrology and Divination. This colorfully
Pure Food: FDA Notices of Judgment
Circulating Now welcomes guest blogger Dr. Suzanne Junod, a historian in the FDA History Office. In celebration of the completion of NLM’s digital archive of
How To… Kill Animals Humanely
By Michael Sappol Is empathy innate? Are we all born with the ability to identify with the emotions of others, to feel someone else’s pain?
Early Latin American Medicine in the NLM Collections
Michael J. North spoke today at the National Library of Medicine in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month on “Early Latin American Medicine in the NLM
A Mystery in Manuscripts
By James Labosier Among the History of Medicine’s manuscript collections rests a small group of letters and diaries from Army Surgeon Jonathan Letterman. However, these
Pictures of Nursing: The Zwerdling Postcard Collection
By Erika Mills For over a century, images of nurses and nursing have been featured frequently as the subjects of postcards—so much so that nursing
A Physician’s Perspective on the Russian Flu
In November 1889, a rash of cases of influenza-like-illness appeared in St. Petersburg, Russia. Soon, the “Russia Influenza” spread across Europe and the world. This
