“Ink and Silver: Medicine, Photography, and the Printed Book, 1845-1900” Lecture on Tuesday, September 24
As part of the Ruth and John Moskop History of Medicine Lecture Series, the Medical History Interest Group invites you to attend Ink and Silver: Medicine, Photography, and the Printed Book, 1845-1900 on September 24. This lecture, presented by Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD, Section Head, Rare Books & Early Manuscripts, History of Medicine Division, United States National Library of Medicine, begins at 10:30 a.m. in the Evelyn Fike Laupus Gallery, fourth floor Laupus Library.
The Topic:
Ink and Silver: Medicine, Photography, and the Printed Book, 1845-1900 will address the use of photography in 19th century printed medical books, from both technological and aesthetic viewpoints. Four central benchmarks will be examined: Alfred Donné’s Cours de microscopie (1844-45) which used daguerreotypes to create etched printing plates; the pioneering psychiatrist Hugh Diamond, who not only photographed his patients but arranged for lithographs of their physiognomies to be printed alongside his articles on their diagnosis and treatment as early as 1850; the work of the pioneering neurologist Guillaume Duchenne du Boulogne, who illustrated his books with hundreds of tipped-in albumen prints; and the Army Surgeon-General’s Library (fore-runner of the National Library of Medicine), whose profusely illustrated medical history of the Civil War pushed the existing book arts to their limits. Illustration sources include the NLM’s History of Medicine Division, as well as other institutions such as the Royal College of Physicians.
Stephen J. Greenberg
The Speaker:
Stephen Greenberg received his doctorate in Early Modern History from Fordham University in 1983 with a dissertation on early printing and publishing. After teaching for several years, he returned to school and earned his library degree from Columbia University in 1991, specializing in Rare Books and Archival Management. Since 1992, he has worked in the History of Medicine Division at the US National Library of Medicine (one of the constituents of the National Institutes of Health), where he is currently Head of the Rare Books and Early Manuscripts Section. His research and publications span a number of fields, including the history of printing and publishing, the social history of medicine, the history of medical librarianship, and the history of medical photography.
More information:
This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.
The lecture will also feature a pop-up display.
Directions and parking information.
If you’d like to travel by bus from Main Campus, take bus 302 from the Main Campus Student Center to the Allied Health Sciences Building. Click here for the 302 bus schedule.
Lectures may be video recorded.
Learn more about the MHIG lectures and view an archive of previous recordings.