Online Exhibits & Projects

What's New

1900 = 2007
The Antikamnia ("Opposed to Pain") Chemical Company of St. Louis, Missouri produced several calendars illustrated with "Skeleton Sketches" -- bizarre series based on the skull-obsessed watercolors of local physician artist Louis Crucius. The calendar for 1900 matches 2007's day-for-day. Recently-acquired copies of the English- and French-language versions were scanned and are available here as PDFs and JPEGs.

AIDS Posters Collection
The UCLA Library launched an online collection of more than 600 AIDS posters from countries around the world on Friday, Dec. 1, at http://digital.library.ucla.edu/aidsposters. The release of this digital project has been scheduled in conjunction with World AIDS Day. “The collection provides a fascinating insight into the many approaches that have been used to try to modify risk behaviors,” said Roger Detels, MD, MS, UCLA professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases. “The posters range from terrifying to amusing and reflect the many cultures from which they have been drawn, which include national cultures and risk group cultures. The collection should be of interest to anyone interested in the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and attempts to control it.” The physical collection is held in the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections. For more information, please contact Katharine Donahue (310.825.6940 or kdonahue@library.ucla.edu).

Digital Projects

Donald Ryder Dickey Photographic Collection
The History & Special Collections Division has mounted 350 images from the Donald Ryder Dickey Photographic Collection on the web. The early 20th century photographs focus on birds, mammals, and habitats in California.

Spices - Exotic Flavors and Medicines
Spices - Exotic Flavors and Medicines is an online exhibit exploring the history of spices from their earliest uses to current research. Through text and image, the topic is explored indepth. Irwin Ziment, Profesor Emeritus of Clinical Medicine, UCLA, researched and wrote the narrative in conjunction with the History & Special Collections Division.

The Index of Medieval Medical Images (IMMI)
The Index of Medieval Medical Images project began in 1988 and aimed to describe and index the content of all medieval manuscript images (up to the year 1500) with medical components held in North American collections. The goal of this 2001 pilot project was to make the descriptions and the images available via a searchable database on the Web.

Online Exhibits in Medicine and Natural History

Bloodletting
For many centuries, blood-letting was considered a tried and true remedy for certain conditions. It was recommended for fevers, inflammations, a variety of disease conditions and [ironically] for hemorrhage.

John J. Bonica, 1917-1994 - Virtual Archives
Dr. John J. Bonica was a pioneer in the field of pain research. He initiated an interdisciplinary approach to pain management as early as 1950 and was primarily responsible for the foundation of the International Association for the Study of Pain and authorship of the premier textbook on the subject, The Management of Pain. He was both a clinical and a teaching anesthesiologist in the U. S. Army, at Tacoma General Hospital in Washington state, and at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he founded the world's first multidisciplinary pain control clinic. In addition, Dr. Bonica was a sought-after speaker, visiting professor, and author (not to mention former light heavyweight wrestling champion of the world).

Charles Darwin - Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle-Birds
Charles Darwin boarded the H.M.S. Beagle and set sail on 27 December 1831 for an around the world voyage that would last almost five years; the Beagle returned home in 1836, landing at Falmouth, England, on 2nd of October. After his return, he turned to the task of reporting on his findings, The Zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, under the command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N., during the years 1832 to 1836.

IASP Online Archives
Featuring excerpts from Pain: A Universal Problem and an International Field, an exhibition for the 9th World Congress on Pain (Vienna, 1999) to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)

The Relief of Pain & Suffering
The exhibit was prepared in conjunction with the Symposium: "Pain and Suffering in History–Narrative Science, Medicine and Culture," which took place 13-14 March 1998. The exhibits focuses on history of the alleviation of pain and the history of pain research and modern pain treatment. The symposium and the exhibit mark the official dedication of the John C. Liebeskind History of Pain Collection at the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, UCLA.

Smallpox: A Brief History of Inoculation, Vaccination, and Eradication
In honor of the 200th anniversary of the discovery of vaccination against smallpox by William Jenner, and the 20th anniversary of the eradication of the disease.