The Saint Mary’s Hospital Collection consists of 93 ledgers of hospital information about patient admissions, patients of German heritage, births, surgical operations, intensive care unit patients, deaths, physicians in Cincinnati, Ohio and information about a tuberculosis outbreak in New York City. The hospital was founded in 1858-1859 in Cincinnati, Ohio by the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor.
St. Mary’s Hospital in Cincinnati was a historic medical institution established in 1858–1859 by the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis on Betts and Linn Streets. Designed by architect Anthony Bley, the hospital served thousands of Cincinnati’s impoverished and German citizens. With a capacity of 325 hospital beds, St. Mary’s Hospital treated over 2,000 patients each year. The hospital was enlarged in 1860 and again in 1875. It was well-known as an important facility for emergency cases and taking care of the medical needs of Cincinnati’s West End neighborhood. St. Mary’s was supported by the contributions of the public and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. The historic hospital closed on May 1, 1971. The Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis also shaped other healthcare organizations in the Cincinnati region, including what is now Mercy Health. The St. Mary’s Hospital Collection may be useful for research in genealogy and the social and medical history of Cincinnati in the late 19th century.
A visiting psychiatrist alumni of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine recently remarked,
cigarette advertisements associate smoking with positive emotional, social, and personal benefits rather than the physical act of smoking itself. The ads target specific psychological needs, such as the desire for independence, peer acceptance, social status, and stress relief. The advertisements exploit the emotional vulnerabilities in adolescents and adults.
This psychological phenomenon is illustrated by the SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES Exhibition on display on the E level of the University of Cincinnati Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library. Advertising increases brand recognition by creating emotional connections, making commodities well-known in a consumer’s mind before and when they are ready to purchase a product. Advertisements use targeted messaging that will reach specific audiences through consistency and memorable images. They employ emotional impressions which negate reliance on logical persuasion.
Benjamin L. Askue, Jr. during the American Civil War, circa 1860s
Frontline accounts of military conflicts provide a glimpse into the world of the war. The historical record reflects numerous descriptions of soldier’s and military doctor’s accounts of the bloodiest war ever engaged on American soil – the Civil War. The Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions announces the launch of the narratives of the 23rd Regiment Ohio Volunteers Infantry doctor, the Benjamin L. Askue, Jr. Civil War LettersBenjamin L. Askue, Jr. Civil War Letters on JSTOR.
Askue was born in November 1833 to Benjamin and Rowena Cordelia Askue in Ashtabula, Ohio. In 1853, he married his cousin Flavia Pritchard. The letters he wrote to Flavia during the American Civil War demonstrate that they had a happy marriage. The couple had five children together.
During the 19th century and early 20th century, physicians often received their training through apprenticeships. Askue followed this path becoming a homeopathic doctor. In 1861 he joined the 23rd Regiment Ohio Volunteers Infantry, Company B in the Union Army. Askue served as a cook, nurse, hospital steward, and in the 23rd Regiment’s infantry. He left the Union Army In July 1865. Askue returned to Ashtabula to farm and practice homeopathic medicine. He died in 1906.
Askue’s archives and artifacts were donated to the Winkler Center. While his archives hold numerous documents and artifacts, the highlight of the collection consists of letters written to Flavia beginning in June 1861 and concluding in July 1865. He described the 23rd Regiment’s travels, battles, camp life, politics, family in Ashtabula, Ohio and Askue engaged in philosophical analysis of the era.
The University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy’s 175th anniversary was featured in the 2025 Cecil B. Striker annual lecture series on October 14th. The lecture series is an annual program of the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions. Esteemed pharmacy historian, Dennis B. Worthen gave a standing ovation lecture entitled Pharmacy Education In The Queen City: 1850—2025. Pharmacy Education in the Queen City: 1850-2025 – UC Libraries MediaSpace. Worthen traced the origins of pharmacy education in Cincinnati, beginning with Peter Smith’s Indian Doctor Dispensatory (1810), the first medical book published in Ohio, through today’s College of Pharmacy, which boasts PharmD joint degrees, online master’s and interdisciplinary degrees, graduates from the United States and over 23 countries. Worthen’s narrative of the 175th anniversary of the College of Pharmacy is honored with a year-long exhibition in the Stanley Lucas Boardroom, Health Sciences Library.
Dennis B. Worthen, Ph.D., served as an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy where he taught the history of pharmacy courses from 1999-2017. He was also affiliated with the Lloyd Library and Museum in Cincinnati, OH as executive director and then the Lloyd Scholar from 1999 to 2013. He retired from Procter & Gamble Health Care as the director of pharmacy affairs in 1999. Dr. Worthen completed his undergraduate education at the University of Michigan and received his graduate degrees from Case Western Reserve University.
Medical illustrations and drawings are a reflection of the state of medical practice at a specific moment in time providing a visual record of science, technology, and anatomical knowledge.
The artwork of Daniel S. Young highlights the artistic and medical contributions of an American Civil War era medical illustrator in a military context. Daniel S. Young: American Civil War Medical Illustrations on JSTOR. His artistry paints a portrayal of how medical illustration informed medical professionals during the 19th century. Young’s Civil War medical illustrations were crucial in educating doctors on surgical procedures and about previously unseen wounds. While medical illustrations such as Dr. Daniel Young’s served to educate doctors they were also important in aiding veterans in their pension claims and showing how the war impacted the soldiers’ health.
Cuts along the upper arm and elbow. Stone’s River, Tennessee.Continue reading →
Ahron Leichtman (February 21, 1943 – October 12, 2018) was a national and regional leader in the quest to ban public smoking in the United States. He graduated in 1964 from the University of Cincinnati, with a Bachelor of Arts in political science, and earned a creative writing certificate from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1971.
During the 1980s and 1990s he founded multiple organizations to carry out anti-smoking initiatives. He established and led Citizens Against Tobacco Smoke (CATS), which was later renamed Citizens for a Tobacco-Free Society (CATS). Leichtman organized a coalition of over 90 nonsmoker’s rights, anti-smoking and environmental health groups to provide tireless grassroots support for the national campaign to ban airline smoking.
He created the Smoke-free Skies Campaign that led to the ban of smoking on all U.S. airline flights. Leichtman developed promotional materials to encourage the news media to cover the health, safety, legal and economic issues involved with airline smoking. He participated in numerous television network, nationally syndicated and radio interview programs about airline smoking, serving as the primary advocate for a total smoking ban on commercial airline flights.
While the primary focus of the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions collection is chronicling the history of health sciences in the Cincinnati area, the physicians, researchers and scientists in the archive made an impact world-wide. One such individual was Albert Sabin, researcher and scientist best known for his discovery of the live polio vaccine. Correspondence from his collection housed in the Winkler Center was recently used in a new publication, Italo Archetti (Peschiera Maraglio (BS), 1913 – Rome, 1998) In Vol. 2, No. 2 Scientia, December 2024 ISSN: 2974-9433 by Giacomo Simoncelli. Issue – Editrice Bibliografica Journals.
The book’s author, Giacomo Simoncelli, is a PhD candidate in history, philosophy, religions at the Sapienza Universita Di Roma in Italy and is a Visiting Fellow at Oxford Brookes University–Oxford, United Kingdom. In the publication, he chronicles the significant role of scientist Italo Archetti in his research on influenza, polio and his contribution to the establishment of the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità). Archetti was a friend, colleague and correspondent with Dr. Albert Sabin and his wife Heloisa Sabin.
Simoncelli utilized correspondence between the Sabins and Archetti held by the Winkler Center and publicly available on the University of Cincinnati’s Digital Resource Commons https://drc.libraries.uc.edu/items/85a7fad8-7f7d-4fee-81d6-ced447989173. The letter demonstrates their professional respect and close friendship.
Donated by his wife Heloisa in 1993, the Sabin archives occupy nearly 400 linear feet and consist of correspondence, laboratory notebooks, manuscripts and other research papers generated by Sabin during his long and active medical career. This extensive collection also contains his honors, awards, medals and other memorabilia, as well as research materials such as microscope and lantern slides. In addition, there are hundreds of photographs, and many video recordings and audiotapes. The collection spans the years 1930 to 1993, with the bulk of material being from Sabin’s tenure in Cincinnati from 1939 to 1969. Other online Sabin resources include the digital collection and finding aid addendum.
Founder of the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, School of Medical Illustration (1930-1972)
By Devhra BennettJones
Penetrating trauma surgery
Abdominal Blood Vessels
The Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions is pleased to announce online access to the archives of esteemed medical illustrator, professor and artist, Mary Maciel. Mary Maciel: Visionary in Medical Illustration on JSTOR. Maciel’s career at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, began in 1930 in the Department of Surgery and continued through 1972 when she retired from the School of Medical Illustration. She trained with the world renowned “father” of medical illustration, Max Broedel at Johns Hopkins University. By 1947 the University of Cincinnati Board of Directors authorized a new course in medical illustration taught by 25-year-old Mary Maciel.
Mary Maciel Instructing Medical Illustration Students
Her artistic talent and academic administrative skills led the field world-wide. She set the standard that applicants to the UC School of Medical Illustration must possess at least four, and preferably five years of course work in general art and training in science. She only allowed the admission of a maximum of two students annually. In 1948 Maciel organized a school of medical illustration in Portugal. In 1951 she established a school of medical illustration at the University of Lyons, France. By the 1950s the University of Cincinnati School of Medical Illustration was one of four North American universities with programs in medical illustration along with Johns Hopkins University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Toronto.
Liver Surgery
Maciel’s expertise was recognized around the globe. She often spent the summer months abroad working in the field. In 1957 she taught students of medical illustration in Finland and was awarded a four-month Fulbright professorship at the University of Strasbourg. In 1958 Mary Maciel presented lectures and medical illustration demonstrations at the University of Helsinki. She served as a consultant at medical centers in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In 1963 Maciel visited medical schools in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. She was a visiting professor at the University of Rio de Janeiro and the University of Buenos Aires. In 1968 Maciel was invited to work with the esteemed Dr. Christiaan Barnard, who performed the first human-to-human heart transplant. By the late 1960s Maciel is credited with having created more than 7,000 medical illustrations for textbooks, journals, movie animation and scientific articles.
Heart Transplant Diagram
Heart Transplant Technique
Under her leadership, the UC School of Medical Illustration made a profound impact on the field with numerous prominent graduates. Among them are George Kees in 1950 and George Schwenk in 1952. Kees became the Director of medical illustration for the Departments of Urology and Neurology at Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio. Schwenk published in medical journals, books, and popular magazines such as Life, Discover, and Esquire. In July 1972 Mary Maciel retired and subsequently, the UC School of Medical Illustration closed. On March 27, 1990, Mary Maciel, UC College of Medicine professor emerita who organized and led the College of Medicine’s School of Medical Illustration from 1947 until 1972, died at age 83.
Brain Surgery
Parathyroid Adenoma Osseous
The Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions is grateful to James Van Mil, Sidney Gao and Sean Crowe for their expertise in the digitization of the Mary Maciel Archives.
As the University of Cincinnati Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library welcomes the 2024-25 College of Medicine students and faculty back to the academic calendar, they are greeted by the new installation of MEDSTEPS. The sculpture is the work of renowned artist and scientist Wolfgang Ritschel (1933-2010). It is located on the G-level of the Health Sciences Library.
Dr. Ritschel described MEDSTEPS as:
Stairs may have different purposes and meanings. Essentially, they are a means to reaching different levels, both literally and figuratively speaking. This sculpture uses stairs or, rather steps on a ladder, as a metaphorical form of expression in paying tribute to the development and advancement of medicine from its beginnings at the dawn of time – including Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, and Native American medicine with their symbols as shown in the stained-glass panels – to computerized medicine, along with corresponding “step-by-step” technological progress in diagnosis and therapy. Medicine and the arts were always intertwined, as is suggested by the common expression “medical arts.” In fact, in 15th-century Europe, physicians, pharmacists and artists all belonged to the same guild, a development which presumably originated with the use of mortar and pestle as a grinding tool for both pharmaceutical substances and pigments. I like to think of this as part of my personal and artistic statement in sculptures with a medical theme.
The sculpture is composed of stainless steel, gold leaf, stained glass, lead, polymer, paint, wood and measures 91” x 51” x 22”.
Among the joys of the spring season at the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions is the annual Cecil Striker Society Lecture. On May 7, 2024 the esteemed Joseph P. Broderick, MD, medical director at the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute and professor of neurology in the UC College of Medicine addressed the assembly at Kresge Auditorium for the 15th Striker Lecture.
Dr. Broderick’s Cincinnati Neurology: From Astute Human Observations to Life-changing Therapies chronicled the leadership of the Department of Neurology & Rehabilitation Medicine, the vast advances in neurological science and treatments.Through an examination of history and subtle humor, Dr. Broderick took the audience on an epoch journey of brain science discoveries that have transformed neurological science during his esteemed career. He enlightened that in the 1950s and 1960s neurological conditions and diseases most often led to patient death, while today with the advances in neurology there is much hope for patients and their families.
