Professional Documents
Culture Documents
NEWSLETTER
The Friends of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library are committed to the growth, development and use of an exceptional collection of books, manuscripts, and other materials relating to the history of medicine and the health sciences. The collection was originally established through the efforts of Dr. Pat Ireland Nixon (1883-1965), who was born in Guadalupe County, attended Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and later built a practice in San Antonio. Your membership in the Friends of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library and your gifts to the library are of enormous value. They help to assure that we will be able to maintain, build and promote the use of the collection, both on the campus of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and in the academic communities of the surrounding area. Contact the library: Telephone: 210-567-2400 Fax: 210-567-2490 7703 Floyd Curl Drive San Antonio, TX 78229-3900 http://library.uthscsa.edu
No. 27
Annual Newsletter
Fall 2011
"Doctors and Dollars May Not Always Be Enough!" Fernando Guerra, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.P.
Monday, November 7, 2011 Cash bar: 6:30 p.m. Dinner: 7:00 p.m. Appetizer, entre, dessert, coffee or tea Doubletree Hotel 37 NE Loop 410 at McCullough Cost: $40/person; $30 for students includes Friends membership Advance registration required Please RSVP by October 31, 2011 (see enclosed reservation form)
No. 27
Annual Newsletter
Fall 2011
In 2010 a Gift from Virginia and Charles Bowden Enhanced the Archives
The Libraries received a generous gift in December, 2010 from Virginia Bowden, Ph.D., library director emeritus, and Charles Bowden, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry and pharmacology, to enhance the development of the University Archives. The archives house historically significant records of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, including publications, correspondence of key officials, minutes of meetings and student yearbooks, as well as photographs and papers belonging to many early San Antonio physicians. Recently, materials from the archives have been used to research publications such as The Crown Jewel: The Story of the First 50 Years Drs. Virginia and Charles Bowden of The University of Texas Health Science Center, and for exhibits. Archival materials have been used in genealogy searches, by students exploring topics in medical ethics and public health, and by researchers interested in the history of medicine in San Antonio and Texas. Current archives projects include the development of a digital collection of important materials in the archives, processing of photographs and negatives received from Academic Technology Services and the Ruth Stewart nursing archives scrapbooks, and the creation of finding aids available via the Internet for manuscript collections of prominent San Antonio physicians. The Bowdens gift will provide salary support for the maintenance and ongoing development of the collection by a librarian devoted to the University Archives. Virginia and Charles Bowden encourage other members of the Friends of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library to make a financial contribution to support development of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio University Archives. Individuals who are considering a major gift should contact Rajia Tobia, executive director of libraries: 567-2413 or email Tobia@uthscsa.edu.
Friends of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library Board of Directors, 2010-2011
President: Robert V. Blystone, Ph.D. Vice-President/President-Elect: David P. Cappelli, D.M.D., Ph.D. Past-President 2009-2010: Julie K. Brown, Ph.D. Secretary/Treasurer: Rajia Tobia, A.M.L.S. Members-at-Large: Adelita Cantu, Ph.D., R.N. James Henry, M.D. Charles W. Sargent, Ph.D.
No. 27
Annual Newsletter
Fall 2011
Friends of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library Noon Lecture Series: Anatomists and Their Art
October 5, 2011 Howe Conference Room, Briscoe Library 5th floor Charleen M. Moore, distinguished teaching professor in the Department of Cellular and Structural Biology, will speak on the topic Anatomists and Their Art in the Howe Conference Room at noon on Wednesday, October 5, 2011. Dr. Moores lecture will include the stories of artists who dissected, anatomists who illustrated their own works, and anatomist/artist teams who worked together to produce some of the most important anatomical texts of all time. After the presentation, a display of twenty-eight rare anatomical books from the collection of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library will be on display in the Special Collections Reading Room. Among the texts that will be on display: Bernhard Siegfried Albinus and Jan Wanderlaar, Tabulae Sceleti e Musculorum Corporis Humani, London 1749. Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, Basil, 1543. Hooke, Robert, Micrographia, London, 1667. This program is open to the public. For more information, contact Susan Hunnicutt, Special Projects Librarian at 567-2406, or email hunnicutt@uthscsa.edu.
Bernhard Siegfried Albinus and Jan Wanderlaar:Tabulae Sceleti e Musculorum Corporis Humani, London 1749. Image courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.
New Catalog: Noteworthy Books of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library
The treasures of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library include more than 4500 rare medical texts, dating from the 15th to the early 20th century. Among them are a 1481 edition of De Medicina, written in 30 A.D. by Aulus Cornelius Celsus; a first edition of Vesalius De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem (1543), and Robert Burtons classic, Anatomy of Melancholy (1632). Future visitors to the library will benefit from the creation of a new print catalog of noteworthy books in the collection by Pennie Borchers, special collections librarian, who recently retired after 13 years of service in the Briscoe Library. (See story on page 5.) During her years in the Nixon library, Pennie was frequently approached about the possibility of a print catalog. She has produced an impressive volume arranged by medical specialty that will serve to familiarize users with the scope, as well as the special strengths, of the collection. The catalog also highlights books dealing with Texas and San Antonio history, Spanish language texts, and texts about Mexico.
No. 27
Annual Newsletter
Fall 2011
Other books by Sir Charles Bell that are held in the collection of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library: Manuscript of drawings of the arteries 1797 Engravings of the arteries 1801 The hand: its mechanism and vital endowments 1833 A dissertation on gun-shot wounds 1814 Letters concerning the diseases of the urethra 1811 Idea of a new anatomy of the brain 1811 A system of operative surgery 1816 Essays on the anatomy of expression in painting 1806 Illustrations of the great operations of surgery 1821 Engravings from specimens of morbid parts 1813
Illustration from A Series of Engravings, Explaining the Course of the Nerves by Charles Bell.
Guidelines for donations of books to the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library
The Briscoe Library and the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library appreciate gifts of books that enhance the collection. Items donated to the library are accepted with the understanding that, upon receipt, these materials become library property. Cataloging treatment and the right to determine retention, use, or disposition of the rare books will be at the librarys discretion. The donor will receive an acknowledgement letter specifying number and type of items, but IRS regulations prohibit library staff from assigning a value to gifts. You may also wish to make a monetary gift to the library for the purchase of a book as a memorial or in honor of someone. The book will bear a label identifying it as a gift. Although library staff will make the final book selection, donors may specify the choice of subject related to the health sciences. A fitting tribute to a health care professional is a book in his or her speciality. Arrangements for donations are made through the library at (210) 567-2406.
No. 27
Annual Newsletter
Fall 2011
Susan Seale Jarvis, who is nominated to be a member-at-large of the Friends of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library, received her Doctorate of Jurisprudence from Tulane University College of Law, New Orleans. After graduation, she served as a federal attorney with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in New Orleans for five years. She was Professor of Business Law at the University of Texas Pan American for over 20 years. While there she won the Outstanding Faculty Award three times. She is currently a Faculty Associate at the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. Dr. Jarvis is the author of three law books and numerous refereed professional articles. She is also the author of three published childrens stories. One of her short stories was the Literature Category Winner in the latest edition of Connective Tissue, the literary journal for The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Susan attended the University of Iowa Summer Writing Program for the fifth time this past summer.
5
No. 27
Annual Newsletter
Fall 2011
No. 27
Annual Newsletter
Fall 2011
Art and anatomy workshop, Howe Conference Room, Briscoe Library, April 8, 2011.
A dozen books from the collection of the P.I .Nixon Medical Historical Library are now available as ebooks through the Portal to Texas History, an Internet gateway created and maintained by the University of North Texas. The Libraries contributions to the Portal to Texas History were made possible by a Rescuing Texas History minigrant awarded to Anne Comeaux, Assistant Library Director for Special Collections.
Shown at left: An artists rendering of San Pedro Springs Park, from Fisher, C. E.. Queer, Quaint Old San Antonio: Its Climate in Throat and Lung Diseases (1895).
In January The Libraries received a Preservation Assistance grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to benefit Special Collections. Special Collections include the P. I. Nixon Medical Historical Library, as well as the University Archives. The Nixon library and the University Archives are housed in several different locations on the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th floors of the Briscoe Library. The NEH grant, in the amount of $5,547, paid for an assessment of the collections by Rebecca Elder, a professional materials conservator. Elder spent several days in the library, examining policies, practices and conditions affecting the care and preservation of the rare book and other collections. She made recommendations for improving storage, prioritized steps to be taken in the care of aging materials, and suggested appropriate preservation techniques and supplies. The NEH grant also paid for the purchase of equipment which allows library staff to track environmental conditions in the various collection locations, and recommend adjustments in temperature, humidity, and dew point to create the best preservation conditions possible.
7
No. 27
Annual Newsletter
Fall 2011
Past Presidents
John L. Matthews, M.D. P. I. Nixon, Jr., M.D. Robert B. Krause, M.D. Milton S. Jacobs, M.D. J. W. Winter, M.D. A. O. Severance, M.D. David McCullough, M.D. James E. Pridgen, M.D. S. Perry Post, M.D. Edwin M. Sykes, Jr., M.D. J. Bradley Aust, M.D. Perry W. Nadig, M.D. David McMahon, M.D. Mrs. Lila Cockrell William V. Healey, M.D. Mrs. Charles W. Finley Maurice S. Albin, M.D. Charles A. Hulse, M.D. Joyce G. Schwartz, M.D. Mrs. Zula Vizard Harlan D. Root, M.D., Ph.D. Herman S. Wigodsky, M.D., Ph.D. John M. Smith, Jr. M.D. August F. Herff, M.D. Janice A. Mendelson, M.D. Daniel Rosenthal, M.D. Arthur S. McFee, M.D. Daniel H. Jones, M.L.S. Basil A. Pruitt, Jr., M.D. Erle K. Adrian, Jr., M.D., Ph.D. Emilio F. Romero, M.D. Charleen M. Moore, Ph.D. Ron Philo, Ph.D. Richard F. Luduena, Ph.D. Kirsten Gardner, Ph.D. Philip T. Valente, M.D. Julie K. Brown, Ph.D. Robert Blystone, Ph.D.