From Urine Wheels to Commode Catalogs, a mini-exhibit celebrating the re-opening of the 3rd floor men’s room with items from the historical collections.
<submitted by Russell A. Johnson>
In Fall 2008, most undergraduate students in Robert Gore’s Fiat Lux seminar, Artists’ Books in the UCLA Library and Beyond, made and presented their own artists’ books as class projects. Several of these unique creations are displayed alongside published examples from the Biomedical Library’s History & Special Collections for the Sciences. From the rebirth of Venus to the Hippocratic Oath and various topics in between, the students and other artists comment through unusual combinations of content, structures, and images.
The Biomedical Library’s new exhibit, Artists’ Books from Library and Classroom, is on view now through mid-July. The exhibit begins outside the library’s entrance in our showcase area, continues in the lobby and extends to the 4th floor public reading room.
<submitted by Russell Johnson and Andrea Lynch>
The Maurice N. Beigelman Collection of Ophthalmology contains landmark works in vision science from the Renaissance and later. Maurice N. Beigelman, M.D. (1896-1975), a Los Angeles ophthalmologist, donated these rare books to the UCLA Biomedical Library in 1954. This gift formed a core around which the library built and continues to develop collections of primary sources in the structure, functions, and diseases of the eye. More than 50 titles in the collection have been digitized and are freely available as part of UCLA’s contributions to the Internet Archive.
<submitted by Russell Johnson>
Although many popular accounts have contrasted the contemporary influence of pharmaceutical marketing in clinical practice with a nostalgic remembrance of uncomplicated relations between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry at mid-century, the relationship between pharmaceutical promotion and physician education had already prompted significant professional and public debate in the 1950s and 1960s. This talk will use historical perspective to explore the problem of industrial vs. professional sources in how physicians incorporate emerging therapeutics into their practice. Tracing the issue from the advent of the postwar ‘wonder drugs’ through today’s concerns regarding industry influencer in formal continuing medical education (CME) and off-label prescribing, this talk will document how and why the pharmaceutical industry was allowed to develop and maintain the central role it now plays within postgraduate medical education and prescribing practice. The talk will also explore paths not taken: alternate structures for medical education and the diffusion of medical innovation that were abandoned along the way.
Lecture by: Jeremy Greene, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University, and the Harvard Medical School Division of Pharmacoepidemiology
Date: Thursday, 21 May 2009, 4:30 p.m.
Location: Louis Jolyon West Auditorium, Semel Institute, C8-183 Center for the Health Sciences, UCLA
The lecture is open, free of charge, and is followed by an opportunity to converse over light refreshments in the foyer.
This lecture is co-sponsored by the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. For more information, please contact the History & Special Collections for the Sciences, Louise Darling Biomedical Library at 310.825.6940 or via email at: tgj@library.ucla.edu.
<submitted by Russell Johnson>
Dr. Emily Abel, UCLA Professor of Health Services and Women’s Studies, will speak on Tuberculosis and the Politics of Public Health in Los Angeles, 1880-1940 at the UCLA Faculty Center on Tuesday, April 14, at 6:00 p.m. This lecture will discuss the changing demographics and racial politics in Los Angeles in the earth 20th century in relation to public health and the “health seeker” culture.
The lecture is open, free of charge, but a reservation is required in order to ensure adequate seating and very light refreshments; call History and Special Collections for the Sciences at 310.825.6940. Full details are available in a printable flyer. This program is sponsored by UCLA Programs in Medical Classics and by the UCLA School of Public Health.
The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences are pleased to announce the availability of the 2009-2010 Charles Donald O’Malley Short-Term Research Fellowships to further investigation into the history of medical thought and healing practice and art from the earliest times to the recent past. Two fellowships will be awarded, each of which carries a grant of up to $1500 to defray travel and residence costs for research conducted at UCLA special collections libraries between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010.The award commemorates the work of Charles D. O’Malley, Ph.D. (1907-70), the Vesalian scholar and first full-time chair of the Department of Medical History at UCLA. O’Malley pioneered the study of the history of medicine at UCLA and facilitated its growth.Applications must be received on or before May 15, 2009. Questions about the fellowships may be directed to Russell A. Johnson by email, phone at 310.825.6940, or fax at 310.825.0465.
Local artist Francesca Gabbiani’s Houseguest exhibition at the Hammer Museum includes several items from History & Special Collections for the Sciences. According to the museum, “Houseguest is a new series of artist-curated exhibitions at the Hammer that provide an opportunity for artists to delve into the rich and varied collections at UCLA. For this installation, Gabbiani … was particularly drawn to images of witchcraft and sorcery, and these themes, which are often subtly evoked in her own work, became the focus of her choices for the exhibition.” The Biomedical Library’s contributions include illustrations of deadly and poisonous plants, in books ranging from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century.”
“Special” Collections aren’t always rare, old, or expensive. Sometimes now-common but ephemeral items are acquired in mint condition to be preserved for future generations.
History & Special Collections for the Sciences is showing its pair of “Geffy” bears in the display case just outside the Biomedical Library entrance, as part of its ongoing “New on Nine: Recent Acquisitions” series (which is named for finding the division office off the 9th level of the Biomedical Library Stacks). The soft, shaggy mascots of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA are available from the Student Affairs Office [Adobe PDF document], with 100% of proceeds benefiting UCLA medical students via the Class of 2009 Scholarship Fund. The Biomedical Library’s bears, permanently forming Collection 507, were purchased through the Franklin E. Murphy, M.D. fund.
Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library’s History and Special Collections for the Sciences will be open Monday-Friday, 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM, and by appointment effective Monday, January 12, 2009. Users may contact History and Special Collection for the Sciences at 310.825.6940, or via email to Teresa Johnson, Library Assistant or Russell Johnson, Librarian and Archivist.
Please join us at “Mollusks & More,” an exhibit showcasing the skill and art of the 18th and 19th century engravers and illustrators in creating images of cephalopods, mollusks, and other sea creatures. The materials are on display in the History and Special Collections for Sciences Division on the 4th floor of the Biomedical Library through September 30, 2008.
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