Previous Exhibits at Lane Library

Backed by pseudo-scientific reports, smoking ads from the 1920s through the 1950s were orchestrated to reassure the public that smoking was safe. Lane Library is hosting an exhibition of these provocative images through May. The exhibit is the product of the interdisciplinary collaboration of Robert Jackler, Professor and Chair of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and Professor of Neurosurgery and Surgery, Laurie Jackler, Artist, and Robert Proctor, Professor of History.

Tuberculosis is an ancient disease; signs of tubercular decay have been found in Egyptian mummies dating from 2400 BCE. The Greeks were the first to describe tuberculosis in detail; they named it phthisis, meaning "I waste away." This exhibit (organized by Virginia Adi and currently on display at Lane) showcases key medical texts from Lane's rich historical collections, and includes descriptions of and remedies for tuberculosis from some of the earliest Greek, Latin, and Arabic medical authors, as well as from more modern authors.

These 19th and 20th century canes are from Lane's medical instruments collection. Once considered an essential part every physician's equipment, canes eventually became fashion statements. They usually had gold, silver, or ivory knobs, and were hollow to store aromatic preparations used to prevent contagion. William Macmichael's 1825 text The Gold-headed Cane (of which Lane owns three editions) made cane-carrying physicians famous.

Lane Medical Library's first 100 years have seen many changes: from an old stone building in San Francisco to the new integrated knowledge center that is slated to break ground in 2007; from a collection of 35,000 books hand-cataloged in cursive in a thin ledger book to a collection of hundreds of thousands of both print and digital materials managed through an online catalog. This exhibit showcases books and artifacts from Lane's first century, and includes such materials as Levi Cooper Lane's original desk, old photographs, and the original hand-written catalog.

Healing HeARTS is a children's advocacy project established by a coalition of staff at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and students at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The mission of the project is to encourage and support the creative expressions of children undergoing treatment and hospitalization for a variety of illnesses. Lane hosted an exhibition of Healing HeARTS artwork from December 2006 through February 2006.

Meryl Levin is a freelance photographer focused on issues of health and social welfare. She is adjunct Faculty Member at the School of Visual Arts, NYC and the author of Anatomy of Anatomy and Beyond the Emergency Room: The Search of Health Care in the South Bronx.

Stanford's inaugural interdisciplinary exploration through the arts, focuses on the life and art of Merce Cunningham, legendary choreographer, dance innovator, and artistic thinker. The Body and Time portion of this multi-location exhibition featured selections from Cunningham's daily journal chronicling his thoughts via words and drawings focusing on aging through the prism of one whose live has been devoted to movement and the power of the human body.

This exhibit was inspired by the publication by Leona M. McGann and Flora M. Finney, emeritae members of the Department of Family, Community and Preventive Medicine, of their History of Social Work in the Leland Stanford Jr. University School of Medicine, 1913-1981. Lane Library combined photographs and documents from Lane's Special Collections and Archives with original correspondence and memorabilia provided by McGann and Finney to tell the story of the history of social work at Stanford.

An extensive collection of silver and bronze medals depicting and honoring great figures in medicine is currently on display in Lane Library. The medals were created by Abram Belskie, a London native and a former medical sculptor for the New York Medical College.

Photos and regalia dating back to the early years of Stanford nursing education were exhibited in honor of National Nurses week, May 6-12, 2004. Inaugurated by Mrs. Lane in 1895, the Lane Hospital Training School for Nurses graduated 217 nurses by 1912. Eventually changing its name to the Stanford University School of Nursing, the school trained nurses for 79 years both in San Francisco and, after 1959, in Palo Alto. The school closed in April 1974 but still has a very active alumnae who gather annually for the Stanford Nurse Alumnae Spring Luncheon.

Miniature sculptures of a variety of medical conditions, including anxiety and depression from the Island of Jaina, Mexico, a male figure with skin lesions from Colima, Mexico, and a Peruvian Mochica Medicine man.

In 1959 Stanford's School of Medicine moved from San Francisco to Palo Alto to become part of a new Stanford University Medical Center. Part of a strategic plan that included a revised curriculum for the medical school and addressed the need to be an organic part of the parent university, ground breaking began in 1957. The Architect for Stanford's 440-bed Palo Alto-Stanford Medical Center was Edward Durell Stone, noted for his design of the American Embassy at New Delhi and the United States Pavilion at the Brussels World Fair. Historical photographs of this important School of Medicine building project were exhibited.

Dr. David Zlotnick's photographs chronicle the many lives he touched during his 20 years of service to children in developing countries who suffer physically or emotionally from congenital deformity or injury. A devoted pediatrician and longtime friend and volunteer at Lane Library, Dr. Zlotnick and his wife, Caroline, a nurse, played a key role in building and developing Interplast's programs.

Delightful reprints of watercolor pictures depicting distinctive garb of the medical and related professions from the time of Hippocrates to the Napoleonic era. These prints were created by the Swiss illustrator, Warja Honegger-Lavater from the authentic replicas in the University of Rome's Institute of Medical History. They are currently on display in the large conference room on the main floor of Lane Library.

Daniel Liebowitz, M.D. published a biography of John Kirk, M.D. Kirk's early African expeditions with Livingstone inspired his personal crusade against slavery in East Africa. His efforts ultimately persuaded Sultan Bargash to sign and enforce an historical anti-slavery treaty. Memorabilia from the making of this biography were displayed in Lane Library.

The exhibit will briefly touched upon the practice from its use by ancient Greek physicians to the current use of leeches in the Stanford Hospital. The exhibit featured medical instruments used for the procedure such as scarificators and a spring lancet.

Lane Medical Library displayed resources about domestic violence for health care providers and their patients.

The eighteenth century witnessed a great shift in the study of the Natural Sciences, usually divided into three broad areas of inquiry: the animal, the vegetal, and the mineral. The invention of the compound microscope (around 1600 in Holland) and its optical improvement during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries furthered study of animal physiology and botany. Lane exhibited compound microscopes from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

The Lane Medical Lectures were an endowed lacture series founded by Dr. Levi Cooper Lane to foster an atmosphere for the exchange of ideas among medical scholars and researchers of the West and the great minds of the East and Europe. The first of these lectures was given by Sir William Macewen in September 1896.

T. M. Keller. "Sir William Macewen's visit to California as the First Lane Medical Lecturer. A centennial celebration." West J Med. 1996 November; 165(5): 279-282.

Lane's Arabic collection in Special Collections was cataloged in part thanks to Medical Scholars' Program researcher and medical student, Elias Aboujaoudé. The 289 Arabic script books and manuscripts have been in Lane's collection since 1922 when Dr. Adolph Barkan completed the purchase of the personal library of Dr. Ernst Seidel for Stanford University. Selected items represented calligraphy at the intersection of Islam and traditional healing.

Lane Library has been collecting medical instruments since it opened in 1906. The collection exists because of generous donations by physicians, alumni, and their families. Some of the instruments date back to the 1700s. These instruments represent the specialties in medicine and their respective advances in technology in the history of medicine. This exhibit featured ophthalmology instruments including ophthalmoscopes, surgical cases, and eye glasses from the 19th century.

A leading researcher in prostglandin biocehmistry and dean of the Karolinska Institutet, Samuelson delivered a series of three lectures for the 37th Lane Meidcal Lecture.

Paul Berg won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA.

Autobiographies and biographies from Lane's collections

Lane Library has been collecting medical instruments since it opened in 1906. The collection exists because of generous donations by physicians, alumni, and their families. Some of the instruments date back to the 1700s. These instruments represent the specialties in medicine and their respective advances in technology in the history of medicine. This exhibit featured ophthalmology instruments including ophthalmoscopes, surgical cases, and eye glasses from the 19th century.

In recognition of the 400th anniversary of Harvey's birth, Lane Library celebrated the discoverer of the circulation of the blood with a display placing special attention on the types of pumps used in his time.

Ephraim McDowell is considered the father of ovariotomy. The first patient , Jane Todd Crawford, underwent the surgery to remove a 20 pound tumor with no anesthesia or antisepsis. She survived another 30 years.

Baruch S. Blumberg and D. Carleton Gajdusek won the 1976 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases.

Hideyo Noguchi was a bacteriologist wh ofirst isolated the causative agent of syphillis.

William Withering was a British physician and botanist who first prescribed digitalis for the treatment of edema (dropsy) caused by heart disease.

In the fall 1975, Grace Thille, the only surviving member of the Cooper Medical College class of 1899, turned 100 and attended her reunion at Stanford.

An exhibit with particular focus on the medical education of women