75th History Published

Five years from conception to completion, Foundations for Excellence: 75 Years of Duke Medicine, by Walter E. Campbell, was published just in time for Medical Alumni Weekend and the culmination of a year-long celebration of our milestone anniversary. Subsequently, a number of related events have taken place. A book signing was held following the awards luncheon during alumni weekend. A special luncheon was hosted by the Library in mid-October to celebrate the contributions of the editorial committee; the Medical Center Archives staff; the editor, Maura High; and the designer, Molly Renda. Another book signing for a broader audience took place on November 28 in the Library. At that time Dr. Walter Campbell autographed copies of the book and made some brief remarks with reflections on his research.

While writing the book, Dr. Campbell was guided by an eight-person editorial committee: Vicki Saito; Ellen Luken; Drs. Edward Halperin, Frank Neelon, Robert Wilkins, and Margaret Humphreys; Pat Thibodeau; and Suzanne Porter. The committee represented a cross section of the Medical Center: administration, alumni/development, current and emeritus medical faculty, history of medicine, and the medical library. During his research, Walter Campbell made liberal use of documents and photographs from the Medical Center Archives. He interviewed many current administrators and also used previously recorded oral histories. He visited the Rockefeller Archive Center, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Archives, and The Duke Endowment to gather material.

Even though the book was largely funded by the office of the dean of the School of Medicine, the Library was given the responsibility for guiding the process from beginning to end. Our charge was to bring the history forward from where it had been left by Dr. James F. Gifford, Jr. in his The Evolution of a Medical Center: A History of Medicine at Duke University to 1941. The 480-page volume, beautifully printed by The Stinehour Press, has an introduction by Mrs. Mary D.B.T. Semans and is generously illustrated with 158 photographs.

Priced at $39.95, the history is available for purchase at the Medical Center Bookstore (684-2717) or through the Duke University Press (http:www.dukeupress.edu).

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Trent/Bullitt Speaker Series

Our second annual collaborative history of medicine speaker series is well underway. Drs. Phil Klemmer and Andrew Bomback gave the first lecture at UNC in October on Hans Selye. Dr. Jeffrey Baker spoke at Duke in November on premature babies on display in world fairs. In December, Dr. Frank Neelon presented a talk on his latest book about Dr. Eugene A. Stead, Jr. The balance of the year has the following schedule:

January 9, 2007 (Duke)
Mike Jones, MD. Traces, Trolleys, and Tin Lizzies: Medicine and the Progress of Wheels.

February 13, 2007 (UNC)
Elvatrice Parker Belsches. Above and Beyond: Celebrating the Legacies of the Leonard Graduates.

March 13, 2007 (Duke)
Michael McVaugh, PhD. Foxglove: Who Really Discovered It?

April 10, 2007 (UNC)
Jeanne Moskal, PhD. Livingstone’s Long Shadow: Women Medical Missionaries of the 1890s.

Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the month. A light buffet supper is available at 5:30 pm with presentations beginning around 6:00 pm. The location alternates between the Duke Medical Library and the UNC- Chapel Hill Health Sciences Library. This year the exchange has been carried one step further with some of the Duke and UNC faculty speaking at each other’s institutions. Consult the Website for more details at http://www.mclibrary.duke.edu/hom/events/speakerseries.

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McVaughfest

Between Text and Patient: The Medical Enterprise in Medieval and Early Modern Europe is a symposium in honor of Michael R. McVaugh to be held March 2-4, 2007 in Wilson Library on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The event will bring together internationally acclaimed scholars in the field to honor Professor McVaugh upon the occasion of his approaching retirement. Eighteen papers will examine a wide range of topics relating to medical practice from late antiquity through the early modern era. The papers ultimately will be collected in a volume to be published by E.J. Brill to serve students and scholars as a resource for early history of medicine studies.

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Ave Atque Vale

The Medical Center Library hosted a farewell for Dr. Edward C. Halperin, Vice Dean of the School of Medicine, and his administrative assistant, Ruth Aultman, in the History of Medicine Reading Room on the afternoon of September 18. Dr. Halperin has guided the Library for the past four years and has been a strong supporter of the history of medicine throughout his 23 years on the faculty. He gathered the portraits, photographs, sculptural busts, plaques, and other memorabilia of our Duke medical forebearers into a "Heritage Hall" in the Medical School thereby giving our institutional history a visible presence. For several years he hosted a series of oral history interviews with important figures in Duke Medicine. These eight interviews entitled, Before the Colors Fade, were recorded on video and copies remain available for loan in the Library.

Dr. Halperin successfully integrated medical history into all four years of the medical school curriculum. In addition to the first-year anatomy class visit to view and handle the anatomic atlases in the Trent Collection, other opportunities and experiences have been added to the curriculum: five intersessions of two lectures each for the second-year class, a third-year paper on a book selected from a medical history reading list, and a fourth-year capstone course. Optional lunch lectures are also available to all classes.

The Library and the History of Medicine Collections will greatly miss his leadership and enthusiasm as he takes up his new duties as Dean of the School of Medicine, Ford Foundation Professor of Medical Education, and Professor of Radiation Oncology, Pediatrics, and History at the University of Louisville.

Heidi Oehme, Ruth Aultman, Derrick Vines	Library Staff and Guests
Dr. Jeffrey Baker, Walter Campbell (back to camera), Barbara Busse, Dr. Halperin	Pat Thibodeau, Dr. Halperin, Suzanne Porter

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James H. Semans, MD Urology Collection

Dr. James H. Semans, a prominent Duke University surgeon, urologist, and philanthropist, was one of the first clinicians to link urology to the emerging field of social medicine. Upon his death last year, his widow, Mrs. Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, gave his rare books to the History of Medicine Collections. On 18 October, the Medical Center Library and the Trent Associates hosted a celebration to honor the gift of The James H. Semans, MD Urology Collection. For the occasion, Margaret Humphreys, MD, PhD, Professor of History and Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, prepared special remarks which were followed by a reception.

The Semans urology collection comprises European and American works from the sixteenth through the twentieth century. Highlights, including Giovanni Nola’s 1562 Italian treatise on urine sedimentation and Gustav Simon’s two-volume text, Chirurgie der Nieren (1871-76), are currently on exhibit along with selected instruments from Dr. Semans medical practice. They will remain on view through mid-January 2007.

Mrs. Semans greeting guests

Dr. Ruby Wilson and Mrs. Mary DBT Semans

Margaret Humphreys, MD, PhD

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Trent Associates*