The Common Curator Launches

The Common Curator blog has recently superseded the Carolina Curator, which was previously cited by OnlineUniversities.com as one of the "100 Best Curator and Museum Blogs." After approximately 220 postings on a wide variety of topics since its inception in December 2008, all the content of the Carolina Curator has been incorporated into the Common Curator blog, which will continue in much the same--if broader--vein to document developments in the history of the health sciences, digital libraries, archives, museums, and special collections, as well as tend other issues of import, such as freedom of information, open access, preservation and conservation, public policy, human rights, etc.

All readers of the Carolina Curator are encouraged to follow the Common Curator by visiting the blog's website, or by subscribing to its RSS feed with Google Reader, Bloglines, or your favorite RSS reader. In addition to the new blog, the Common Curator also has a presence on other social media, including Delicious, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter.

So, thanks for your collective interest and comments--hope to continue hearing from you at the Common Curator!

The Carolina Curator Cited on List of "100 Best Curator and Museum Blogs"

The Carolina Curator blog was recently cited as one of "100 Best Curator and Museum Blogs" by OnlineUniversities.com. While such compilations are necessarily a somewhat subjective exercise, there are nonetheless many blogs mentioned that are worth paying attention to. Categories include Resources & Advice, Curators & Staff, Art, Children & Education, History & Culture, Science, and Miscellaneous.

Military Medical Photographs Online

The National Museum of Health and Medicine has mounted a growing collection of archival photographic images on Flickr. Grouped at present into 30 different sets, the online images are just a small portion of the Museum’s collection of several hundred-thousand images. More information on the collection is available in a recent Wired Magazine blog posting.

The Museum began as the Army Medical Museum during the Civil War in 1862 and assumed its present name in 1989. It is an element of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, and its holdings are divided into five main areas: Historical Collections; Anatomical Collections; Otis Historical Archives; Human Developmental Anatomy Center; and the Neuroanatomical Collections.

Located on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the Museum has an active exhibition program and sponsors various events. The Museum also publishes a newsletter, Flesh and Bones, which is available online. A group of Museum employees maintains an unofficial blog, A Repository of Bottled Monsters, with news of Museum activities.

The image above, depicting US Army Nurses serving at the 1st Reserve Hospital in Manila, the Philippines, was obtained from the Museum's Spanish-American War set on Flickr.

Political Transitions

A new White House web site accompanied the inauguration of President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009. The site features a White House blog, and a section on Health Care and numerous other agenda topics. About the White House contains historical materials, including brief biographies of the presidents. President Harrison, for example, who early in his life briefly studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania under Dr. Benjamin Rush, holds the unfortunate distinction of being both the first president to die in office and the president with the shortest term.

In other presidential transition news, a Raleigh, North Carolina man netted $35,000 for the domain name, www.georgewbushlibrary.com. George Huger, according to a News & Observer article, purchased the expired domain two years ago anticipating a windfall. Yuma Solutions, The Bush Library Foundation's web developer, had apparently let the domain expire, and thus had to reacquire it at a premium.

The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum will be administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and will be located on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Its archives will contain President and Mrs. Bush's presidential and gubernatorial records, the papers of cabinet members and key decision makers, as well as other artifacts and materials.

Welcome to the Carolina Curator blog!

Welcome to the Carolina Curator blog, an open-ended forum for the history of the health sciences! This blog will also serve to alert readers to news and events, useful resources, as well as highlight the activities of Special Collections at the UNC Health Sciences Library and the University of North Carolina generally.