Yearly Archives: 2012

The Albert B. Sabin Digitization Project: "Do What I Preach and Not What I Practice"

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First page of letter from Dr. Sabin to Dr. Feldman, March 1951.

One of my favorite letters that I have come across so far during this project is a 1951 letter from Dr. Sabin to his colleague Dr. Harry A. Feldman. In the letter, Dr. Sabin commented on a grant application Dr. Feldman sent to the National Institutes of Health. As usual, Dr. Sabin did not hold back his opinions on what could be done to improve the application. But in his letter, he also urged Dr. Feldman to write his material up for publication. He wrote:

[I]ndicate what it is you want to test, why, how many, where from, etc. If you don’t mind my saying so, Harry, the best way to achieve that is to outline one or more papers for publication and see what data you would like to have rounded out, get that data rounded out, and I will pray to God that ultimately you will write it up for publication. I can only say that I wish you would do what I preach and not what I practice myself. If you don’t write up the work you do over the years, it is work done for your own personal benefit and does not add to the sum total of scientific knowledge.[1] Continue reading →

The 2012 Spring/Summer Issue of the Henry R. Winkler Center Newsletter is Now Available

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The Winkler Center is a medical archive, library, and exhibit facility that encourages visitors and researchers to explore Cincinnati’s rich medical history. The Winkler Center newsletter is published semi-annually, and is available at the Winkler Center’s website.

Spring/Summer Issue

This issue takes a look at the Winkler Center’s Mussey Collection. Five thousand mostly pre-1860 medical books, journals, and pamphlets make up the Mussey Collection. Rueben Diamond Mussey, MD, LLD was a professor of surgery at the Medical College of Ohio in Cincinnati, the chair of surgery at Miami Medical College, and the founding president of the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine. The Mussey Collection was his personal medical library.  It is a rare example of a virtually intact early- to mid-19th century medical library.  For more information, visit the collection’s website.

In another article, “The Role of the History of Medicine in Today’s Medical School Curriculum,” Philip M. Diller, MD, PhD looks at how history is an important part of studying and practicing medicine. Dr. Diller is a Fred Lazarus, Jr. Endowed Professor and Chairman with the Department of Family and Community Medicine, and a member of the Winkler Center’s Advisory Board.

Also included are updates on the Albert B. Sabin archive digitization project and the processing of the Henry J. Heimlich archive.

The Winkler Center’s most recent benefactors are acknowledged.   For information about becoming a supporter, please contact Margaret W. Wolf, Director of Development, at (513)556-0055 or peggy.wolf@uc.edu.

Contact the Winkler Center at (513)558-5120 or chhp@uc.edu if you would like to receive future newsletters.

ARB Makes the Poster Lineup for Archives Month

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By:  Kevin Grace

Bag piperEvery October, the Society of Ohio Archivists sponsors “Archives Month in Ohio” to encourage teachers, students, scholars and the general public to seek out and learn from the rich historical resources in the state.   From the smallest community historical society to the largest public libraries and universities, the wealth of primary research material in Ohio contributes not only to appreciation of our heritage, but provides understanding of our current lives as well.

And each year, the SOA Archives Month Committee selects a specific topic to highlight repository holdings.  In the past, some of the themes have been music, African American heritage, business, and sports.  As part of the annual focus, exhibits, lectures, and other programs are offered and a promotional poster is printed.  For 2012, the theme is “Peoples of Ohio” and southwestern Ohio will focus on Irish heritage.  For the poster, the Archives & Rare Books Library contributed the image shown here of a piper from the Cincinnati Emerald Society of Police and Fired Pipes and Drums Corps performing in the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.  This photo will accompany other wonderful images representing the state’s Native American, Greek, Slovak, Jewish, German, French, and African American citizens, for example. Posters will be available by late summer. Continue reading →

The Albert B. Sabin Digitization Project: What Worried Him Most

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Dr. Sabin's handwritten response to a question asked by Ivan Klebanow, 1960

[Sabin Archivist’s Note: This week features the first blog post from Richard Sookoor, the Sabin Project student assistant. Richard is pursuing his Bachelor of Science degree in neurobiology from the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences here at the University of Cincinnati. He will be blogging on different Sabin-related topics as we work on the project. Please give Richard a warm welcome to the blogging world by reading his posts! -SB]

A typical opinion when speaking of scientists is that they are mostly entrenched in their work, sometimes unmindful of the world around them. However, for many scientists, their view of the world influences their research and scientific endeavors. Dr. Sabin proves to be a good example. Having been deployed to numerous conflict areas by the US Army Medical Corps during World War II, Dr. Sabin was well aware of the impact and outcomes of great wars. His experiences in these areas led him to pursue research focusing on dengue fever [1], Japanese B encephalitis [2], and sandfly fever [3] even after the completion of his military duty. Continue reading →

The Albert B. Sabin Digitization Project: Check Us Out!

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Dr. Sabin is seen here administering oral poliovirus vaccine to two children.

The Albert B. Sabin digitization project appeared in a couple of articles this week! I wanted to give you a heads-up on the articles from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC), just in case you wanted to check them out for yourself.

The National Endowment for the Humanities article is the second part of a three part series featuring preservation and access projects that highlight medicine and the humanities. Joel Wurl, Senior Program Officer in the Division of Preservation and Access, wrote of the projects, “[T]he history of medicine bridges almost every domain of the humanities, from the study of philosophy and ethics to the examination of everyday social and cultural history. Far from being a narrow subfield of study, it opens a pathway for exploring some of the most fundamental questions of human experience over time.” The Hauck Center for the Albert B. Sabin Archives definitely fits into this description of the history of medicine. Not only does the Sabin collection cover the well-known topics associated with him, such as virology and vaccine development, but due to his involvement and interest in so many different areas, the collection also includes materials on many other topics. These include science and the media, medical ethics, public health, politics and science, military medicine, tropical medicine, medical imperialism, and international and scientific cooperation.

Continue reading →

Dr. Carl A. Huether-Genetic Counseling Collection Available for Research

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Carl Huether

By Kate Krueger, ARB Student Assistant

Now available in the Archives and Rare Books Library are the papers of Dr. Carl A Huether, professor of biology and the visionary behind the establishment of a graduate program in genetic counseling at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Huether was director of the genetic counseling program from 1982 to 1992. After this he remained a vital part of the program as a professor, advisor and advocate for medical genetics. In 2007 after 41 years as a member of the biology faculty, Dr. Huether retired and the first ever endowment fund for a graduate program in genetic counseling was established.

Established as an emphasis for graduate biology majors in 1982, the program is documented in the papers of Dr. Huether and chronicle his tireless efforts to have a formalized program in genetic counseling. Through the correspondence with colleagues and university administration, this collection provides an interesting Genetic Counseling Brochurehistory of how new programs are established at the UC. In addition, the various drafts and revisions of the formal proposal to have the genetic counseling program established give insight into the importance of such a program. Copies of the various versions of the proposal in addition to the final version that was submitted to and approved by the Ohio Board of Regents are available in the collection.  A guide to the collection is available on the OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository.  For more information on this collection and other items related to the history of the University of Cincinnati contact the Archives and Rare Books Library by phone at 513-556-1959 or by email at archives@ucmail.uc.edu.

The Albert B. Sabin Digitization Project: More on the AFEB

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Portion of letter from John R. Paul to Albert B. Sabin, May 1969

As I continued to look through the administrative materials from the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board that are in the Sabin collection, I found a letter (seen to the right) from Dr. John R. Paul to Dr. Sabin that referred to the the appointment of an archivist for the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board to “immortalize some of the things (the data) which [they] have heretofore treasured only as unwritten memories.”[1] Naturally, as an archivist, I was intrigued by this appointment, especially because the members of the AFEB recognized that it was important to record their history for future generations. Continue reading →

Dr. Isay Balikin: Innovative UC Teacher and Researcher

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Isay Balinkin with an inventionOne night in October of 1938, in Cincinnati’s General Hospital (now University Hospital), there was an unusual hustle and bustle as nurses, doctors, and interns searched throughout the building for a tiny piece of uranium which had disappeared. The radium, no larger than a sugar cube, was worth $1400 and hospital staff was intent on locating it.  During the search, it was discovered that Dr. Isay Balinkin of UC’s College of Engineering had an electroscope that could be used to find uranium.  The problem was that it was late at night, and Dr. Balinkin did not have a telephone.  Instead, the hospital sent Postal and Western Union messengers to get Dr. Balinkin and his electroscope at his home on Auburn Avenue.  (Yes it does seem like an odd way to fetch someone only a few miles away.)  They did find Dr. Balinkin and Dr. Balinkin found the uranium in the trash.    Dr. Isay Balinkin spent 40 years at the University of Cincinnati and did even more important things than locating uranium in the middle of the night.  An enthusiastic teacher, he taught an estimated 8000 students demonstrating science with devices like bowling balls, rubber gloves, and mousetraps.  He was also a great researcher and held 7 patents for devices he had invented.  Some of his papers are held in UC’s Archives and Rare Books Library. Continue reading →

Richardson's rocks: DAAP-designed Cincinnati memorial in Burnet Woods turns 40

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UC Magazine recently published a story celebrating the Richardson Stones in Burnett Woods.  Read the story below or to view the original story, go to magazine.uc.edu/favorites/web-only/richardsons_rocks.html  You can also find a collection on the Richardson Stones at the Archives and Rare Books Library.  The finding aid is available on the OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository.

Richardson Stones

UC architecture faculty and students who integrated H.H. Richardson and his works into their ongoing studies completed this memorial in Burnet Woods Park in 1972. photo/Jay Yocis

Former UC architectural history professor Bill Rudd shares the story behind the student-led construction of the Burnet Woods memorial to famed architect H.H. Richardson’s Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Building. Henry Hobson Richardson is highly regarded, along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, as one of “the recognized trinity of American architecture.” The style he popularized is named for him: Richardsonian Romanesque.

Among the last buildings Richardson designed was the one-time Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce building on 4th Street. That building, dedicated in 1889, would stand among the most significant public structures in the region — along with works like the Suspension Bridge, the Carew Tower, City Hall, Music Hall and Union Terminal — had it not been destroyed by fire a century ago, in 1911. The memorial was completed in 1972.

Continue reading →