Medicine/Behavioral Science

History provides current nurses with the same intellectual and political tools that determined nursing pioneers applied to shape nursing values and beliefs to the social context of their times. Nursing history is not an ornament to be displayed on anniversary days, nor does it consist of only happy stories to be recalled and retold on special occasions. Nursing history is a vivid testimony, meant to incite, instruct and inspire today's nurses as they bravely trod the winding path of a reinvented health care system.

To find out about these nursing pioneers and their efforts, link up with the American Association for the Nursing History.

[Links to] General--Getting Started, Surgeons, Hospitals, Resources--Books Documents and Images, Nurses and Nursing, Others Related Links

The history of prosthetics and amputation surgery begins at the very dawning of human medical thought. Its historical twists and turns parallel the development of medical science, culture, and civilization itself

The Institute of the History of Medicine is a center for advanced studies dedicated to promoting scholarship on the history of medicine, disease, and the health sciences and their relationship to society. In addition, the Institute seeks to bring historical perspectives to bear on contemporary health issues. Established in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1929 by Dr. William H. Welch, the Institute provides scholars interested in the history of medicine with resources and a collegial intellectual environment in which to pursue their research interests. The Institute supports a permanent faculty, which make up the Department of the History of Medicine, graduate students, and an annually appointed group of visiting faculty and postdoctoral fellows. Each year this community of scholars participates in seminars, conferences, and symposia designed to explore specific themes and issues in the history of medicine.

Many articles have been written about John Snow in the past half century. Eventually, all will appear here for distribution as PDF files to historians, teachers, students or other interested persons.

The National Museum of Health and Medicine was established during the Civil War as the Army Medical Museum, a center for the collection of specimens for research in military medicine and surgery. In 1862, Surgeon General William Hammond directed medical officers in the field to collect "specimens of morbid anatomy . . . together with projectiles and foreign bodies removed" and to forward them to the newly founded museum for study. The Museum's first curator, John Brinton, visited mid-Atlantic battlefields and solicited contributions from doctors throughout the Union Army. During and after the war, Museum staff took pictures of wounded soldiers showing effects of gunshot wounds as well as results of amputations and other surgical procedures. The information collected was compiled into six volumes of The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, published between 1870 and 1883.

The AAHM is North America's oldest continuously functioning scholarly organization devoted to the study of all aspects of the history of the health professions, disease, public health, and related subjects. It is comprised of professional historians, practicing health professionals, librarians and archivists in the history of the health sciences, graduate students and students actively seeking professional degrees. Its annual meetings occur each spring and include, over a two and a half day period, a wealth of workshops, plenary sessions, and competitively peer-reviewed scholarly papers.

Welcome to the fascinating and somewhat creepy world of antique medical quackery and electrotherapy devices. What follows are descriptions and pictures of the various types of devices that I (and others) have been able collect over the years. I am always interested in hearing from others who collect or appreciate such weirdness and I am especially interested in sharing info and pictures of devices others have in their collections.

The American Institute of the History of Pharmacy is a non-profit national organization devoted to advancing knowledge and understanding of the place of pharmacy in history.
The mission of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy is to contribute to the understanding of the development of civilization by fostering the creation, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge concerning the history and related humanistic aspects of the pharmaceutical field.