President Richard Nixon’s famous visit to China in February of 1972 symbolically formalized the normalization of relations between the United States and China. The two countries had been
In 1930, Vilray P. Blair, MD, the founder of the plastic surgery program at Washington University School of Medicine, was planning his new operating room in the surgical wing of Barnes Hospital. Blair was world-renowned for his work on the most difficult cases, and still did a considerable amount of surgeries on children under local anesthetic. Many of the children brought into the operating room awake were terrified. He hoped to find a way to comfort them and help them relax during the operations.
A little over 350 years ago, Thomas Willis of Oxford, England published Cerebri Anatome, which would go on to become highly cited by scholars. This work on the anatomy of the brain as a vehicle for viewing the soul or mind of the creator contains several scientific firsts.
If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you’re probably aware that the Potterverse is about to expand with the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This new film follows the adventures of Newt Scamander, the wizard who authored the textbook Harry and his fellow Hogwarts students used in their Care of Magical Creatures class. While we Muggles (or No-Majs, as we’re called in North America) are unlikely to encounter any hippogriffs, acromantulas, and grindylows in person, if you venture up to Becker’s Archives and Rare Books you can see them in some of our historical texts!
On Veterans Day the United States honors those who served in the United States Armed Forces. Washington University School of Medicine has educated many military men and women over the years, including one particularly interesting group.
During the Second World War it was possible to be an active serviceman or servicewoman and still attend medical school – or nursing or dental school – by participating in the US Army’s Specialist Training Program (ASTP), the Navy’s V-12 Program, or the Cadet Nurse Corps.
In 1880, a year after St. Louis Children’s Hospital’s opening; the newly minted hospital published its first annual report. In addition to a list of hospital officers and a report of the hospital Board of Managers, the 1879-1880 annual report included a list of the various donors and donations given to the new hospital. Monetary donations are listed alongside gifts of items such as blankets, pillows, and cribs. These usual donations are interspaced with eclectic items that the people of St. Louis gifted to their new children’s hospital.
The end of fall is the season when the veil between our world and the spirit world is thinnest. That means Halloween is the best possible time to try to communicate with ghosts and spirits!
“At a time when care for children with cancer was only compassion, Teresa Vietti almost single-handedly developed the approach of laboratory-based studies, translational research and clinical trials. She was truly the mother of multimodality cancer treatment."
The Becker Library is pleased to announce the first 25 volumes of Washington University’s yearbook The Hatchet are now available online in the Digital Commons. The 1903 through 1928 yearbooks feature all of the Schools at Washington University, photographs of students and faculty, fraternities and sororities, sports teams, and student life.
Paola Bertucci, DPhil, Associate Professor of History and the History of Medicine at Yale University and Stanley Finger, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Psychological and Brain Sciences of Washington University will jointly give the 53rd Historia Medica lecture on Thursday, October 6, 2016.