Events for January 2010
January 7, 2010
Aris Sarafianos, University of Ioannina, Greece
The Historical Significance of Jan Van Rymsdyk, the “Father of British Medical Illustration”
Pennsylvania Hospital Historical Collections | Visit site »
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Place: Zubrow Auditorium, Pennsylvania Hospital, 800 Spruce Street, Philadelphia
Free and open to the public
This lecture is the first of a series that will highlight Pennsylvania Hospital’s new exhibition, “From Pastels to PDA’s: Medical Education from the 18th to the 21st Century.” Professor Sarafianos will explore artist Jan Van Rymsdyk, bringing this enigma—and his remarkable work-- to life.
Aris Sarafianos is Lecturer in Art History at the University of Ioannina, Greece. He will discuss the historical significance of Van Rymsdyk in the context of currently growing interdisciplinary interest in the broader field of medical humanities. He has noted that “Van Rymsdyk has produced pioneering work for virtually all landmark anatomical atlases published in Britain in the second half of the 18th century, an achievement which has recently won him the title of ‘the patron saint of medical artists’ and ‘father of British medical illustration’.” Professor Sarafianos has published several books and articles and has been a fellow at the Huntington Library, Yale Center for British Art, and UCLA.
January 20, 2010
Helen Zheng, BSN Student, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania
Walkerizing the Pennsylvania Hospital: The Legacy of Lucy Walker, a Pioneer in Nursing Education
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 2U Conference Room, Room 2019, Claire Fagin Hall
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
January 21, 2010
Eugene Bowman, Pennsylvania State University
Ghosts of Departed Errors: A Look at Bishop Berkeley’s “The Analyst: and the Scientific Community’s Initial Response to It”
Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics, Villanova University | Visit site »
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Room 103, Mendel Science Center, Villanova University
Abstract. In 1734 Bishop Berkeley criticized the logical foundations of the Calculus in The Analyst and set off a small ‘pamphlet war’. James Jurin and John Walton replied immediately and angrily. Berkeley then responded to each of them. Shortly after this exchange Jurin and Benjamin Robins engaged in a lengthy and eventually acrimonious public debate on the same topic. Somewhat later Benjamin Robins, Collin
Maclaurin, Thomas Simpson and others wrote treatises on “The Method of Fluxions” which were at least in part intended as responses to The Analyst. These exchanges offer a window onto the scientific community’s view of Calculus in its earliest stages. I will attempt to peer through that window.
January 25, 2010
Kirsten Ostherr, Rice University
Medical Reality TV
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Time: 3:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Place: Claudia Cohen Hall, University of Pennysylvania
January 26, 2010
Stephen Johnston, Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
Museum Matters: Planning a New Exhibition on Early-Modern Chymistry
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org
Free and open to the public.
Oxford’s Museum of the History of Science occupies the Ashmolean Museum’s original building. Opened in 1683, the Ashmolean was equipped with Britain’s first university laboratory for chemistry, which served for both teaching and research and as a dispensary. Recent archaeological work has unearthed vessels discarded from the laboratory. This setting provides an ideal location for an exhibition focused on the substances and material culture of early-modern chymistry. This talk outlines the museological and historiographical context for such a project and invites discussion of some early plans.
Stephen Johnston joined the Science Museum London as a curator in 1987 and has been at the Museum of the History of Science since 1995. Much of his research and curatorship has been on the history of the mathematical arts, and his most recent exhibition was “Compass and Rule: Architecture as Mathematical Practice in England, 1500–1750” (Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford, 2009; Yale Center for British Art, February–May 2010).
CHF’s Brown Bag Lectures are a series of weekly, informal talks by CHF fellows on their current research, and members of the academic and business communities on topics involving the history of chemistry, political and social issues of importance to chemists and chemical engineers, and issues affecting the future of chemical research.
January 27, 2010
Randi Epstein, M.D., Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
DES: The Miracle Baby Drug Gone Awry
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 2U Conference Room, Room 2019, Claire Fagin Hall
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
DES, the mid-20th century drug touted to prevent miscarriages, was found decades later to increase the risk of vaginal cancer and infertility among exposed babies. Why were pregnant women eager to take high doses of hormones? Why were doctors pushing a pill that lacked conclusive proof of safety and efficacy? This talk explores the cultural forces at play that helped to popularize this toxic remedy. Dr. Epstein is the author of newly released book entitled Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank. (2010).
January 29, 2010
Collecting Things, Collecting People
Co-sponsored by CCA, RCHA, and the Program in History of Science, Technology, Environment and Health | Visit site »
Times: 10:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Location: Alexander Library, Teleconference Lecture Hall
(4th floor), 169 College Avenue, College Avenue Campus,
Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Contact:
How do people collect themselves by collecting things? Etymologies of “collect” point to practices of assembling and gathering, with reference to money, religion and politics. Scholars have recently insisted on the need to understand “the social” as constituted by processes of assembling, while “things” have been reinterpreted through the collectives that make them meaningful. This interdisciplinary symposium explores the reciprocity between collecting things and collecting people, and the novel cultural mixtures produced thereby.
Co-Sponsored by the Center for Cultural Analysis, the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, and the Program in History of Science, Technology, Environment and Health, Rutgers University