Shades of Gray in Twenty Years of Grey’s Anatomy

Posted on March 27, 2025 by nyamhistory

by Anthony Murisco, Public Engagement Librarian

Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical was first published in 1858. The author, Dr. Henry Gray, had intended to create an “accurate view of anatomy” for students and practitioners, for the application of practical surgery. This work was to be an inexpensive textbook from the mind of the celebrated wunderkind, who had already been published, celebrated, and named a Fellow of the Royal Society by the age of only 25.

Illustration From 2nd American Edition of *Anatomy…*

For the illustrations, Gray re-teamed with Dr. Henry Vandyke Carter, another anatomist/surgeon who was a skilled anatomical artist. Their previous collaboration had been Gray’s 1854 book, On the Structure and Use of Spleen. The new work was to be their biggest collaboration yet. Unfortunately it was also their last: Gray died in 1861 of smallpox, contracted from caring for his nephew. Before his passing, he had completed a second edition of his Anatomy that corrected minor mistakes and added illustrations by a Dr. Westmacott.

Since its original publication in 1858, the book succeeded in both its original purpose and became culturally synonymous with the profession. Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy became a key text, although now the title was shortened to Gray’s Anatomy, both easier to say and in honor of the author. Editions of the book were not just for professionals either. It became part of the Western canon. For example, performance artist Spalding Gray used the title for his one-man piece, later a Steven Soderbergh film, in which he muses on his options after being diagnosed with a rare ocular disease.

The title has never gone out of print. The key textbook even adapted with technology. Back in 2005, as the 39th edition of Gray’s Anatomy was set to be published, one could purchase a virtual edition for an additional $60. At the same time, another Gray—or rather, Grey—would take over the cultural context….

There was no shortage of doctors on television. ER (1994–2009) was created by writer Michael Crichton. Although he never obtained his medical license, Crichton had graduated with his MD from Harvard Medical School. Crichton first scripted ER in the 1970s with the idea of making it a film. It reflected the rotations he took part in. When it was filmed in 1994 as a two-hour television pilot, not much was changed. During his short-lived medical career, he had become disenchanted with how corporate he believed medical care had become. ER is set in the fictional, financially tight, Cook County General Hospital in Chicago. Crichton’s mind-set comes through in some of his other work, including the (also) hospital-set, body-snatching horror film, Coma.

ER set a gold standard for hospital dramas. Crichton believed that for the first time on television they provided “realism” of what things were like an emergency room. Subsequent hospital television would have to do something different. This led to a more stylized approach as it went on for Chicago Hope (1994–2000). Scrubs (2001–2010) was different in that it was a comedy that mixed in the reality of the job. Then there were the countless unsuccessful rip-offs that couldn’t find their own unique voice, lasting one season or less. Plus, for early seasons, ER had up and coming actor George Clooney as part of their cast. He would go on to be one of the biggest names in Hollywood.

House, MD premiered in 2004 on FOX and starred British actor Hugh Laurie as the titular, misanthropic doctor. Creator David Shore looked to Sherlock Holmes as inspiration for his character. House gave his patients and viewers a methodical approach to his diagnoses, which were, more often than not, some rare disease, disorder, or occurrence. House had managed to give the medical yet another new take.

In 2005, ABC didn’t show much confidence in their latest pilot. It was another medical drama. They couldn’t even agree on a name: Complications, Surgeons, Miss Diagnosis, Grey’s Anatomy, it didn’t matter. They believed nothing they could top ER, which was still a ratings and critical juggernaut ten years in. But they were riding high after successfully rolling out two dramas in the last year, Desperate Housewives and Lost.

First-time creator Shonda Rhimes believed she had a show that would once again break a hospital-set mold. She tended to associate hospitals with “good things.” It was the place where they would “fix” you. Rhimes understood that there had to be a balance between that sentiment and the real lives that those who worked there had. “They’re just people at work.”

With those intentions in mind, executive producer Peter Horton tried to keep it looking “real.” He wanted the characters to look worn out; it’s a tough job! He wanted them to be unglamorous, with little to no make-up. This is most evident in the first episode. They found that even getting real-looking scrubs on the actors wouldn’t make for must-see tv, so they pivoted to it the reality rest on the emotional heft of being in a hospital. The remaining eight episodes of the abbreviated first season reflected that.

Those who worked on the show were skeptical. “It’s doctors with teenage dialogue,” Thomas Burman, a special effects makeup artist recalled thinking. Initial reviews were mixed, including people stating that the show needs “a brain.” Entertainment Weekly had reservations but overall found it enjoyable. ABC could take a loss if this, in their eyes, “generic” mid-season replacement (never a good sign in television terms) fizzled out.

On March 27th, 2005, the first episode of Grey’s Anatomy, “A Hard Day’s Night,” premiered at 10pm, following a season two episode of Desperate Housewives. Audiences were introduced to the main character and narrator, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), as she and her intern cohort endured their first 48 hours at Seattle Grace. Meredith’s voiceovers give context and comfort. (Coincidentally, a different Gray, Henry Gray, offered a similar “welcoming tone” in the earlier editions of his Anatomy, according to Bill Hayes’s The Anatomist. Unlike Meredith Grey’s, Henry Gray’s voice was taken out of later editions.) Meredith continues to narrate today, 20 seasons in. The episode was the most-watched mid-season premiere in years.

The fresh faces of the season one cast of *Grey’s Anatomy*

Over the course of the next few weeks, the fervor for Grey’s Anatomy only grew. It was originally only intended to have a four-week run in the coveted post Housewives Sunday slot. ABC kept it for the rest of the season. It would air on Sundays again for the second season, which was even bigger, including a whopping 27 episode order. The stars including Pompeo, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, and Chandra Wilson experienced career highs. There was a career resurgence of 80s teen heartthrob, Patrick Dempsey. Grey’s Anatomy also added to the cultural vernacular! “McDreamy,” Grey’s name for her on-again, off-again lover, Dr. Derek Shepherd (Dempsey), changed the 80’s “Mc-” critique of capitalism to something (or someone) that is craved.

Two years into its run, Andrew Holtz, MPH, wrote a book on the intricate science featured on House, MD. Seeing the success of the other popular doctor show, he wrote The Real Grey’s Anatomy in 2010. As a faculty member, he was given the opportunity for intimate access to the lives of medical students and the patients in care at Oregon Health and State University (OHSU). Grey’s Anatomy was used as the framework to show what reality is like and what a fictional show gets right—or gets wrong. Holtz apologized to fans who were seeking more in-depth analysis of their favorite program.

In the introduction to Holtz’s book, a fourth-year resident laments, “None of them have bags under their eyes…. That is so far away from the reality of interns.” As accurate to “reality” as the show wants to be, especially Peter Horton’s original concerns on their glamour, Grey’s Anatomy is first and foremost a consumer product. Justin Chambers, who played original intern Alexander Karev, notes that “we need to be appointment television every week.” This is why you have event episodes, like the season two, post—Super Bowl bomb scare two-parter, and why difficult surgeries go hand in hand with the complicated interpersonal conflicts the characters go through. It’s art! The show employs medical advisers, and writers work with the objective to only tell stories that have a recorded case. From there, they can tell the story however they want, even if it makes those advisers “roll their eyes” or “pull their hair out”! Real medical terminology has to be learned by the actors, which sometimes is harder for them than a whole monologue.

Current *Grey’s Anatomy* promotional Image courtesy of ABC.

Grey’s Anatomy continues to be popular as it enters twenty years on air and will conclude its 21st season sometime in May 2025. We know it continues to be one of the most watched shows. Are doctors part of this audience too?

Doctors mention they may get the occasional real-life question that they see stemming from the show. In 2013 Cosmopolitan offered a q+a with a GP, Dr. Emma Wilding, who was asked about some of the more “out there” instances. She was happy to oblige.

Author Eric Berger looked into the television doctor effect for Annals of Emergency Medicine and concluded that while the occasional patient misunderstanding may occur, the show served to open up a dialogue between doctor and patient. If we’re to continue to fight misunderstanding and create personable communication between medicine and people, perhaps having the staff of Seattle Grace—or as it was renamed, Grey Sloan Memorial—as our allies benefits everyone.

References:

“ER.” Michael Crichton. Published February 3, 2023. Accessed March 25, 2025. https://www.michaelcrichton.com/works/er/

Berger, E. “From Dr. Kildare to Grey’s Anatomy.” Annals of Emergency Medicine, Volume 56, Issue 3, A21 – A23. 2010.

Gray, Henry. Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical. First American Edition. Blanchard and Lea; 1859.

Gray, Henry. Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical. Second American Edition. Blanchard and Lea; 1862.

“Gray’s Anatomy, 39th Edition: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice.” AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2005;26(10):2703-2704.

Hayes, Bill. The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy. Bellevue Literary Press; 2009.

Holtz, Andrew. The Real Grey’s Anatomy. Penguin; 2010.

Jacobs J. Body Trauma TV. British Film Institute; 2003.

Rhodes J. “Thriving Ratings for a New Patient on ABC.” New York Times. Published April 14, 2005. Accessed March 26, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/arts/television/thriving-ratings-for-a-new-patient-on-abc.html

Rice, L. How to Save a Life. St. Martin’s Press; 2021.

Silvers, I. “I asked an actual doctor if Grey’s Anatomy is like real life and this is what she said.” Cosmopolitan. Published September 6, 2017. Accessed March 26, 2025. https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/a12019073/are-medical-dramas-like-real-life/

Have You Heard of Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler?

Posted on February 28, 2025 by nyamhistory

by Anthony Murisco, Public Engagement Librarian

On February 8^th, 2021, the city of Boston was celebrating in a big way. For Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler’s 190^th birthday, the city had decided to declare the entire day in her honor. Despite this high honor, many still do not know who she is.

The largest newspaper in Boston, The Boston Globe, introduced readers to the local hero’s story in February 2020. At the time, Crumpler and her second husband, Arthur, were buried in an unmarked grave. Noting the significance of Crumpler, the first Black female doctor in the United States, the local Hyde Park Historical Society teamed up with the Friends of the Hyde Park Library to raise money for a proper headstone.

A follow-up in July of the same year informed the readers of a ceremony held to unveil the memorial. It also helped give a little more insight into the life of Dr. Crumpler; born Rebecca David in 1831, she was raised in Pennsylvania by her aunt. While growing up, she was shown what it meant to be a caretaker as she saw her aunt provide care for those in their neighborhood. She left for Charlestown, Massachusetts, and married her first husband, Wyatt Lee, in 1852. From working as a nurse from 1852–1860 for various doctors and their letters of recommendation, she was accepted into the New England Female Medical College.

In the middle of her schooling, her husband passed away from tuberculosis. She graduated in 1864 as the first Black woman in the United States to do so, as well as the only Black woman to graduate from New England Female Medical College before it merged with another medical school in 1873. The following year, she married Arthur Crumpler. They settled and spent the rest of their lives in Hyde Park, a neighborhood in south Boston. In her 1883 book, A Book of Medical Discourses: In Two Parts, Dr. Crumpler opens with a dedication; “To Mothers, Nurses, and all who may desire to mitigate the afflictions of the human race, this book is prayerfully offered.” The Boston Globe article mentions how she faced plenty of adversity in her profession, including white pharmacists who refused to fill scripts signed by her. Despite all of this, nothing could stop her from helping the people who needed her.

From *Finding Rebecca* by Shani Mahiri King and illustrated by Nicole Tadgell

Rewriting History

It wasn’t her own education, in the very same area where Crumpler once walked, that taught Boston University Medical School student Dr. Melody McCloud about this pioneer. Rather it was when, freshly graduated, she moved to Atlanta, Georgia, around 1981. There she learned about Dr. Crumpler and the Rebecca Lee Society, an organization made up of Black female physicians. Speaking on Crumpler and other forgotten physicians, McCloud told the Boston Globe, “There are a lot of accomplishments of Blacks that are left out of the history books.”

In her 2013 book, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, writer Margot Lee Shetterly coined the titular term. The “hidden figures” in her story are three Black women, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughan, who were instrumental in bringing the first astronauts into space. Despite being crucial to the team, they were hardly spoken of. Shetterly uncovered the story through talking to those who were there. From Johnson, she learned of Jackson; through Jackson, she got to Vaughan. The stories are passed down through the people who lived it and with the help of communities like the Rebecca Lee Society. With Shetterly’s help, Hidden Figures has been able to inspire others. It was even made into a movie! What can we do to these other “hidden” heroes?

In 2020 national attention was given to the Crumplers’ Hyde Park memorial thanks to NBC Nightly News. Since then, Dr. Crumpler and her accomplishments are being recognized more and more. Symposiums are now being held in her honor, the first being at Boston University School of Medicine in conjunction with her 190^th birthday. She also began popping up in an unlikely place: children’s picture book biographies.

Her Own Image

Writers and illustrators have become masterful in non-fiction storytelling for kids. . Some of these books are storytime staples. The illustrations bring history and people back to life. Can it be done for someone who has no surviving pictures?

A quick Google search of “Rebecca Lee Crumpler”

If you were to do an image search for “Rebecca Lee Crumpler,” you’d get some results. Unfortunately, none of these is the woman you are looking for! Despite commercial photography coming of age during her lifetime, any images of her have been lost to time. She is often mistakenly identified as other Black women, including Mary Eliza Mahoney. Boston University’s student-run newspaper made this mistake in its coverage of Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler Day, and eventually retracted and rectified its error, one of the few to do so.

Given the absence of portraits, how can you project this person?

Alexandra Boiger has showed us the lives of many historical and contemporary women as the illustrator of Chelsea Clinton’s She Persisted series. For She Persisted in Science, Boiger was able to pictorialize Crumpler’s life based on her research on the “physical and emotional” state of those at the time. Boiger told the Library, via e-mail, that she was “always trying to balance the harshness of the time with the heart and love of the people and Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler herself.” Her images succeed in showing the care that, as Crumpler herself wrote, she was striving for.

From *She Persisted in Science* by Chelsea Clinton and illustrated by Alexandra Boiger

Shani Mahiri King’s 2024 book Finding Rebecca is both an ode to Crumpler and an act of research. From studying Crumpler and the lives of 19^th-century Black Americans, he worked with his illustrator, Nicole Tadgell, to show us how she may have lived. Tadgell herself is an accomplished illustrator with a slew of historical picture books under her belt. King paired his own findings with the direct words of Crumpler from Medical Discourses, not only to tell her story but to inspire others.

King believes that more history is just waiting to be uncovered: hidden figures, histories, legends, all ready to have their stories told. The book ends with a call to action: “You too are a historian, you too are an author, and you too can help teach all of us about people who should be more famous than they are.”

References:

“Changing the Face of Medicine | Rebecca Lee Crumpler.” Nih.gov, 3 June 2015, cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_73.html. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025.

Clinton, Chelsea. She Persisted in Science. Penguin, 1 Mar. 2022.

Crumpler, Rebecca Lee. A Book of Medical Discourses, in Two Parts. 1883. Boston, Cashman, Keating, printers, collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-67521160R-bk.

Jonas, Anne. “Boston Honors Rebecca Lee Crumpler Day — First Black Woman in the US to Receive Medical Degree.” The Daily Free Press, 8 Feb. 2021, dailyfreepress.com/2021/02/08/boston-honors-rebecca-lee-crumpler-day-first-black-woman-in-the-us-to-receive-medical-degree/. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025.

King, Shani Mahiri. Finding Rebecca. Tilbury House Publishers and Cadent Publishing, 15 Oct. 2024.

MacQuarrie, Brian. “Gravestone Dedicated to the First Black Female Medical Doctor in the US .” BostonGlobe.com, The Boston Globe, 17 July 2020, http://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/17/metro/gravestone-dedicated-first-black-female-medical-doctor-us/. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025.

Rechtoris, Mary. “Hidden Figures’ Margot Lee Shetterly: How Writing Is a Lot like E-Discovery.” Relativity, 16 Jan. 2020, http://www.relativity.com/blog/hidden-figures-margot-lee-shetterly-how-writing-is-a-lot-like-e-discovery/. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025.

Sweeney, Emily. “Fundraising Effort Underway in Hyde Park to Honor Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, First Black Woman to Earn Medical Degree in US.” BostonGlobe.com, The Boston Globe, 10 Feb. 2020, http://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/02/10/metro/fundraising-effort-underway-hyde-park-honor-dr-rebecca-lee-crumpler-first-black-woman-earn-md-degree-us/. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025.

The Greatest Gifts

Posted on December 16, 2024 by nyamhistory

by Anthony Murisco, Public Engagement Librarian

We’re right in the middle in what’s known as the “season of giving.” Technically, this is a term used by philanthropic organizations to describe the last two months of the year. Often, it’s done for the purposes of a tax-deductible write-off at the end of the year. This may not be the only reason; it’s also just a generous way to give back to the community.

The 1958 edition of Giving USA by the American Association of Fund-Raising Counsel.

Let’s explore some homemade gifts from the NYAM Library’s cookery collections, and look also at “the gift of life”: blood.

At this time of year, holidays lead to gifts being exchanged! Most gifts don’t have to be huge. In fact, the Knox Gelatine Company believes that there are some presents “much less expensive and ever so much more delicious.” They invite you and your “little junior cooks” to bake one of their recipes to give this holiday season. You can follow a reusable pattern to make gift boxes for these candies. Make as many as you want!

Knox also gifts you with some relaxation; they’ve offered up three different menu options for what to serve on Christmas and New Year’s. You still must find recipes for most of the meals they suggested, but they do include recipes for a few dishes. If you’ve managed to give yourself ample time to prepare, you find that the company is offering to send you a free copy of one of their cookbooks. Perhaps the rest of the recipes can be found there.

Knox isn’t the only company with an opinion on home-baked presents. Betty Crocker says, “A gift you bake is a gift from the heart.” In this case, she is talking about her “Stir-N-Roll Mince Pie.” You may want to reserve this hearty dish for dear loved ones, as the woman on the advertisement does. There’s even the suggestion to add apples for a fruitier, more seasonal dish. Betty then gives you instructions for exactly how to wrap the mince pie. She reminds you that by giving this dish, you may be giving away one of your pie pans. Otherwise, use a cardboard one!

Betty isn’t done with gift suggestions yet. On the back, you can follow a recipe for “Cherry Cordial Chiffon Cake.” A stipulation is to “make only with Sofstasilk [cakeflour] and Wesson oil.” Who knew an advertisement could be so delicious? Once again, she shares how to present the baked gift. Betty calls it a “glamorous cover for a glamorous cake!”

While these gifts don’t cost as much as a tax-deductible donation, there are some gifts that you can give that are free. They might just save a life too.

Alton L. Blakeslee, a science writer for the Associated Press, was brought on by the American Red Cross, to plead their case through a 1951 pamphlet, “Blood—your gift of life.” We were a year into America’s involvement in the Korean War. Our soldiers overseas needed the most crucial “life-saving medicine,” blood.

Blakeslee writes that Americans are lucky. The American Red Cross set up an “efficient, working” system of donation centers and organizations that safely allow us to donate blood.

Having that healthy supply of blood allowed doctors and hospitals to provide care for the sick and those otherwise in need. Unfortunately, need has “skyrocketed” due to the overseas conflict. Now a stockpile was urgent, to be a ready line of defense.

The pamphlet explains why blood is important, for those who may not think about it too much. It’s true, we do take it for granted. Blood is described as not only the “magic gift” of our lives, indeed “the river of life.”

Blood donations can only come from other people. Blakeslee explains that a “normal person” should have around 12 to 13 pints of blood in their body. That fact helps sell the idea of giving a pint or two for the stockpile. He also waxes poetically on what he refers to as our “miracle fluid,” reminding us again that we have the possibility to help save others with no harm to ourselves.

If you’re wondering how your blood can make an impact, he included a chart. Considering eight pints of blood in all, that amount can help eight different people; those same eight pints can be used to make various lifesaving blood products that would help thirty or more people! Your one (or two) pints can make a difference.

Going through the history of blood donation, Blakeslee clears up some misconceptions. This includes the idea that people cannot receive blood from different races. This was just three years after President Truman ended segregation in the armed forces, in 1948, while the American Red Cross gave up the practice of segregating blood by race only the year before, in 1950. Blakeslee offers a little bit of humor on the situation by saying it won’t “give the recipient…. any of the giver’s characteristics.” He goes on to say blood from a happy person wouldn’t make a “grump” any happier.

Blakeslee believes that the gift of giving is a reward into itself. That is and will always be true. Thanks to support from generous donors, in 2024 the American Red Cross is sometimes able to provide something in exchange for your time and blood. They put out a press release this past August declaring an emergency. The record setting temperatures that the United States had been experiencing made collecting more difficult. They say that at least 100 drives had been affected, while the demand for a large blood supply is still constant. During the summer drought, they offered gift cards. Right now, from December 16^th into the new year, you can get a long-sleeve shirt with a snowman graphic. Sometimes you’ll get a cookie that really hits the spot. Just remember that blood donation is a great cause!

What you would see on RedCross.org this holiday season.

Expanding your mind during the “season of giving” may help you choose what to gift this year. Whether it’s for your family or another’s, gifts don’t have to be extravagant. It’s the thought that counts.

From all of us at the New York Academy of Medicine Library, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season!

References:

American Red Cross. Accessed December 13, 2024. https://www.redcross.org/.

Blakeslee, Alton L. c.1951. Blood, your gift of life. New York : Public Affairs Committee[in association with the American Red Cross].

Charles B. Knox Gelatine Co. [1908-1940]. How to make xmas candies : how to make a gift box. Knox Gelatine Co.

General Mills, Inc. [1945-1960]. Betty Crocker says : “a gift you bake is a gift from the heart”. Betty Crocker, General Mills.

“Giving Tuesday is coming…” IRS Tax Tips, IRS.gov, 15 Nov. 2022, https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/giving-tuesday-is-coming-now-is-a-good-time-to-review-tax-benefits-for-charitable-giving. Accessed 16 Dec 2024.

“Red Cross National Blood Inventory Plummets 25% in July — Declares Emergency Blood Shortage.” American Red Cross. Accessed December 16, 2024. https://www.redcross.org/about-us/news-and-events/press-release/2024/red-cross-national-blood-inventory-plummets-in-july-declares-emergency-blood-shortage.html?srsltid=AfmBOopY1znjUaoNvMMeQhjzBiz-OjWsuGUxeA6WJaqsCSTQHrHpHzcu.

Researching Neuropsychiatry and Veterans Hospitals During the 1930s at the New York Academy of Medicine

Posted on November 26, 2024 by nyamhistory

By Dr. Michael Robinson, National Army Museum Research Fellow, University of Birmingham (UK), and the Library’s 2024 Paul Klemperer Fellow in the History of Medicine

I spent one month working in the New York Academy of Medicine’s magnificent library and reading room in the autumn of 2024. This residency enabled me to look at a host of materials dedicated to the treatment of mentally ill American Army veterans of the First World War during the Great Depression (1929–1939). I undertook this research hoping to utilise the USA as an important comparative case study on my current research project dedicated to mental illness and British Great War veterans during the 1930s. By examining mental breakdown and psychiatric medical care during this decade, this research seeks to reveal the delayed traumatic after-effects of war service on ex-service personnel and the potential for additional psychosocial determinants to influence mental ill-health.

I first became interested in the American experience of post-First World War disability and mental healthcare owing to its regular appearance in the archival records of Britain’s Ministry of Pensions, the government agency responsible for distributing veterans’ pensions and medical care. During the inter-war period, British policymakers regularly cited the US experience of veteran after-care as a deterrent and a case study to avoid replicating. They actively held up the US system as being unfairly exclusive, costly, and liberal owing to its incremental but costly expansion of veteran rights and facilities. Britain significantly reduced its liability on behalf of veterans during the 1920s and 1930s, including the closure of most veterans’ hospitals. Veterans’ medical care in Britain was primarily outsourced to broader public health facilities, the civilian welfare state, and the charity sector.

By contrast, the US witnessed increased state liability, including a vast financial outlay in funding exclusive Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals and medical facilities. In 1936, owing to the two nations’ inversed approaches to veteran care, one Ministry of Pensions official described the UK and US responses as being of ‘opposite extremes.’¹ The primary purpose of my time at the NYAM was to better understand why the British and US systems were the complete inverse of one another. I also sought to appreciate how these contrasting policy trajectories and medical infrastructures affected the lives of mentally ill veterans.

Portrait of Thomas Salmon, from *History of the Interurban Clinical Club 1905-193*7, edited by David Riesman (1937).

This comparative approach first led me to NYAM records relating to Dr. Thomas Salmon (1876–1927). For those unfamiliar, Salmon was the American Expeditionary Forces’ chief consultant in psychiatry during the First World War. Before this important role, following the country’s entry into the global conflict in 1917, Salmon visited England to study how it dealt with mental wounds during the war to help inform his country’s approach.² As a leading figure in the US National Hygiene Movement before and after his war service, the records of Salmon’s war experience reflect a relatively progressive military medical official. He regularly stressed the environmental causes of soldiers’ breakdown. In short, Salmon was more inclined to blame combat neurosis and stress on the dehumanising and brutalising effects of war service than citing faulty hereditary genetics, as was more apparent amongst British military officials. This more empathetic outlook continued into Salmon’s advocacy on behalf of veterans following his return to America. Unlike the more reclusive and disillusioned Dr. Charles Myers, the British Army’s leading psychiatric official, Salmon advocated for healthcare and welfare on behalf of the mentally disabled First World War veterans during the initial post-war years. Described by his biographer as a successful ‘spokesman for veterans,’ the force of Salmon’s personality and his effective collaboration with the American Legion help explain why the American mentally ill veteran stopped being admitted into larger public mental hospitals.³ Instead, the US Federal Government established exclusive medical facilities for veterans from the early 1920s onwards.

Salmon died unexpectedly whilst sailing near Long Island in 1927. Reflecting his prestige amongst his contemporaries, the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, an advocacy organization founded in 1909 by Clifford W. Beers, set up the Salmon Committee on Psychiatry and Mental Hygiene at the New York Academy of Medicine in 1931.⁴ Regardless, the exclusive medical infrastructure he had helped establish continued to cater to mentally ill First World War veterans into the 1930s. In stark contrast to Britain’s minuscule and dwindling psychiatric infrastructure, the VA provided seventeen neuropsychiatric facilities across its national network of forty-nine hospitals. It offered 10,633 beds for mental ailments, marking a 467% increase over 1921’s availability. The number of beds would be set to increase for the rest of the decade.⁵ With this exclusive federal medical care program for veterans, the VA published its Medical Bulletin journal throughout the 1930s. Pouring through these issues reveals a lively forum of VA medical officials discussing the continued difficulties of treating veterans during this period.

Regarding neuropsychiatry—I was struck by how hospital superintendents, nurses, vocational trainers, and social workers regularly articulated a holistic approach to mental healthcare. They cited the psychosocial determinants of health outside of hospital walls. This includes, for example, the detrimental impact of unemployment and poverty on an individual’s mental and bodily health, the emasculating stigma attached to male mental illness, and the potential for harmful self-medication practices such as alcoholism.

*United States Veterans’ Bureau Medical Bulletin* (1931), a collection of articles by VA staff and associates dedicated to all aspects of veteran after-care. These various scans come from volume 7.

The materials I reviewed at the NYAM provide a complex and nuanced picture of the post-war treatment of mentally ill World War One veterans. On the one hand, they give an image of an expansive, caring and financially generous veterans’ system. On the other hand, however, they provide comparatively little insight into the personal perspectives of veteran patients to verify the progressive narrative offered by medical officials. In addition, contemporary medical journals reveal increasing resentment from American citizens regarding the spiralling costs of veteran medical care with little in return in terms of cure and recovery.⁶ This counter-narrative also appears worthy of further research.

Before arriving in New York, I was unsure how exactly the USA would fit into my larger project of Great War veterans during the Great Depression. However, my time at the NYAM proved incredibly rewarding by revealing how fascinating and unique an American case study is. I look forward to continuing this research into 2025.

Notes:

1 Nineteenth Annual Report of the Ministry of Pensions, 1935-1936, 33.

2 For a write-up of Salmon’s observations and recommendations, see Thomas Salmon, The care and treatment of mental diseases and war neuroses (“shell shock”) in the British Army (War Work Committee of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, 1917).

3 E. D. Bond, Thomas W. Salmon: Psychiatrist (W. W. Norton & Co, 1950), 160.

4 For more information on the Salmon Committee on Psychiatry and Mental Hygiene and its records that are held in the NYAM, see https://www.nyam.org/library/collections-and-resources/archives/finding-aids/ARN-0006.html/ [last accessed 18 November 2024].

5 E. O. Crossman and Glenn E. Myers, ‘The neuropsychiatric problem in the US Veterans’ Bureau,’ Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 94, no. 7 (1930), 473–478.

6 For example, see the Crossman and Myers article cited above.

“The Ladder” Steps Up

Posted on June 28, 2024 by nyamhistory

by Anthony Murisco, Public Engagement Librarian

This upcoming weekend marks New York City’s annual Pride Parade. The parade and the events surrounding it help make NYC’s celebration of pride the largest in North America, as well as one of the biggest in the world. It will also mark the 55^th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a defining moment in gay rights history. From June 28^th until July 3^rd, 1969, the community fought for their existence. These riots helped LGBTQIA+ individuals be seen and heard on a larger scale than ever before.

Stonewall has come to symbolize a turning point in gay rights. Before that pushback event, the struggle had seemed like an uphill battle. That was one reason that gay people came together for solidarity and advocacy.

The Daughters of Bilitis began in 1955 with a mission to bring lesbians together. Under the guise of a poetry club, named after a fictional contemporary of Sappho, they began with just a few members. What started in San Francisco quickly grew to other parts of the country. By 1958, a dedicated meeting space was even opened in New York City.

The Ladder was the Daughters’ monthly publication, begun in 1956. There you could find short stories, poetry, personal essays, book reviews, and anything else that dealt with women who loved women. One of their more bustling sections was the letters to the editors where women from all over the country could weigh in on issues. More on this later!

Issues usually began with the Daughters’ mission statement. Broken into four points that the group had decided were important, they sought to take back the narrative of their lives. They used personal stories and experiences with experts in the medical, psychological, and sociological fields to push back against social oppression. And they had enough of a reach to do so! It made sense that they were going to respond to a 1964 report by their New York City neighbors, the New York Academy of Medicine.

In May 1964, NYAM’s Committee on Public Health adopted a report on homosexuality, and published it in the July issue of the Academy’s Bulletin. The Committee had its own thoughts on the “problem.” The report labeled the homosexual as an “emotionally disturbed individual who has not acquired a normal capacity to develop satisfying heterosexual relationships” and stated that these problems may have begun in early childhood. Not only did these conclusions further demonize those who were already living on the fringe of society, but they made those involved in their upbringing culpable too.

[In 2022, NYAM President Judith A. Salerno, disavowed the report. As the organization looked back on its 175^th anniversary, she felt it was only just to “be accountable for our actions—and also for our inactions throughout our history.” It is a tenet of a historical collection that we believe to move forward, we must look at the past.]

The Editorial column for the August 1964 issue brought the issue to the fore. With a footprint all over the country, they couldn’t be sure that all their readers had seen the report. Editor Barbara Gittings wanted them to know: it is out there.

Could this professional opinion change how you were looked at? “That tidy clinical story is not about humans,” Gittings reminded her readers, even as she assured them not to worry too much. The Academy’s report did not tell the stories that the real people who write and read the magazine could. Regular readers are told of the “moral manipulation” on the part of those who had never met a homosexual.

After addressing those she feels are the most important—the readers—she turns to the “Gentlemen” of the Committee on Public Health. Gittings’ editorial included her June 13^th letter to NYAM and asked them to reconsider what they wrote. She called out the “misleading statements” about the Daughters of Bilitis and other gay organizations. Gittings even extended an invitation to attend their annual convention, on June 20^th of that year. The Daughters wanted them to see what the organization was about. The invitation went unanswered.

The Daughters of Bilitis officially disbanded in 1970 amidst the larger social upheaval of gay rights and the larger second wave of feminism. The Ladder was published until it was discontinued in 1972.

While it was around, The Ladder provided one of the only outlets for gay women to be seen or to see themselves. They didn’t have to agree with everything that the magazine published. And if they didn’t see what they wanted to, they weren’t afraid to ask for it. This brings us back to the letters section, “Readers Respond.”

The September 1964 issue’s letters section was dominated by a long, anonymous letter from a New York publisher, tired of what she perceived as the overwhelming amount of “leering and lewd” lesbian literature. But her tone then changes dramatically, ending with an aspiration: “I hope you don’t mind my frankness or my anger, but I think it’s about time that lesbians came out of the shadows to prove their lives are not filled with cobwebs but that they are genuine human beings as worthy of love, respect, and the good life as anyone else!”

We needed Pride more than ever back then. This is why we still celebrate it now.

References

Daughters of Bilitis. The Ladder. Reno, Nev. [etc.], 1956–72.

“Daughters of Bilitis Center,” NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/daughters-of-bilitis-center Accessed 28 June 2024.

Heiman, Logan + Theerman, Paul. “The Academy’s 1964 Report on Homosexuality.” Books, Health, and History, 9 June 2022. https://nyamcenterforhistory.org/2022/06/09/the-academys-1964-report-on-homosexuality%ef%bf%bc/. Accessed 28 June 2024.

Salerno, Judith A. “Revisiting and Disavowing the New York Academy of Medicine’s 1964 Report on Homosexuality.” J Urban Health 99, 607–609 (2022). Revisiting and Disavowing the New York Academy of Medicine’s 1964 Report on Homosexuality – PMC (nih.gov) Accessed 28 June 2024.

Theophano, Theresa. “Daughters of Bilitis.” 2015. http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/daughters_bilitis_S.pdf. Accessed 28 June 2024.

Close Observation In Early Illustrated Medical and Scientific Texts

Posted on May 31, 2024 by nyamhistory

By Dr. Sarah Archino, Furman University

Each year Furman University, located in South Carolina, offers a three-week May term, where students are encouraged to take experiential courses that build on their academic interests and take them in new directions. Inspired by programs bringing medical students into museums, undergraduate students have been coming to New York to focus on the skills of observation and communication since 2017.

The first class session from the first year the class was taught, back in 2017.

Many of the students are on track for medical careers. This course, “The Art and Science of Observation,” is designed to use art as a “rehearsal space” for interpreting complex, sometimes contradictory visual information; by talking through the processes of looking, students can become better aware of their biases, the ways they reach conclusions, and learn to be more comfortable with differences of opinion.

Two of this year’s students looking at the 1491 edition of Heinrich Louffenberg’s *Versehung des Leibes,* an illustrated guide to health composed in 1429.

One of the challenges is helping students understand the constructed nature of images, especially when they seem “realistic” or “factual.” Our visits with Arlene Shaner in the Library of the New York Academy of Medicine have been instrumental in breaking down the pretense of objectivity, even in medical and scientific illustration.

Historical Collections Librarian Arlene Shaner (L) and Professor Sarah Archino (R) looking at Giulio Casseri’s De vocis… from 1601 with a student.

Our program is fortunate enough to visit the library three times during the May course. During the first two meetings, students trace a history of illustrated medical and scientific texts, learning under Arlene’s guidance about how print technology, art, circulation, and scientific understanding have unfolded over the centuries. Moving from Vesalius to 20^th-century popular media, our students understand from first-hand experience how information has been created, copied, and circulated, especially in a pre-digital world.

Medical historian Bert Hansen meets with the class each year in a special session to talk about medical prints and caricatures.

At our third meeting, students enjoy being able to work directly with books from the collection. They choose a text and then select an image – or a small set of images – to analyze. The students deconstruct the image to consider its materiality, audience, and integration with text. This helps construct a better understanding of how one book can signify a larger system of learning and intellectual history.

A 2022 student’s detailed notes about the book she chose to study closely.

A few examples of student work reveal how they interpret this assignment – from those who transform their notes into a visual scrapbook (material which then found its way into a senior’s ceramics project), to analyses that consider the text’s original function and audience – be it a neurological surgeon of the 16^th century or a family doctor on the 19^th-century American frontier.

Our visits to the library are always a highlight of our time in New York, in no small part thanks to the wealth of resources, the accessibility of this collection, and the enthusiastic guidance and insight of Arlene Shaner. We look forward to working together in the future!

One of the 2022 students working with her book, the first American edition of George
Spratt’s *Obstetric Tables,* with its many lift the flap images, published in 1850.

If you are interested in bringing your own class for research within our collection, please reach out to library@nyam.org.

Sinking Our Teeth into a Poem

Posted on April 30, 2024 by nyamhistory

by Anthony Murisco, Public Engagement Librarian

As the April showers (hopefully) dwindle down, out come May flowers. The passage of the month means the conclusion of April’s celebrations, including National Poetry Month, and the commencement of the festivities of May, including National Dental Care Month. We’re going to combine both, with a poem by a dental care worker.

Anterior teeth model from Ash & Sons Catalogue (1886)

John Thomas Codman (d. 1907) was the an active speaker at various dental gatherings. He was also one of the more prolific writers on dentistry. But he wrote about more than teeth and dental issues. Dr. Codman’s writing appeared in mass market publications and he wrote about the co-op community he belonged to in the 1894 book, Brook Farm, Historic and Personal Memoirs.

Codman broke a sensitive issue when he wrote his essay, “Foul Breath.” When speaking on the problem, he hinted at dentistry’s higher involvement with the human body; “I cannot but think that the neglect is occasioned by want of that knowledge of its primary causes, and a lack of general knowledge of the relation of all the organs, one to another, that work together for the sustenance and maintenance of the life and health of all of our corporate frames.” His words call for a well-rounded, holistic approach to the whole profession. Really, who knew one could wax so poetic about bad breath?

Well, if you were at the 1866 meeting of the American Dental Association, you would know. In the Doric Hall of the State House in Boston, Dr. Codman welcomed the guests with a poem encompassing the birth and battles fought by our nation. It includes dental puns and nods to popular attractions in Boston. He even manages to add in a few pop culture references!

Today we bring you a slightly abridged version of this welcome poem.

The Dentists’ Welcome.

Welcome, ye knights of the forcep and plugger,
The Bay State invites, embrace her and hug her;
Her arms are outstretched, and her years not so few,
That her check might mantle with blushes anew;
The friends of her dear sons from near and from far,
To her impulses pure, how welcome they are.

So, friends, from the West take a chair and sit down,
In the capitol old of this capital town;
In the hall where the “assembled wisdom” meet,
When the winter comes in with its flying sleet,
And leave only when the tubers begin to grow,
And shoots of the corn are too old for the crow.

‘Ecod, what is that which hangs high in mid air?
My professional friend, no wonder you stare;
‘Tis the ghost of a fish, long salted and sold,
But never like Hamlet’s, shall its tale unfold;
‘Tis a pity, for if he was minded to blow,
And tell all he knows of the actions below,
The “lately Departed” would wriggle and squeak,
And some heads, like curs’ tails, be drooping and weak;
He’d prove to us all what we know not before,
That men could be made of nothing but jaw.

Ye friends from the East, as ye trod the rotunda,
Saw yet the battle-flags rent all asunder?
Uncover! Bow low! For those stains are of blood
Of the martyrs that fell by field and by flood.
Ah! Could but th enote of the trumpet again
Awake the departed by hill and by plain,
And turn back the tide of the nation’s great day,
With the blot on its banner of slavery, say,
Who would sound it? Lives there such a man now?
Then shrivel his muscles and wrinkle his brow;
His right arm be palsied and dried up by his tongue,
In lines most accursed let his name be sung.

Rest, martyrs, the sound of battle is o’er,
And your feet tread soft on the Elysian shore.

Ye who come from North, Easy, South, and “far West,”
Our programme is ready, so join in with zest.
Here’s Liberty’s “cradle,” where the babe was rocked,
Such a naked little thing that the nurse was quite shocked.
She has grown pretty large since that time you’ll say,
And larger still grows with the flight of each day.
New members she’s had, and as everyone knows,
The president adds daily V. toes and V. toes.

There’s Breed’s hill, called Bunker’s where the boys had a fight,
What there is left of it, just a very small mite,
With a big pile of stones on it, so it shan’t blow away,
And to commemorate a sort of Bull Run in its day,
Only the bull didn’t run on that eventful morn,
And the Yankee boys’ pluck took the bull by the horn.

Here’s Harvard beyond, the famed “seat of learning”
For lads who are able to keep the torch burning;
The poor must digest what the schoolmaster teaches,
Driven in at the head and seat of the breeches.

Here’s Agassiz’s museum of fishes and bones,
With birds, beasts and reptiles, plants, skeletons, and stones,
And many other things that deserve your attention,
As the auctioneer says, “too numerous to mention.”

Here’s the Natural History, with molusks and “crusty”
Pickled snakes done in bottles, and specimens musty;
Here’s a good chance to “compare” the jaw-bones of owls,
With the dodo and eagle, and all sorts of fowls;
Here you can sit on a “rush-bottom” and study with ease
Whether the walrus eats pork, or the elephant cheese;
Here’s molar teeth, to pull would take forceps immense,
Got up, like the drama, at unlimited expense.

But now let us hasten, the mastodon waits;
Just imagine the creature wearing two pair of skates,
Gliding about on thick ice in the river;
Should the cold climate his carcase make shiver,
The Yankees might “guess” that his heartiest shake
Was a touch of the long-remembered earthquake.
Here’s the footprints of birds, tremendous “Shanghies,”
That could life young pigs high and dry from their sties,
And swallow them whole, spite of any protest,
With paving stones plenty to make them digest.

We’ll look at the Hospitals, City and State;
Should fortune be right, or unfortunate fate,
We need not the privilege seek for or beg
Of seeing the surgeon “make a hand of a leg.”
If Paddy could jest thus, why can’t I declare
That oft a broken arm is a humerus affair.

‘Twould take paper and ink by the ton, more’s the pity,
To tell all the wonders to be seen in our city;
So I shan’t do it, but let you explore for yourselves,
And lay up your treasures on memory’s fair shelves.

Then there’s the serious part, the weighty discussion,
The clash of ideas in serious concussion;
The din of the clinic with twenty filled chairs,
And the usual amount of splitting of hairs.
There is delegate 1, with wisdom erratic,
And delegate 2, with mallet automatic;
Like Uriah Heep, here’s a chair that can tumble
From dignified straight-back to posture most “’umble;”
But to make the thing equal, and state it right fair,
The owner is sure to set a “heap” by his chair.

…………………

My welcome is most done—it’s no welcome that tires–
And I fear that I keep you from other desires.

And now for a breath of the saltiest sea air,
A dip and a splash in Venus’ deep lair;
The steamer is ready, we wait not the oar,
Strike up, sweetest music,– away goes the shore!

Now let the gay laugh grow louder and louder,
As sweet on the nostril comes smell of the chowder;
Here’s filling to put in—there’s plate-work enough here
To last a smart dentist to the end of the year.
Success to him, say I, he fortune can win
Whose filling, in spite of the water, stays in.

With great hopes for our future, for peace while we stay,
May the star of the dentist mount high into day,
Is my wish; so, therefore, to part in good cheer,
One little conundrum I’ll venture just here.
Why is the dentist, when fishing, I pray,
Engaged in the trade he follows each day?
Can’t guess it, you say, you slyest of vulpines–
Because he, no double, will pull out some skull-pins.

A short little poem from another dentist, Dr. Ferguson.

Some of Dr. Codman’s other writings can be found in our collection. You can also find there’s a lot of poetry written by medical professionals. To see for yourself, contact library@nyam.org for an appointment.

References:
“John Thomas Codman Brook Farm collection,” Harvard Library,https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/24/resources/3381, accessed April 30, 2024.

Codman, John T. Foul Breath. Boston, 1879.

Codman, John Thomas. Welcome poem: to the members of the American Dental Association. Boston : Wright & Potter, 1866.

When Inspiration Strikes

Posted on March 29, 2024 by nyamhistory

by Anthony Murisco, Public Engagement Librarian

Each year, the New York Academy of Medicine Library is proud to host visits from students across all different disciplines. From graduating medical students to those studying the culinary arts, the history of public health is surprisingly encompassing and intertwined. Our Historical Collections Librarian, Arlene Shaner, chooses different materials for each group visit. She considers who is coming, what they are studying, and what they might like to see. The display that Arlene curates for the visitors reflects how they might want to use the collection for their work. These displays include not just books but posters, pamphlets, and other assorted ephemera.

In a previous guest post, Dr. Evelyn Rynkiewicz, Assistant Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, shared why she enjoys bringing her “Disease Ecology in a Changing World” class to the library. While teaching design and business students at FIT, she hopes to instill science literacy and curiosity within them. At the end of the course, they are assigned creative research projects. The students choose a disease to study and make their own unique presentation to help inform the public.

We are excited to once again present submissions from Dr. Rynkiewicz’s class, which visited the Library on October 24^th, 2023. We also present images, some items from our own collection, others from elsewhere, that may have sparked their imagination for this project. While we would love to include all the submissions that we received, we are limited to what we can show on a blog post. If there happens to be a student art show in your area, you should check it out. You never know what you are going to see!

Alluring pictures can draw lots of attention. An image can tell a story without the need to read the words attached. We live in a globalized society where visual signs speak louder than the written word. This is a bit of the thought process behind any kind of campaign, public health especially. We still see these kinds of efforts today!

Theodore Geissel, in his pre “doctor” days, helped bring public service announcements to life in these posters. You could tell from his unique artistry that he was a gifted storyteller. These pictures were not only eye-catching but served an important purpose. This poster comes from a series directed towards soldiers fighting overseas during World War II that were designed by different artists.

Just by looking at Laelani Sawicki’s (second year, Illustration major) poster for rabies, you can guess where it’s going…

Cordyceps have gotten a bad rep lately. Fear not, The Last of Us viewers! In Jada Arroyo’s (second year, Illustration major) poster set, their misconception is cleared up.

These public health posters were even allowed to get away with raunchier, more risqué content! Vernon Grant, creator of Rice Krispies’ Snap, Crackle, and Pop, made this poster for part of the same malaria prevention campaign.

To convey the importance of recognizing chronic wasting syndrome in wild game, Amaryllis Arroyo (second year, Illustration) went with their own provocative image.

(You can see more of Amaryllis’ work at @amartist27)

Fashion and activism reached a pinnacle with the yellow Livestrong bracelets of the mid-2000’s. You couldn’t go anywhere without seeing them, despite little marketing. The slogan itself, “Live Strong,” said all one needed to know. So simple and yet, so fashionable.

Kenneth Cole created a provocative ad campaign in 2005 called “We All Have AIDS.” The ads promoted a T-shirt, where all sales proceeds would be donated to fight the AIDS epidemic. Cole’s idea for the campaign came from the idea of “solidarity.” It was to ease the stigma surrounding the disease and fight preconceived notions. To fight the disease, physically and socially, we would all have to come together.

Students Chaea Im (first year, Fashion Design major) and Kylie Smith (first year, Fashion Marketing major) used tees as their canvas.

Chaea (above) focused efforts on polio awareness while Kylie (below) speaks on the lack of access for worldwide rabies vaccination.

Haute couture can also be used to convey a message. Alexander McQueen even referenced Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” on his 2009 runway! The models were fitted with heels based on an armadillo, gifting us the “armadillo heel.”

To convey information about tuberculosis through fashion, Charlie Sue Birznieks (third year, Communications Design major) mocked up garments to echo the physical effects of this respiratory bacterial infection. It takes form through a “blood choker, bone crushing corset, suffocating puffer jacket, and full-face respirator mask.”

The biggest way information, and unfortunately, disinformation, disseminates these days is through the internet. We can combat the negative by being sure to amplify knowledge from verified and reputable sources. Some of us may remember infographics shared during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This project by Valerie See (fourth year, Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing major) breaks down important information to share during World Tuberculosis Day. These images would go a long way to spreading awareness while linking back to a credible source.

That does not mean we shouldn’t share our own, lived experiences! There’s a great deal to learn from first-hand accounts. Audrey Cahill (second year, Illustration major) shows us what a social media timeline might have looked like in the 14th century during the time of the plague!

We once again thank Dr. Rynkiewicz and her students for allowing us to share their work. If you are interested in bringing your own class, please reach out to library@nyam.org.

References:

“About the Exhibition.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/about/ Accessed 27 March 2024.

Rynkiewicz, Dr. Evelyn. “FIT Visits the NYAM Library.” Books, Health, and History, 13 Apr 2023, https://nyamcenterforhistory.org/2023/04/13/fit-visits-the-nyam-library/. Accessed 27 March 2024.

Wilson, Eric. “From Kenneth Cole, A New Solidarity.” The New York Times, 1 Dec 2005, https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/fashion/thursdaystyles/from-kenneth-cole-a-new-solidarity.html. Accessed 27 March 2024.

Combatting Tuberculosis in America After its Microbial Discovery

Posted on December 1, 2023 by nyamhistory

By Sean Purcell, The Media School, Indiana University-Bloomington and the Library’s 2023 Helfand Fellow

Mr. Purcell completed his Fellowship residency in the summer of 2023 and will present his research by Zoom on Thursday, December 7 at 4 p.m. (EST). To attend his talk, “A Portrait of Tuberculosis (as a Young Microbe): Representing Consumption at the Turn of the Twentieth Century,” register through NYAM’s Events page.

I spent a month over the spring and summer looking through the New York Academy of Medicine Library collections, working towards a mixed methods dissertation, titled The Tuberculosis Specimen: The Dying Body and its Use in the War Against the “Great White Plague.” I came to the library with an interest in the visual culture surrounding tuberculosis at the turn of the twentieth century, and in my research, I have cast a wide net, looking at an array of images, from doctors’ portraits to children at play, from histological samples to photographs of wet specimens.

The turn of the twentieth century saw major shifts in the public, professional, and governmental interventions against tuberculosis. Robert Koch’s 1882 essay on the microbial cause of the disease led to a broad shift in how medical professionals and the lay public understood and combatted the disease. Koch had figured out a process to isolate the bacteria in laboratory animals and used a series of chemical baths to stain Mycobacterium tuberculosis a bright blue (fig. 1). Seeing the bacteria clear as day under the microscope helped move germ theory forward, and forced doctors and health worker to reconsider how to treat a disease that was, prior to Koch’s essay, considered a constitutional malady. The period after Koch’s essay saw the rise of public health interventions against the disease and the popularization of the tuberculosis sanatorium.

Figure 1. An illustration of *Mycobacterium tuberculosis*. From *Aetiology of Tuberculosis*, 1890, Robert Koch.

The most influential figure in the burgeoning sanatorium movement was Edward Livingston Trudeau. A doctor who had sought a cure for his own tuberculosis in upstate New York, Trudeau built his own laboratory and sanatorium, the Adirondack Cottage Sanatorium, in 1880 (figs. 2 & 3). This institution became a central fixture in the decades to come, as it was equipped with research facilities, and published its public-facing journal for tuberculous patients, The Journal of Outdoor Life.

Figure 2. The most reproduced image from the Adirondack Sanatorium, showing the first cottage where patients were treated. From *A history of the National Tuberculosis Association; the anti-tuberculosis movement in the United States*, 1921, Adolphus S. Knopf.

Figure 3. A view of the facilities at Trudeau’s Adirondack Sanatorium. From A *history of the National Tuberculosis Association; the anti-tuberculosis movement in the United States*, 1921, Adolphus S. Knopf.

While Trudeau’s sanatorium was the most prominent institution, it was far from the only one. Many for-profit institutions opened their doors during this period, in addition to the development of publicly funded sanitaria in certain states. Assisting the larger, long-term treatment facilities, some cities and hospitals adopted a dispensary system, where tuberculous patients could get assistance and medicine within an urban space.

These dispensaries served patients, but also sought to teach the urban poor lessons on hygiene. Doctors and public health workers reeled at the dusty, ill kept living conditions of the urban poor, and argued that improper sputum management, poor ventilation, and dark living conditions were contributing to tuberculosis infections in American cities (figs. 4 & 5). While ideas regarding the “healing air” of a specific environment were becoming out of fashion for tuberculosis practitioners in the early 1900’s, most doctors argued that tuberculous patients should get away from the polluted and uncirculated air common to urban environments (figs. 6 & 7).

Figure 4. An exhibit showing the unhealthy living conditions of the working poor. The caption reads: “Type of tenement house room as first seen by Department of Health Nurse. Man is ill with Tuberculosis. Baby is ill with Scarlet Fever. Others are in danger of infection. Family is destitute.” From “Album of photographs of exhibits by various departments of the City of New York, Royal S. Copeland, Commissioner, and various health agencies,” 1921.

Figure 5. An exhibit showing the interventions of a public health nurse. The caption reads: “Same room after nurse has performed her duties. Man has been removed to Sanatorium. The baby has been removed to hospital. Financial aid has been obtained and landlord has been induced to paint room. Instruction has been given to mother in personal hygiene, cleaning up, order, proper diet.” From “Album of photographs of exhibits by various departments of the City of New York, Royal S. Copeland, Commissioner, and various health agencies,” 1921.

Figure 6. A day camp run by Bellevue Hospital where patients could spend time outdoors on a boat. From *New York City’s Institutions for the Tuberculous: Clinics, Sanatoria, Preventoria, Day Camps and other Agencies*, 1926, The Tuberculosis Sanatorium Conference of Metropolitan New York.

Figure 7. Tuberculous patients were instructed to spend as much time as possible outside, no matter the weather. From *Pulmonary tuberculosis, its modern and specialized treatment*, 1907, Albert Philip Francine.

The fight against tuberculosis in this period saw a collection of different interventions, and the New York Academy of Medicine’s library offers a unique glimpse into the work of scientists and medical professionals who were trying to fight the disease. My time here as a Helfand fellow has been a boon to this research because of the library’s extensive collections, much of which has not been digitized.

References:
Feldberg, Georgina D. Disease and Class: Tuberculosis and the Shaping of Modern North American Society. (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1995).

Koch, Robert. “Aetiology of Tuberculosis.” Translated by T. Saure. Transactions of the Massachusetts Medical Association. (New York: William R. Jenkins, 1890).

Koch, Robert. “Die Ätiologie der Tuberculose.” In Gesammelte Werke von Robert Koch, 1:446–54, 467–565. (Leipzig: Verlag Von Georg Thieme, 1912).

The Healing Power of Art and Community: Viewing the AIDS Quilt at 36

Posted on November 21, 2023 by nyamhistory

By Paul Theerman, Director

The first panel of the AIDS quilt was put together in 1987—this year the Quilt is 36 years old!

Image courtesy of National AIDS Memorial.

The AIDS Quilt was the brainchild of gay activist Cleve Jones. A protégé of Harvey Milk, the San Francisco city supervisor murdered in 1978, Jones honored Milk’s life and service with candlelight marches through the city. For the 1985 march he saw the ravages that AIDS was making in the gay community and asked that marchers write the names of friends lost to AIDS on posters. Placed on a wall, the posters resembled a quilt; by 1987 the names had been captured in fabric, a traditional way of memorializing people and events. The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was born.

Cleve Jones, activist and founder of the quilt, in front of a panel. Image taken from Wikipedia.

The quilt was first displayed on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on October 11, 1987, and contained 1,920 names—a dramatic demonstration of the terrible effects of the disease, only a few years after it came to public notice. At the quilt’s October 1996 display, it covered the entire Mall and was the last time that the whole quilt could be displayed at once. In the years since the quilt began, it has been exhibited throughout the world, often in connection with World AIDS Day on December 1. Today the quilt contains almost 50,000 panels, representing 110,000 individuals. The National AIDS Memorial in San Francisco is responsible for the quilt, mounts special efforts to address the presence of HIV/AIDS in the Black and Native American communities, and shares the quilt online.

An image of the quilt being displayed in Washington, DC around 1987. Image taken from National AIDS Memorial.

Advertising the digitization of the quilt from National Aids Memorial, as per their website.

This year, the New York Academy of Medicine is proud to host a portion of the AIDS quilt for World AIDS Day on December 1. We’ll reveal the quilt at our Celebration of the Library on November 29 and exhibit it in the Academy Building throughout December. We hope you can join us to view this sober but also hopeful reminder of how disease devastates communities, and how communities respond, through art, with remembrance and resilience.

A panel from the AIDS quilt at the National Building Museum used as part of Wikimedia Commons.

_______

References

“The History of the Quilt,” The National AIDS Memorial, https://www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt-history, accessed November 20, 2023.

Books, Health and History

The New York Academy of Medicine

Tag Archives: history of medicine

Shades of Gray in Twenty Years of Grey’s Anatomy

Have You Heard of Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler?

The Greatest Gifts

Researching Neuropsychiatry and Veterans Hospitals During the 1930s at the New York Academy of Medicine

“The Ladder” Steps Up

Close Observation In Early Illustrated Medical and Scientific Texts

Sinking Our Teeth into a Poem

When Inspiration Strikes

Combatting Tuberculosis in America After its Microbial Discovery

The Healing Power of Art and Community: Viewing the AIDS Quilt at 36