Guide to the History of Medicine and the Health Sciences

A guide to selected resources in the history of medicine and the health sciences is available at the Special Collections web site at UNC Health Sciences Library; a PDF version is also available for download. While not a comprehensive compendium, the guide contains links to scores of useful tools and research materials at UNC and at other institutions around the United States and abroad. Organized by section, it covers the following areas of interest:

— Professional & Scholarly Associations
— Libraries
— Online & Print Catalogs
— Classification Schemes & Catalog Searching
— Digital Collections
— Online Exhibitions
— Aggregator Sites
— Listservs & Blogs
— Bookdealers, Antiquarians & Auction Houses
— Dissertations
— Oral Histories
— Museums
— Archives & Manuscripts
— UNC Special Collections
— UNC Online Resources & Guides
— Online Journals
— Selected Books & References
— Digitization
— Preservation & Conservation
— Book Collecting
— Information Management
— Funding & Opportunities

A guide to researching Public Health at UNC is available online as well.

HSL Special Collections and Social Media

:: Special Collections at UNC Health Sciences Library

— Special Collections Website
— About Special Collections
— Exhibitions
— Digital Collections
— Historical Collections
— Archival Collections
— Oral History
— Donor Collections
— Highlights
— Guide to Research Resources
— Search Library Catalogs
— UNC Health Affairs History
— Friends of HSL

:: The Carolina Curator

— The Carolina Curator Blog
— The Carolina Curator on Delicious
— The Carolina Curator on Facebook
— The Carolina Curator on Flickr
— The Carolina Curator on Twitter

:: The Bullitt Club

— Bullitt History of Medicine Club
— Bullitt Lectures on iTunes [navigate to School of Medicine] [direct link]

:: Mobile

— Mobile Options for UNC
— Mobile for UNC Libraries
— Mobile for National Library of Medicine

Note: The image above was created using the image utility at Wordle.

UNC Health Sciences Library Awarded Digitization Grant

Special Collections at UNC Health Sciences Library has recently been awarded $42,675 for year two of a three-year NC ECHO digitization grant project for the creation of the North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection. Funded by the State Library of North Carolina through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), the 2010-11 awards were announced June 10, 2010 and totalled $4.9 million for statewide library projects; the complete list of awards, including others at UNC, is available at the LSTA web site.

Work on the North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection commenced with a pilot project over two years ago, and through year one of the grant project (FY 09-10), over 130,000 pages of core journals and books in medicine, public health, dentistry, pharmacy, and nursing from 1849 to the present have been digitized. The digital collection will eventually grow to over 800 volumes and approximately 300,000 pages. This material thoroughly documents the development of health care and the health professions within North Carolina and is thus a significant part of the state’s cultural heritage and history.

While digitized content is also being made available via the Internet Archive, the project is actively developing an integrated web site that will provide consolidated online access and advanced searching functionalities. The digital collection will moreover provide historical context for the resources in the various health disciplines and K-12 educational materials for selected content. A glimpse of public health images from the digital collection is available via Flickr.

Daniel Smith, Special Collections Librarian at UNC Health Sciences Library, is the principal investigator and project manager, and has directed each phase of the grant. Partners in the project include the Carolina Digital Library and Archive, the UNC Library, and Learn NC.

Note: The image above is from the Health Bulletin (1927), v. 42, n. 2, p. 1, published by the North Carolina State Board of Health.

Dr. Benson Reid Wilcox, UNC Heart Surgeon, Dies at 77

Benson Reid Wilcox, M.D., a pediatric heart surgeon who served 29 years as chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, died May 11, 2010, at his home after a courageous battle with brain cancer. He was 77.

Dr. Wilcox served as chief of cardiothoracic surgery at UNC from 1969 to 1998. During that period, which was a time of dramatic advances in heart and lung surgery, the UNC hospital began offering coronary artery surgery, heart and lung transplantation, successful surgery for congenital heart defects in newborn infants, and a comprehensive program for the treatment of lung and esophageal cancer.

Dr. Wilcox was primarily a pediatric heart surgeon whose specialties were congenital heart disease, pediatric cardiac morphology, pediatric chest disease, and pulmonary circulation. He was a co-author of three books and an author of numerous medical journal articles and book chapters. He held important leadership posts in national medical organizations and was especially interested in the training of future surgeons.

Dr. Wilcox, known as Ben, was born May 26, 1932, in Charlotte, N.C., the son of James Simpson Wilcox and Louisa Reid Wilcox. He was raised in Charlotte and graduated from the Darlington School in Rome, Ga., in 1949. He was named 1997 Distinguished Alumnus of the Darlington School.

He earned an A.B. in history from the University of North Carolina in 1953 and an M.D. from the UNC School of Medicine in 1957. As an undergraduate at UNC, he was president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and Rex of the Order of Gimghoul. At the UNC medical school, he was president of his class and was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society in 1957.

While a medical student in 1956, Dr. Wilcox helped to conduct laboratory research on the application of newly developed heart-lung machines. A heart-lung machine was first used in the operating room at UNC in April 1957, beginning the era of open heart surgery at North Carolina Memorial Hospital.

After serving as a surgery resident at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis (1957-1959) and North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill (1959-1960), he spent two years as a surgical clinical associate at the National Heart Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. He then returned to UNC as chief resident in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery (1962-63) and as chief resident in surgery (1963-64).

He joined the UNC Department of Surgery faculty in 1964 and was appointed as chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery in 1969 and as a full professor in 1971. He was named a Markle Scholar in Academic Medicine in 1967. After he retired as chief of cardiothoracic surgery, Dr. Wilcox remained on the UNC medical school faculty as Professor of Surgery from 1998 until his death.

Dr. Wilcox also served the university in a number of other capacities. He was a member of the Selection Committee for the North Carolina Fellows Program; the UNC Faculty Committee on Athletics, serving as chairman from 1977 to 1985; and the Morehead Foundation’s Central Selection Committee, serving as chairman from 1989 to 1992. He was on the university’s Faculty Council and other campus-wide committees. He was a member of the executive committee of the Atlantic Coast Conference from 1978 to 1982 and was its president from 1980 to 1981. He also served on the board of directors of the Ronald McDonald House in Chapel Hill from 1981 to 1999.

He held leadership positions in prestigious professional organizations, including chairman of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, chairman of the Advisory Council for Cardiothoracic Surgery of the American College of Surgeons, president of the Nathan A. Womack Surgical Society, and president of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the largest society of thoracic surgeons in the world. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons in 2003.

He had a strong interest in graduate medical education, the training of resident physicians. He was instrumental in establishing the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association (TSDA) which was formed to improve cardiothoracic surgery training and education for doctors, and whose members are directors of cardiothoracic surgery residency programs across the United States. From 1985 to 1987, he served as president of TSDA. In 2009, the TSDA honored him by establishing the Benson Wilcox Award for Best Resident Paper, to be presented each year at The Society of Thoracic Surgeons' annual meeting for the best scientific abstract submitted by a cardiothoracic surgery resident.

He also was on the Board of Directors of the National Resident Matching Program from 1998 to 2007, serving as president from 2001 to 2002. He was a member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s Residency Review Committee for Thoracic Surgery (1999-2005); the American College of Surgeons’ Graduate Medical Education Committee (1993-2001); and a member of the Committee on Graduate Education for the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (1992-2001).

In 1980, Dr. Wilcox spent time during a sabbatical at Royal Brompton National Heart and Lung Hospital in London, beginning a collaboration with Robert H. Anderson, M.D., a pediatric morphologist at Royal Brompton. After that visit, he and Dr. Anderson worked together on many research projects and publications, including the book Surgical Anatomy of the Heart (Raven Press, 3rd edition, 2004). The two physicians established a program that for many years enabled UNC cardiothoracic surgery residents to spend time in London studying with Dr. Anderson and attending rounds with him. Dr. Anderson also visited UNC.

Dr. Wilcox also was co-author of Atlas of the Heart (Gower Medical Publishing, 1988); and a co-editor of Diagnostic Atlas of the Heart (Raven Press, 1994). He was an author of more than 100 scientific and clinical articles that were published in medical journals.

After operating on many ill children, Dr. Wilcox had the idea of starting a support group for families of children who are undergoing heart surgery. The Carolina Parent Network, begun in 1986 and directed by Maggie Morris for many years, enables parents of children who are facing heart surgery at UNC to talk to parents who have already had the experience, and it also educates families about what to expect before, during and after surgery.

Dr. Wilcox loved history, especially medical history. As a medical student at UNC, he helped found the Bullitt Club for the study of the history of medicine. As a faculty member, he began collecting old and rare books about the history of medicine, particularly books about thoracic surgery and the specialties that preceded it. In 1984, he began presenting a rare book to the UNC Health Sciences Library each year in honor of his chief resident. In 1998 and 1999, he donated most of his medical book collection to the library. Since then the Benson Reid Wilcox Collection has grown to more than 1,400 books, journals, reprints and other items. He served on the board of visitors for the UNC Health Sciences Library.

"Dr. Wilcox' contributions to the historical collections at the Health Sciences Library were truly remarkable in both variety and scope. An avid and erudite bibliophile, he thrilled in the hunt for significant texts, and had a deep appreciation for the role of history in the theory and practice of medicine," said Daniel Smith, special collections librarian for the UNC Health Sciences Library.

Dr. Wilcox is survived by his wife, Patsy Davis, and by his four children: Adelaide W. King and her husband, Ruffin, of Charlottesville, Va.; Sandra W. Conway and her husband, Peter, of Charlotte, N.C.; Melissa W. Bond and her husband, Brett, of Charlotte; and Reid Wilcox and his wife, Suzanne, of Greensboro, N.C. He is also survived by 11 grandchildren, Alexandra and Ruffin King; Peter, Ben and Adelaide Conway; Brett, Lucinda and Reid Bond; and Ben, Henry and Ellie Wilcox. He is also survived by two stepdaughters, Harriet Kendall and Julia Klein; a brother, Bob Wilcox; two sisters-in-law, Dede Thompson and Louise Wilcox, and a brother-in-law Allan Davis. He was predeceased by his parents and by his brother Jim Wilcox.

A memorial service will be held Friday, May 14, at 2 p.m. in Gerrard Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Gerrard Hall is on Cameron Avenue, across from the Old Well, between Memorial Hall and the South Building.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial gifts to the TSDA Benson R. Wilcox Award. Checks can be made to the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association and mailed to Michael R. Mill, M.D., Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, CB#7065, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7065.

Note: See related Carolina Curator posts: Dr. Benson Wilcox: Surgeon, Scholar, and Benefactor and A Hearty Valentine's Greeting.

April Is National Minority Health Month

April is National Minority Health Month. Check out the resources offered by the Office of Minority Health (OMH) at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HSS), as well as the many health information guides for diverse population groups maintained by MedlinePlus at the National Library of Medicine.

OMH was established in 1986 by the HHS. It advises the Secretary and the Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS) on public health program activities affecting minority groups within the United States. Resources are available online that recognize diverse heritages: Black History Month; Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month; Hispanic Heritage Month; and American Indian Heritage Month.

The OMH also maintains state offices of Minority and Multicultural Health. Contact information for all the state liaisons is available online, including the North Carolina liaison.

At the University of North Carolina, the Minority Health Project works to eliminate health disparities, and provides a guide to minority health-related activities at the university and elsewhere on its web site. In addition, NC Health Info, a service based at the UNC Health Sciences Library, provides much valuable health and medical information for minority groups, as well as links to local health services.

Special Collections at the Health Sciences Library also maintains a digital collection of Community Diagnosis Papers on public health concerns of diverse populations within the state, and is actively digitizing many historical North Carolina public health materials as part of the North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection, an NC ECHO grant-funded project. Additional resources on minority medical care, health and hygiene, among other topics, are discoverable via the online catalog.

Michigan to Create Digital Collection of 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic

The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine a two-year $314,688 grant to create an original, open access digital collection of archival, primary, and interpretive materials related to the history of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic in the United States. The University of Michigan Library, through its Scholarly Publishing Office, is contributing digital conversion, hosting, and archiving services to the project.

The project, which the NEH has given a prestigious We the People designation for its efforts to strengthen the teaching, study and understanding of American history and culture, will include approximately 50,000 pages of original materials that document the experiences of 50 diverse communities in the United States in fall 1918 and winter 1919 when influenza took the lives of an estimated 675,000 Americans. The collection’s primary resources comprise letters and correspondence, minutes of organizations and groups, reports from agencies and charities, newspaper accounts, military records, diaries, photographs and more.

Read more . . .

Related Resources

:: Influenza 1918-1919: North Carolina Statistics and Commentary, a project of the State Library of North Carolina

:: The Health Bulletin (North Carolina State Board of Health) [1913-1973], a project of HSL Special Collections

:: Biennial Report of the North Carolina State Board of Health [1909-1972], a project of HSL Special Collections

Women's History Month 2010

Women's History Month is celebrated every March, and International Women's Day every March 8th. In 1987, the National Women's History Project (NWHP) successfully petitioned Congress to expand Women's History Week to Women's History Month. The NWHP is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year with the theme Writing Women Back into History. The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have used this theme to jointly create an online project to highlight the many individual and collective contributions of women to history.

Below are some additional resources that focus on the achievements of women in medicine and science, as well as the women's suffrage movement in North Carolina and nationally. The UNC online catalog also offers up many library resources related to women's history, both electronic and print; see, for example, subject searches for Women Physicians; Women Scientists; Women's Rights; and Women's History.

Among many examples of prominent women represented in Special Collections at the Health Sciences Library are the medical pioneers Florence Nightingale and Susan Dimock:

:: Florence Nightingale [1820-1910], known as the “Lady with the Lamp” for her service during the Crimean War, was a pioneering nurse, statistician, author, and educator. In 1860 she opened the Nightingale Training School for Nurses in London, for which her book, Notes on Nursing (1859), served as the cornerstone of the curriculum. Several of her handwritten letters from Special Collections have been digitized and are available online; many of her published works are also available in the library.

:: Susan Dimock [1847-1875] of Washington, North Carolina, was a pioneer among women physicians in America. Denied access to medical education, she pursued her studies abroad, graduating from the University of Zurich in 1871; her dissertation on puerperal fever, written in German, is available online as part of the International Theses Collection at HSL. In 1872, Dr. Dimock was appointed the resident physician of the New England Hospital of Women and Children, and played a key role in developing a formal training program for nurses. This same year she was granted honorary membership in the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina--it's first female member.

See also related entries on Women's History on the Carolina Curator blog.

:: Women Nobel Laureates (Nobel Foundation)
The Nobel Prize and Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded to women 41 times between 1901 and 2009. Only one woman, Marie Curie, has been honoured twice, with the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics and the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This means that 40 women in total have been awarded the Nobel Prize between 1901 and 2009.

Ten women have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first being Gerty Theresa Cori in 1947 for her contribution to the "discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen," and the most recent being Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider in 2009, for their work on "the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase."

:: Profiles in Science (National Library of Medicine)
This site celebrates twentieth-century leaders in biomedical research and public health. It makes the archival collections of prominent scientists, physicians, and others who have advanced the scientific enterprise available to the public through modern digital technology.

Rosalind Franklin [1920-1958] -- A British chemist and crystallographer who is best known for her role in the discovery of the structure of DNA.

Barbara McClintock [1902-1992] -- An American geneticist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of genetic transposition, or the ability of genes to change position on the chromosome.

Florence Rena Sabin [1871-1953] -- An American anatomist and medical researcher. Her excellent and innovative work on the origins of the lymphatic system, blood cells, and immune system cells, and on the pathology of tuberculosis was well-recognized during her lifetime.

Maxine Singer [b. 1931] -- A leading molecular biologist and science advocate. She has made important contributions to the deciphering of the genetic code and to our understanding of RNA and DNA, the chemical elements of heredity.

Virginia Apgar [ 1909-1974] -- An American physician who is best known for the Apgar Score, a simple, rapid method for assessing newborn viability.

Mary Lasker [1900-1994] -- Medical philanthropist, political strategist, and health activist. Lasker acted as the catalyst for the rapid growth of the biomedical research enterprise in the United States after World War II.

:: Online Exhibitions (National Library of Medicine)

Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians

"That Girl There Is Doctor in Medicine": Elizabeth Blackwell, America's First Woman M.D.

:: Women's History in North Carolina (UNC's Documenting the American South)
North Carolina women have proven themselves to be pioneering, revolutionary, and industrious. From the Edenton Tea Party to the Civil War to World War I fundraisers, and beyond, they have agitated relentlessly for social improvement and against injustice.

:: North Carolina and the Struggle for Women's Suffrage (UNC's Documenting the American South)
The flyers, speeches, and documents summarized here, dated from approximately 1915 to 1920, represent the controversy surrounding the final push for women's suffrage in the United States. Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention of the Equal Suffrage Association, a publication of the Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina, illustrates in detail the goals and operation of the suffrage group.

:: The HerStory Scrapbook (New York Times)
The right to vote is a fundamental principle of democracy. From 1917 to 1920, the New York Times published over 3,000 articles, editorials, and letters about the women who were fighting for, and against, suffrage. The HerStory Scrapbook includes more than 900 of the most interesting pieces from that period. It is the equivalent of having had someone save articles from the Times in a scrapbook for prosperity.

The Legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Tsutomu Yamaguchi [1916-2010], a survivor of the atomic bombing of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, died recently at age 93. Although it is estimated that 165 people survived both blasts, Yamaguchi is the only one officially recognized by the Japanese government as a nijyuu hibakusha, or twice-bombed person. Late in life Yamaguchi publically advocated for nuclear disarmament through speeches, songs, and books, and his death was reported around the world, including obituaries in the New York Times and the Guardian.

The health consequences of war-time radiation exposure were profound, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and illnesses; subsequent generations have also suffered due to genetic damage and birth defects. Special Collections at Health Sciences Library has several works related to the atomic bombings, with one of the most notable being Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6 - September 30, 1945. Published in 1955 by University of North Carolina Press, it is a firsthand account by Dr. Michihiko Hachiya, director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital, and describes his own injuries and the mass destruction surrounding him (UNC Press republished the book in 1995 with a new foreword by John Dower).

Warner Wells, M.D., a surgeon at the UNC School of Medicine from 1952 until his retirement in 1973, edited and supervised the translation of Hiroshima Diary. Wells learned of Hachiya's diary through his work as a surgical consultant for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, which he joined in 1950. It appeared in segments in the Japanese medical journal, Teishin Igaku, and in spring 1951, Wells met Hachiya and obtained his consent to translate and publish the diary in English. He was assisted by Dr. Neal Tsukifuji, a Japanese-American doctor, and consulted frequently with Hachiya. Wells also visited all the places mentioned in the diary, and noted this about the translation process: "Trying to relive Dr. Hichiya's experience, I succeed to the extent that I came to dream of the bombing and on occasion awakened in terror."

An account of Hiroshima from an American's perspective is Averill A. Liebow's Encounter with Disaster: A Medical Diary of Hiroshima, 1945. A physician, Dr. Liebow was a member of the Joint Atomic Bomb Commission in Japan. His diary records the formation of the Commission, the establishment of a working relation with Japanese medical investigators, and daily activities from September 18 to December 6, 1945; it also describes the preparation of the Army Institute of Pathology's report on Hiroshima that was completed on September 7, 1946.

Subject searches on Hiroshima and Nagasaki yield many resources at UNC University Libraries; some of the titles at the Health Sciences Library include:

:: Hiroshima under Atomic Bomb Attack [1954]
:: Ichiban: Radiation Dosimetry for the Survivors of the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki [1977]
:: US-Japan Joint Reassessment of Atomic Bomb Radiation Dosimetry in Hiroshima and Nagasaki [1987]
:: Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima [1994]
:: Reassessment of the Atomic Bomb Radiation Dosimetry for Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Dosimetry System 2002: Report of the Joint US-Japan Working Group [2005]

With nuclear weapons a mainstay of the arsenals of the world's most powerful military forces, the threat of wartime radiation exposure continues today. Depleted uranium is also utilized in weaponry in active war zones (see, for example, the 2004 documentary, The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children, which examines the impact of radioactive weapons in Iraq). In Japan, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation is a joint Japanese-American scientific organization devoted to the study of the health effects of nuclear weapons.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is an independent organization created by the United Nations in 1956 that was given impetus by President Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace speech to the UN General Assembly on December 8, 1953. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, opened for signature in 1968 and entering into force in 1970, is one of the main international instruments governing the use of nuclear weapons, and limits to five the number of declared nuclear weapons states: United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and China, which coincidentally are the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Originally intended to last 25 years, the treaty was extended indefinitely during a UN review conference in 1995.

A Gift of Books

What does a world-famous neurosurgeon get a prominent epidemiologist for the holidays? Well, if the year is 1915 and you are Dr. Harvey Cushing [1869-1939], then the gift of choice for Dr. Milton Rosenau [1869-1946] is a copy of the two-volume work, The Life of Edward Jenner, M.D. . . . with Illustrations of His Doctrines, and Selections from His Correspondence, by John Baron, M.D., F.R.S. Published in 1838, Cushing's presentation copy to Rosenau is among the holdings of Special Collections at the Health Sciences Library.

Pasted in on the bottom portion of the inside front cover of volume one is the following handwritten note on Cushing's letterhead from The Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston:

Dear Rosenau,

You and Jenner and John Baron will find each other congenial company
I trust. I present them to you with my sincere Christmas Greetings.

Yours,

Harvey Cushing

Dec. 25, 1915

The gift is a fitting one as Dr. Jenner [1749-1823] was of course a pioneer of the smallpox vaccine (see An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the variolae vaccinae . . . (1798); the print volume is housed in Special Collections), and his life story would have been both familiar and of great interest to Rosenau, who himself was the author of the first comprehensive public health text, Preventive Medicine and Hygiene (1913), and was the first head of Harvard's Department of Preventative Medicine and Epidemiology. Upon retiring in 1935, Rosenau came to the University of North Carolina, and served as Director of the Division of Public Health (1936-1939) and then as Dean of the newly created School of Public Health (for more information on the School's history, visit HSL's online exhibition).

Dr. Cushing's achievements as a surgeon and educator were many, and include the development of a variety of surgical techniques for the brain. He discovered the endocrinological basis for what is known as Cushing's Disease, and introduced the sphygmomanometer to North America, which greatly promoted the measurement of blood pressure as a vital sign. He was also a biographer in his own right, and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1926 for The Life of Sir William Osler.

University Day at UNC: 1793 to 2009

Celebrated since 1877, University Day at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill commemorates the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, the first building of the first state university, on October 12, 1793. Highlights of the 216th anniversary of this happy occasion include Chancellor Thorp's address to the university community and a keynote speech by Governor Beverly Perdue at the convocation held earlier today.

To learn more about the history of the university, there are a number of online resources that can be explored, including the following:

:: The Carolina Story: A Virtual Museum of the University

-- Medical and Health Education
-- Public Service and Professional Schools at Carolina
-- Teachers, Scholars, and Citizens: Distinguished Carolina Faculty
-- Names Across the Landscape

:: The First Century of the First State University

:: This Day in the History of the University of North Carolina

:: Virtual Tour of the University

-- HSL and Health Affairs Schools

:: History of the Health Sciences Library and Health Affairs Schools

:: UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health: Meeting the Public Health Challenges of the 21st Century

In addition, here a few selected publications that deal with various aspects of the history of Health Affairs at UNC:

:: Bettering the Health of the People: W. Reece Berryhill, the UNC School of Medicine, and the North Carolina Good Health Movement / by William W. McLendon, Floyd W. Denny Jr., William B. Blythe [2007]

:: Norma Berryhill Lectures: 1985-1999 / The School of Medicine, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ; edited by William W. McLendon, William B. Blythe, Floyd W. Denny, Jr. [2000]; volume two, containing lectures from 2000-2008, has recently been published.

:: Medical Education at Chapel Hill / by W. Reece Berryhill ... [et al.] [1979]

:: Memories & Reflections: Academic Medicine, 1936-2000 / John B. Graham [2002]

:: The School of Pharmacy of the University of North Carolina: A History / by Alice Noble [1961]
:: Dreaming of a Time: The School of Public Health: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1939-1989 / by Robert Rodgers Korstad [1990]

:: The University of North Carolina School of Public Health Relates to the Needs of a Changing Society: A Selective and Interpretive Account with Emphasis on the Decade of the Sixties / by William Fred Mayes [1975]

Lastly, the HSL Special Collections web site features a variety of guides to research materials such as archival collections, digital collections, oral histories, etc. concerning the history of Health Affairs and the university as a whole. The library's online catalog also provides subject access to hundreds of resources on university history.

Note: The image above is from the Photographic Archives of the North Carolina Collection. It is a pen and ink sketch by John Pettigrew and depicts Old East circa 1797.

October Is Archives Month

October is Archives Month, with a theme of "Celebrating the American Record" as designated by the Society of American Archivists, and October 19-25th is North Carolina Archives Week. Archives are essential to the historical record, and include a wide range of document types, including such things as letters, legal records, transcripts, photographs, reports, manuscripts, ephemera, artifacts, realia, tapes, and materials in electronic and other formats as well.

The University of North Carolina holds vast archival collections, and finding aids (or guides) to the collections can be found for a large number of these in the online catalog and on the Wilson Library web site. There is also a variety of Health Affairs-related collections, and the finding aids to many of these are accessible in the Archival Collections section of the Special Collections web site. Archival collections at the Health Sciences Library include the papers of the renowned medical illustrator, Dr. Frank Netter, and the internationally recognized water and sanitation researcher, Dr. Daniel Okun.

Many other institutions around the state, country, and world have significant archival holdings. The National Library of Medicine, for example, is highlighting its archival collections concerning Health Care Accessibility and Reform this month. The Library of Congress also has extensive archival collections for which finding aids are available online, and a number of these collections contain information on women's health and their involvement in the medical professions. The Library of Congress also maintains the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections.

The National Records and Archives Administration (NARA) was established in 1934 and is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary; a photo gallery of its history as an institution is available online. Among the many millions of documents that it preserves are the Charters of Freedom: the Declaration of Independence; the Constitution of the United States; and the Bill of Rights. A sense of the scope of other holdings can be had from the online subject index. Although its holdings are vast, only an estimated 1-3% of government records are held by NARA, and of these records, only a fraction is available in electronic form. Agency-specific collections include, among many others: Records of the National Institutes of Health; Records of the Health Resources and Services Administration; Records of the Environmental Protection Agency; Records of the Food and Drug Administration; Records of the Public Health Service; and Records of the Indian Health Service.

The American Medical Association maintains historical archives, and information on their use is available online. Only AMA members have access to the archives, with the exception of the Historical Health Fraud Collection, which may be used by non-members on a fee-for-service basis. A descriptive summary of more than 50 collections is available for download.

In North Carolina, archives of interest include the North Carolina State Archives, Duke University Medical Center Archives, Wake Forest Medical Archives, and the History Collections at East Carolina University. The Society of North Carolina Archivists maintains a list of links to other archives in the state.

In addition, there are several other tools that can be helpful in conducting archival research, including ArchiveGrid and WorldCat, which are UNC e-resources, Repositories of Primary Sources, and the UNESCO Archives Portal, which provides access to collections around the world. The HSL Special Collections web site also features a guide to research resources.

The Society of American Archivists is currently conducting an online survey about how people use archives in the US, and welcomes responses by November 30, 2009. The SAA also has two informative guides online for those interested in learning more about donating either personal or organizational materials to collecting institutions: A Guide to Donating Your Personal or Family Papers to a Repository and A Guide to Donating Your Organizational Records to a Repository.

Exhibitions at UNC Health Sciences Library

There are a variety of physical and online exhibitions to check out at UNC Health Sciences Library at the start of the 2009-10 academic year. In the first-floor lobby display cases are the following three exhibits:

:: Great Minds, Great Finds: Explore Library Collections -- A survey of historical texts, images, instruments, and artifacts drawn from Special Collections at the library, representing the five professional schools in UNC Health Affairs: Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Public Health

:: New Books in the History of the Health Sciences -- A selection of recent acquisitions, including such titles as The Making of Mr. Gray's Anatomy, Pioneers of Cardiac Surgery, Frontier Medicine, Sex, Sin and Science: A History of Syphilis in America, and Medicine under Canvas: A War Journal of the 77th Evacuation Hospital, among others. All are available in the library for check-out from the circulating collections or for perusal in the Special Collections Reading Room.

:: The Sam W. Hitt Medicinal Plant Garden at UNC Health Sciences Library -- Mr. Hitt served as library director from 1976 to 1986 and the medicinal plant garden in his honor is located at several locations around the library building. There is also on online exhibit of the garden, which includes a photo gallery and descriptions of its many growing plants.

In the new exhibition cases located near the User's Services desk are two additional exhibits, which are described in entries on this blog:

:: Operation Coffee Cup and Socialized Medicine

:: The Bicentennial of Louis Braille [1809-1852]

Other exhibits that are available online include the following:

:: UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health: Meeting the Public Health Challenges of the 21st Century -- This exhibit highlights both current initiatives and the history of School, and features audio, video, and photographic images.

:: History of the Health Sciences Library and UNC Health Affairs -- This exhibit traces the development of the library as well as the five Health Affairs schools.

Information about a number of other exhibitions at HSL and at UNC & UNC Libraries is available in the Exhibitions section of the Special Collections web site.

The images above are from the Hitt Medicinal Plant Garden online exhibit; the plants, from left to right, are: Garden Coreopsis (also called Moonbeam); Bee-Balm; Catnip; and Eastern Purple Coneflower. Lynn Eades, HSL Web Development Librarian, photographed all the plants.

Operation Coffeecup and Socialized Medicine

Health care reform is today foremost in the minds of the public and politicians alike. It is, however, not a new concern, as evidenced by a new exhibit at the UNC Health Sciences Library which features the American Medical Association’s 1961 campaign, Operation Coffeecup. Led by the Woman’s Auxiliary to the American Medical Association, Operation Coffeecup was “an all-out effort to stimulate as many letters to Congress opposing socialized medicine and its menace as proposed in the King bill (HR 4222).”

Identical versions of the bill were introduced by Cecil King (D-CA) in the House of Representatives and Clinton Anderson (D-NM) in the Senate, and the bill was the latest in a series of legislative attempts to create a Medicare-type program. All were defeated until the Social Security Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 30, 1965. President Truman was a guest at the ceremony and was presented with the first Medicare card (below); a video clip is available online.

Operation Coffeecup’s main tool of persuasion was a 33-1/3 rpm record entitled, “Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine,” a copy of which was recently acquired by Special Collections at the Health Sciences Library. It contains two tracks: the title piece, delivered by Reagan, and “Socialized Medicine and You”; several documents were also inserted into a pocket in the album that were intended for the use of discussion leaders, including printed transcripts of the record's two tracks. Ronald Reagan [1911-2004] was a registered Democrat when this record was produced, though he switched his affiliation to the Republican Party in 1962 and had been a strong supporter of Dwight Eisenhower in the presidential campaigns of 1952 and 1956 and Richard Nixon in 1960.

“The Problem,” as described by Operation Coffeecup on the album's inside cover, was:

The legislative chips are down. In the next few months Americans will decide whether or not this nation wants socialized medicine . . . first for its older citizens, soon for all its citizens. The pivotal point in the campaign is a bill currently before Congress. The King bill (HR 4222), another Forand-type bill, is a proposal to finance medical care for all persons on Social Security over 65, regardless of financial need, through the social security tax mechanism. Proponents admit the bill is a “foot in the door” for socialized medicine. Its eventual effect—across-the-board, government medicine for everyone!

The section "How Operation Coffeecup Works" enumerates the following headings as action items:

— Listen, Look
— Put on the Coffeepot
— Invite an Audience
— Talk about What You Heard
— Spur Action
— Don’t Stop Now

“Each letter you help send off is a step along the way toward stopping socialized medicine. So join the Coffeecup Corps today!”

Related online resources include an essay, “Operation Coffeecup: Ronald Reagan’s Effort to Prevent the Enactment of Medicare,” and a YouTube recording of the text “Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine” (note that the first two paragraphs of Reagan's text are not included on this particular recording).

In addition, the American Medical Association Historical Archives contains a Medicare Campaign collection (record group MDC), which includes materials related to Operation Coffeecup and other AMA public relations efforts from 1960-1965; the collection is described as follows:

History Note: The Medicare public relations campaign constitutes the AMA's efforts in response to the proposed passage of the King-Anderson bill in Congress since 1960. The AMA staged numerous public relations efforts to amend passage of the bill before Congress. Congress passed the bill in 1965, creating Medicare.

Scope Note: Many of the highlights in the AMA's history are documented here, such as excerpts from Operation Coffee Cup featuring Ronald Reagan, the nationally televised script of AMA president Dr. Annis speaking before Madison Square Garden in 1964 and other interviews. Also included are files and newsletters related to the AMA's position on the bill and about socialized medicine.

Infomation on how to use the AMA Historical Archives is available online. Only AMA members have access to the archives, with the exception of the Historical Health Fraud Collection, which may be used by non-members on a fee-for-service basis. A descriptive summary of more than 50 collections is available for download.

Microforms at the Health Sciences Library Can Now Be Digitized

The UNC Health Sciences Library has recently upgraded its microform reader to permit the easy digitization of both microfilm and microfiche. Located in the Audiovisual / Microforms section in the basement of the library, the new equipment (at right) can quickly create high-resolution scans of any microform document (see image below). Digitized files can be copied to flash drives, CDs, or emailed. The new digital option replaces the previous microform printer, and there is no charge for scanning.

HSL holds significant microform collections, including Early American Medical Imprints, 1668-1820, a set of 1,680 important titles (click here to browse) in the history of medicine that was acquired by Special Collections. The collection, which includes books, pamphlets, theses, and broadsides, is based on the 1961 bibliography by Robert B. Austin, and contains most but not all of the works therein. In addition, a number of periodical titles have been included that were selected from Myrl Ebert's article, "The Rise and Development of the American Medical Periodical, 1797-1850," published in the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 40:243-76, July 1952.

This article was also the title of Ms. Ebert's master's thesis at Columbia University, and she become the librarian for UNC's Division of Health Affairs Library in 1952. Ms. Ebert served in this capacity until 1976, and further information about her tenure can be found in an online exhibition; a brief audio clip is also available online.

Other microform collections at HSL include:

:: History of Nursing: The Adelaide Nutting Historical Nursing Collection [browse titles]
Includes more than 1400 monographs and documents concerning the history of nursing, medicine and hospitals, from the 15th through the early 20th centuries; publication dates range from 1603 to 1937, with the bulk having been issued in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

:: Calendar of the Letters of Florence Nightingale

See also nine letters in HSL Special Collections that have been digitized and made available online.

:: Primary Sources for the History of Pharmacy in the United States [browse titles]

Contains 85 titles covering the entire spectrum of pharmaceutical literature, including laws, lectures, textbooks, drug and equipment catalogues, formula books, and botanical and herbal materials.

:: Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (1793)

:: Quarterly Summary of the Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (1841-1844)

:: Summary of the Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (1844-1874)

:: Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (1875-1937)

:: Transactions & Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (1938-1971)

:: UNC Theses and Dissertations [browse titles on microfiche]

Theses and dissertations by UNC students are available in multiple formats, including bound volumes, microforms, and electronic files. A guide to researching UNC and other theses and dissertations is available online; information on those found in the Health Sciences Library is available here.

Since 2006, the majority of theses and dissertations at UNC have been published electronically, and are accessible online. In addition to being searchable by title, author, and keywords, these texts are also browseable by school or department, discipline, and faculty advisor.

Pictured below is a broadside from the Early American Medical Imprints, 1668-1820 microfilm collection (Austin 755). Entitled "Progess of Vaccination in America," it lists the number vaccinated and the number of tests for small-pox by state between 1802 and 1815. A manuscript note states: "February 1816, Plymouth, Mass."

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.

Dr. Benson Wilcox: Surgeon, Scholar, and Benefactor

Dr. Benson Wilcox, a long-time friend and supporter of the UNC Health Sciences Library, and in particular, its Special Collections, is now featured in a donor profile on the library's web site. A North Carolina native and UNC alumnus, Dr. Wilcox is an avid bibliophile who over the years has donated over 1,400 volumes to the library as well as established an endowment fund for the acquisition of additional works for the collections. He is also Professor of Surgery and Emeritus Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery in the UNC School of Medicine and the author and editor of several books himself, including the Surgical Anatomy of the Heart, which has been translated into Japanese and Chinese.

The oldest book that Dr. Wilcox has donated to the library's collections is a 1526 edition of the Works of Hippocrates, and one of the most recent titles acquired through his endowment fund is Thomas Percival's seminal work, Medical Ethics; or, A Code of Institutes and Precepts, Adapted to the Professional Conduct of Physicians and Surgeons, published in 1803. Another endowment purchase, a papier-mâché heart designed by Dr. Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux (1797-1880) and fabricated circa 1870, was described in this blog's Valentine's greetings earlier this year.

Dr. Wilcox has also been honored by fellow UNC alumnus R.B. Fitch, who has created a trust that will ultimately endow the Benson R. Wilcox Distinguished Professorship in Cardiothoracic Surgery. Details of the gift are available on the Department of Surgery's web site and in the UNC Medical Bulletin (inside front cover, Spring 2009). This issue of the Bulletin, on pages 2-7, also contains an article entitled, "An Affair of the Heart . . . and Lungs: Twenty Years of Heart and Lung Transplant at UNC Hospitals," which recounts the remarkable and rapid growth of UNC's heart-lung transplant program. In 1988, Dr. Wilcox recruited Dr. Michael Mill, the present Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, to help establish the program.

Depicted below are the title pages from the Works of Hippocrates (1526) and Percival's Medical Ethics (1803), which are housed in HSL Special Collections as part of the Wilcox Collection.

Grants Awarded to HSL for Digital Initiatives

Note: See June 21, 2010 blog post for announcement of second year NC ECHO award for $42,675.

The UNC Health Sciences Library has just been awarded $34,850 for the first year of a $94,050 three-year NC ECHO digitization grant project funded by the State Library of North Carolina through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). Building on a pilot project that resulted in the digitization of historical North Carolina journals in public health, dentistry, and eugenics, the proposed North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection will contain over 800 volumes (approx. 300,000 pages) of core journals in medicine, public health, dentistry, pharmacy, and nursing from 1849 to 1977.

These materials document the development of health care and the health professions and are thus a significant part of the state’s cultural heritage and history. The digital library will be keyword searchable and browseable, and will provide consolidated online access to materials that are currently difficult for students, researchers, and the public to find and utilize in print. The digital library will also provide historical context for the digital resources and K-12 educational materials for selected content. Daniel Smith, Special Collections Librarian, is the principal investigator and project manager, and will coordinate each phase of the grant.

HSL and the University Library were also successful in obtaining other grant funding from the State Library. HSL's NC Health Info was awarded $54,057 for its consumer health portal, and the University Library received several awards:

:: "Ensuring Democracy Through Digital Access," a collaborative project between ECU's Joyner Library, the State Library of North Carolina, and the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library, was awarded $124,693 for year one of a two-year project.

:: "Driving Through Time: The Digital Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina," a project of Wilson Library, received $74,553 for year one of a two-year project.

:: "Creating Online Access to Legacy Finding Aids," a project of Wilson Library, received $73,695 for year two of a three-year project.

:: "North Carolina Maps," a collaborative project of the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library, the North Carolina State Archives, and the Outer Banks History Center, received $144,284 for year three of a three-year project.

The State Library's support will go far to develop and enhance UNC's digital collections for the use of researchers everywhere. A list of all grant awards for 2009-10 is available online. 185 projects were approved for a total of $4,717,109. These awards are made possible by LSTA grant funding from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a federal grant-making agency. Congratulations to everyone!

Note: The images below are from the Health Bulletin of the North Carolina State Board of Health.

Online Exhibition: UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

"UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health: Meeting the Public Health Challenges of the 21st Century" is a new online exhibition at the UNC Health Sciences Library that features both current initiatives and the history of the School, which was renamed on September 26, 2008 following a $50 million gift from Joan and Dennis Gillings. Visitors will find sections on the Gillings Gift, Research and Teaching, Community and Global Outreach, Water, School History and Deans, North Carolina Public Health History, and a research guide to public health resources at UNC.

Based on a collaborative exhibition which is still on display at the Health Sciences Library, the online version incorporates audio and video selections (such as highlights from the naming ceremony and oral history interviews), a slide show from the Daniel Okun Papers, and many other materials. Library collections and projects are also well represented, including NC Health Info, the AHEC Digital Library, the UNC Project Library in Malawi, and digital initiatives at the library, etc.

Information on other exhibitions at HSL, University Libraries, and UNC is available at the Exhibitions section of the HSL Special Collections web site.

The History of Eugenics in North Carolina

In North Carolina over 7,600 people were sterilized between 1929 and 1974 under the state’s Eugenics Sterilization Program. Indiana was the first state to implement such a program, and eventually over 30 states followed suit, including North Carolina in 1929. The Eugenics Board of North Carolina reviewed petitions for sterilizations and authorized sterilizations in over 90% of cases. Of those sterilized, approximately 38% were black and 84% were female; moreover, 71% were classified as “feebleminded.” While most states’ sterilization programs diminished in scope after World War II, almost 80% of North Carolina’s cases occurred after 1945. By the late 1960’s over 60% of those sterilized in North Carolina were black and 99% were female.

North Carolina Governor Michael Easley established a committee to investigate the state’s Eugenics Sterilization Program, and currently the General Assembly of North Carolina is considering two bills: House Bill 21, Eugenics Program – Support and Education and Senate Bill 179, Sterilization Compensation.

House Bill 21 is: “An act to provide counseling benefits to eugenics survivors, to direct the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a database of eugenics program participants and verify the status of persons contacting the state to determine their participation in the state program, to erect a historical marker about the program, to direct the State Board of Education to include information about the program in its K-12 history curriculum, to recommend creation of an ethics training module for state, county, and local government employees, and to direct the Department of Cultural Resources to digitize existing records for preservation and study purposes, as recommended by the House Select Committee on Compensation for Victims of the Eugenics Sterilization.”

Senate Bill 179 proposes that: “Any person who, as a result of the eugenic sterilization program in this State, was sterilized between the years of 1929 and 1975 shall receive compensation as provided for in this section if the person submits a claim before June 30, 2012."

The current status of both bills, as for any pending legislation, can be tracked online at the web site of the General Assembly of North Carolina: House Bill 21 and Senate Bill 179.

Readers interested in learning more about this topic can visit Eugenics in North Carolina, a web project of the State Library of North Carolina. The Winston-Salem Journal also has an online eugenics project, entitled Against Their Will: North Carolina’s Sterilization Program.

In addition, Special Collections at UNC Health Sciences Library, in collaboration with the Carolina Digital Library and Archive, has digitized all volumes of the Biennial Report of the Eugenics Board of North Carolina [1934-1966], as well as North Carolina journals and documents in public health and other areas as part of an ongoing digital initiative.

Oliver Smithies at UNC Health Sciences Library

A Conversation with Dr. Oliver Smithies
UNC Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
2007 Nobel Laureate

Moderated by Dr. Tony Waldrop
UNC Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development

Monday, March 30, 2009
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

UNC Health Sciences Library, Room 527
Light refreshments to follow

Join us for a chat with Dr. Oliver Smithies about the importance of access to scientific research and information. Audience participation will be encouraged. Don't miss this opportunity to have your questions answered by Dr. Smithies. You may also submit questions for Dr. Smithies when you register to attend.

Space is limited and registration is required. To ensure your seat, register today!

HSL will also make a video of this discussion with Dr. Smithies available online at a later date.

-- Information on Dr. Oliver Smithies
-- Information on Dr. Tony Waldrop
-- Carolina's ties to the Nobel Prize

For a collection of online materials related to Smithies' Nobel Prize, visit the Special Collections Highlights web page.