Author: Elisabeth Brander

Contact me about:
  1. Donations to the rare book collections
  2. Scheduling a class visit to Archives and Rare Books
  3. Presentations on the history of medicine and rare medical books
  4. Rare book curation and exhibition
  5. Using Becker Library’s rare book collections
  6. Learning more about or collaborating with the Center for the History of Medicine
Announcements, Archives and Rare Books

‘Making a Monster’ exhibit explores developments in science and anatomy that shaped ‘Frankenstein’

By — September 19, 2018

Mary Shelley’s seminal novel “Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus” was published 200 years ago in 1818. Since then it has never gone out of print, and it has been reinterpreted in film, theatre, and even ballet. Its enduring popularity can be attributed to the timelessness of its themes. “Frankenstein” is not just a simple story  [Read more]

Announcements, Archives and Rare Books

Read along with the Special Collections Book Club

By — July 30, 2018

After a great start with Nina Siegal’s “The Anatomy Lesson,” we’re excited to announce that our next book selection will be “Year of Wonders” by Geraldine Brooks. Published in 2001, the novel was inspired by the true story of Eyam, England. “When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid  [Read more]

Announcements

Introducing the Becker Library Special Collections Book Club

By — March 26, 2018

Anyone with an interest in medicine, literature or history is invited to take part in Becker Library’s Special Collections Book Club. Every few months, we’ll hold a discussion about a novel that features some aspect of medical history, then look at the primary sources that bring the stories to life.

Archives and Rare Books

1914 Rare Book Donation Tied to Influential Doc

By — February 20, 2018

William Osler (1849-1919) is one of the most influential figures in North American medicine. After earning his MD from McGill University in 1872, he spent two years studying abroad in London, Berlin and Vienna before returning to McGill to teach. He remained at McGill until 1884, when he accepted the chair of clinical medicine at  [Read more]

Archives and Rare Books

2017 Rare Books Highlights

By — December 6, 2017

Becker Library’s rare book collections have had an excellent year! Richard Chole, MD, donated his fantastic collection of rare otolaryngology texts earlier this year, and we’ve recently managed to acquire two more noteworthy monographs to complement our existing collections. The first of these monographs is Guillaume van de Bossche’s “Historia medica, in qua libris IV.  [Read more]

Archives and Rare Books

New Exhibit: “Introducing the Book – The Title Page from 1500-1900”

By — October 19, 2017

How many of you take the time to look at a title page when you buy a new book? Most of the time there’s no real need to do so – we can read the book’s title and author right on the front cover. Hundreds of years ago, however, the title page played a much more important role. During the early modern period, when printed books were first becoming popular, books were usually either sold unbound or with simple paper wrappers. Therefore, the title page was responsible for both providing information about a work and luring prospective buyers.

Archives and Rare Books

Before There Was Copyright

By — September 11, 2017

Some of the most famous images in the history of medicine can be found in Andreas Vesalius’s “De humani corporis fabrica,” published in 1543 by Johannes Oporinus. Medical illustration prior to Vesalius tended to be rather crude and schematic, but the woodcuts that appeared in the Fabrica managed to capture an extraordinary amount of detail  [Read more]

Archives and Rare Books

The Salernitan Regimen of Health

By — June 29, 2017

Medical knowledge has undergone, shall we say, significant changes since the medieval and early modern periods. Humorism – the idea that the bodily health depended on the proper balance of the four humors of blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile – has been thoroughly debunked. We understand germ theory. A broken bone is a  [Read more]

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