J.T.H. Connor

Exhibit Essay Review: "Faux Reality" Show? The Body Worlds Phenomenon and Its Reinvention of Anatomical Spectacle

I would like to thank Dr. Lili Fox Vélez (Towson University), who in 2000 first brought the phenomenon of Gunther von Hagens to my attention. Later, while appointed to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (the successor to the Army Medical Museum), Washington, D.C., I became intimately acquainted with its pioneering collection of von Hagens’s plastinates, in addition to its other collections of preserved human specimens dating from 1862, which undoubtedly make it the oldest and largest such repository in North America. For this experience (as well as for their comments on an earlier draft of this essay), I would like to thank Michael Rhode (Otis Historical Archives, AFIP), Paul Sledzik (now of the National Transportation Safety Board), and Dr. Lenore Barbian (now at Edinboro University). Also, while working in Washington and when visiting London, I met Dr. von Hagens and learned about plastination and his goal of exhibiting Body Worlds in the United States—but these early discussions had little bearing on the traveling exhibit to science centers across North America that is described here. 1. Rebecca Mazzei, “Hard Bodies and Hard Questions—After Death, Show-and-Tell Goes On,” (Detroit) Metro Times, 17 January 2007. 2. Mark S. R. Jenner and Bertrand O. Taithe, “The Historiographical Body,” in Medicine in the Twentieth Century, ed. Roger Cooter and John Pickstone (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic, 2000), pp. 187–200, on p. 187. Exhibit Essay Review: “Faux Reality” Show? The Body Worlds Phenomenon and Its Reinvention of Anatomical Spectacle

Cracks in the curriculum: an appreciation

> There is a crack, a crack in everything. > > That’s how the light gets in. > > “Anthem” — Leonard Cohen Many academics and clinicians like us, who teach in medical schools do not have formal training in education, yet that does not mean that we are not effective teachers, or

One Simply Doesn't Arbitrate Authorship of Thoughts: Socialized Medicine, Medical McCarthyism, and the Publishing of Rural Health and Medical Care (1948)

Health policy and the practice of medicine in the New Deal era have been skillfully analyzed by Michael Grey, while studies by Alan Derickson and Daniel Hirshfield round out our understanding of the fight for health security in the 1930s and 1940s. They inform us that the Roosevelt administration under the adverse social and economic conditions of The Great Depression recognized the pressing need for health care reform and set an ultimate goal of a compulsory national health care plan; and despite the opposition of the American Medical Association (AMA), they resolved that —in Derickson’s words—there would be “health security for all.” Yet despite the reformers’ steady pursuit of this ideal, as Hirshfield makes clear, their efforts were doomed to become the “lost reform.” What this historical scholarship also makes clear is just how important was the role played in the health reform debates of the 1930s by rural America – which seems, in retrospect, unusual. At this time, although many federal services, agencies, and departments held jurisdiction over the vast and overlapping complexities of health policy, they traditionally directed their gaze toward urban centers. It was the city, with its crowded neighborhoods, transient populations, and

Realizing Major William Borden's Dream: Military Medicine, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and Its Wounded Warriors, 1909–2009 An Essay Review

This essay review examines three books dealing with the founding and subsequent activities of Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) and the evolution of military medicine from 1909 to 2009 recently published by the US Armys Borden Institute. Established by fellow army doctor William Borden to honor Walter Reed himself, WRAMC, located in Washington, DC, soon became the public and professional face of medical care for American soldiers. The discussion highlights the ongoing issue of the care and treatment of combat amputees; aspects of gender within military medicine; and WRAMCs function as an educational and research facility. Also discussed are the archival and documentary bases for these books and their utility for historians. Complimentary analysis of two of the books which are, in particular, explicitly about the history of WRAMC is contextualized within the celebration of the centennial of this army post contemporaneously with its closure, amalgamation, and relocation primarily to Maryland.

Mercy above all since 1922: a tribute to a hospital

The Mustard Seed: The Story of St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital . Kathrine E. Bellamy RSM. Flanker Press; 2010. For the hospital historian, Newfoundland and Labrador offers a fascinating duality. Its insularity and prevailing social conditions have fostered various hospital “species,” arguably more

Being Lister: ethos and Victorian medical discourse

Stylistic analysis and rhetorical theory are used in this study to inform our understanding of impediments to the successful uptake of a new medical idea. Through examination of the work of the Victorian surgeon Joseph Lister, who was described by one biographer as suffering from “stylistic ham-handedness”, the study provides insights into the difficulty that Lister had in explaining his theory of antiseptic surgery. Using three comparisons—Lister’s scientific style in public discourse with that of his students, and Lister’s scientific style in private discourse with those of both a surbordinate and a superior—the study suggests that the rhetorical concept of ethos played a major role in his communication difficulties. In this way, it presents a more nuanced perspective on modern presentations of “model” communications versus communication failures: that is, that problematic written discourse offers as useful a heuristic device as does exemplary discourse.

Medical and Related Museums, Historic Sites, and Exhibits in Ontario: An Annotated Guide and Review

This guide and review of medical museums and related historical sites, although not exhaustive, is representative of what is to be found in Ontario. It is clear that the province is well served by a broad range of institutions, plaques, and exhibits illustrating many medical, pharmaceutical, and bioscientific events and personalities. However, a review of this list does raise several questions about the public representation of medical heritage in the province.