Tag: Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

Medicine in World War I Online Exhibit

  By

In commemoration of the centennial of America’s entry into World War I in April 1917 through to the Armistice in November 1918, partner institutions contributing to the Medical Heritage Library have developed this collaborative online exhibit on medicine, surgery, and nursing in the war, with texts and images drawn from the digital corpus of the MHL. A significant amount of professional medical and surgical literature was produced even as the conflict continued to rage, and many personal narratives of physicians and nurses and histories of hospitals and army medical units were also published in the years immediately after the war.  A selection of this material is incorporated into the exhibit.

Medicine in World War I is divided into several broad categories: common diseases of the battlefield and camps; injuries and prosthetic devices; shell-shock and stress; military nursing; and the Spanish influenza epidemic.   There are also sections of bibliographic references with links to items in the Medical Heritage Library and a short list of other exhibits devoted to World War I and medicine.

Celebrating Vivien Thomas

  By

~This post courtesy of Phoebe Evans Letocha, Collections Management Archivist, Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

Vivien T. Thomas, oil portrait by Bob Gee, 1969

Vivien T. Thomas, oil portrait by Bob Gee, 1969

To commemorate February as both Black History Month and American Heart Month, the Medical Heritage Library salutes the contributions of Vivien Thomas, an African American surgical technician at Johns Hopkins. Continue reading

Johns Hopkins’ Legacy for Nursing Education

  By

~This post courtesy of Phoebe Evans Letocha, Collections Management Archivist, Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

As 2016 comes to a close, we gather to honor the life and legacy of Mr. Johns Hopkins on this 143rd anniversary of his death. Let us pay special attention to his legacy for nursing education.

1873, the year of Mr. Hopkins’ death, was also a momentous year for the birth of professional nursing in America.

On March 10, 1873, Johns Hopkins instructed his trustees, “I desire you to establish, in connection with the hospital, a training school for female nurses. This provision will secure the services of women competent to care for the sick in the hospital wards, and will enable you to benefit the whole community by supplying it with a class of trained and experienced nurses.” Continue reading

Now Available! Recommended Practices for Enabling Access to Manuscript and Archival Collections Containing Health Information about Individuals

  By

Medical Heritage Library collaborators  the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and the Center for the History of Medicine at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine are pleased to announce the distribution of their jointly authored recommended practices to enable access to manuscript and archival collections containing health information about individuals. These recommendations are intended to alleviate many of the concerns repositories have related to collecting and preserving health services records, especially those repositories that are not affiliated with hospitals or medical schools.

The recommendations are presented in four categories: 1) Determining an Institution’s Status and Policy Needs; 2) Implementing Policy and Fostering Process Transparency; 3) Communicating the Nature of Restrictions; and 4) Describing Records to Best Enable Discovery and Access. Those who care for and provide access to records containing health information about individuals are invited to test the recommendations and provide feedback on their utility; those who use such records in their research are equally invited to comment on their scope.

Researchers who have used or are seeking access to primary sources containing health information about individuals are encouraged to share their experiences and difficulties accessing health services records. Visit the MHL’s researcher access survey site and contribute to our efforts to improve access to these important records.

For more information, please contact the Medical Heritage Library at MedicalHeritage@gmail.com.

This work was made possible through the generous funding of the Mellon Foundation through the Council for Library and Information Resources’ Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program (2012: Private Practices, Public Health: Privacy-Aware Processing to Maximize Access to Health Collections).

Patient Records Survey

  By

As part of a joint effort to develop best practices for enabling access to special collections containing protected health information (PHI) and other types of access-protected (“restricted”) records, the Center for the History of Medicine, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, and the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions are conducting a survey to determine what information researchers need to determine whether or not to pursue access to restricted health records, such as medical records, psychiatric/mental health records, and photographs taken as part of medical treatments. Continue reading

Tracing the Footsteps of a Giant

  By
Barbara Starfield in Venice, Italy for the 23rd Patient Classification Systems/International Conference November 8, 2007. Photo is courtesy of the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives

Barbara Starfield in Venice, Italy for the 23rd Patient Classification Systems/International Conference November 8, 2007. Photo is courtesy of the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives

Staring up at the 76 boxes in Barbara Starfield’s collection occupying an entire wall of shelving—or 91 cubic feet—in the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives, I immediately wondered how I would ever be able to piece together the life’s work of a world-renowned researcher and academic.  Continue reading

“Have you Heard about the Hardys?”

  By
Miriam Pauls Hardy Photo is courtesy of the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives

Miriam Pauls Hardy
Photo is courtesy of the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives

I am entering into my third year of graduate study in history at Johns Hopkins.  As a graduate student in the early stages of dissertation research, my experience working with the William G. and Miriam P. Hardy Collection has been an interesting and instructive one. Continue reading

Update on CLIR Project at Chesney Medical Archives

  By
0202688p

Entrance to The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Photograph courtesy of The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives.

Project staff at the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions are well into processing three of the four personal paper collections that were selected to be part of the CLIR project to process hidden special collections. Continue reading