Microscopes from the History of Medicine Collections. Photo by Deric Hardy
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Enticing EngineersOn September 27, the History of Medicine Collections partnered with other colleagues within the Rubenstein Library and Duke University Libraries to host an open house centered around engineering. While our event targeted students, faculty, and staff from Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, all were welcome. The open house was a chance to highlight microscopes, anatomical flap books, 3D printed ivory manikins, and our 16th century amputation saw. Read more about our inspiring event.
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Trent Grant to Document Maternal Health in Durham
The Medical Center Archives, in partnership with Rachel Ingold, Curator of the History of Medicine Collections at the Rubenstein Library and Josephine McRobbie and Joseph O’Connell, local oral historians, received a grant from the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation Endowment Fund to document the history of maternal health in Durham through oral history interviews with members of the Duke Midwifery Service and Durham County Health Department. The title of this project is “Documenting the Duke Midwifery Service and Durham Maternal Health Through First Hand Narratives.” The idea was spurred by the 2021 donation of the Duke Midwifery Service (DMS) Records by Amy MacDonald, CNM and former DMS Director (1999-2013), to Duke's Medical Archives.
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This booklet of the North Carolina Sanatorium, located in Montrose, Hoke County, includes numerous photos of grounds, interior spaces, patients and staff, and includes rules and information for patients. There is also a short description of the "Colored Division" that is under construction, to have been completed in 1923.
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Alexander Ramsay. Series of plates of the heart, cranium, and brain, in imitation of dissections. Edinburgh : Printed by George Ramsay and Company, for Archibald Constable and Company, Edinburgh; and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London, 1813.
First published in 1812, this second edition work by Ramsay includes a succession of cut-outs in several plates. Each succeeding plate reveals internal anatomy of the brain, simulating the stages of an actual dissection.
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"Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South" with Kylie Smith, PhD
Tuesday, January 23, 5:30 p.m.
Rubenstein Library Room 153, Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room
Join us for our next Trent History of Medicine Speaker Series event on Tuesday, January 23, at 5:30 p.m. Kylie Smith, PhD, will present "Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South." This talk explores the process of desegregation and deinstitutionalization in state psychiatric hospitals in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. It draws on original records, court cases and personal testimony to expose the racist ideas that underpinned the treatment of African Americans with mental illness and saw psychiatric hospitals used as dumping grounds for some of the south's most vulnerable people. The event will be recorded. Details can be found here.
This talk is co-sponsored by the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine. The Trent Center is holding another talk by Professor Smith on Wednesday, January 24th, at noon.
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“How can one help but be moved by such volumes as these:” the Josiah Charles Trent Collection in the History of Medicine
In 1956, Duke University received the Josiah Charles Trent Collection in the history of medicine. Dr. Trent received his undergraduate degree from Duke University in 1934 and his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He returned to Duke for his residency and to develop the nascent department of Thoracis Surgery. Despite his untimely death at the age of 34 in 1948, Dr. Trent and his wife Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans amassed an extraordinary collection in the history of medicine. This exhibit recognizes their remarkable collection, and their intent to share and promote the use of these materials with students, researchers, and others. The exhibit will be on display through May 11, 2024, in the Josiah Charles Trent History of Medicine Room.
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Our Fall Semester has been busy working with a number of classes. Below are some of the courses who have visited and viewed our Collections.
- Anatomy Day
- History of Global Health
- History of Obstetrics
- Medicine and Human Flourishing
- Patient and Research Participant Activism and Advocacy
- Poetry and Medicine
- Renaissance Professionals
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Understanding the World Through a Home Medicine Chest
Sarah Bernstein, the Josiah Charles Trent History of Medicine intern, describes how home medicine chests like the one above provide a "window into the past." Read more and visit our exhibition space which includes items like this.
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