From Adenoids to Zoonomia: Selections from Dana’s Medical History Collection is now on view in the Dana Medical Library’s exhibit case. This exhibit features instruments and books from the Medical History Collection including: curettes and forceps used to remove the adenoids from 1850-1900; textbooks on midwifery from the mid to late 1800s; a pelvimeter created around 1899; Phrenology texts from the late 19th and early 20th centuries; and a copy of the 3rd American edition of Zoonomia from 1803. Zoonomia was Erasmus Darwin’s (Charles Darwin’s grandfather) most important work containing a system of pathology, and a treatise on “generation” which foreshadowed his grandson’s theory of evolution.
“Robert Pollard is the Dayton, Ohio singer-songwriter, who was the leader and creative force behind the legendary indie rock group Guided by Voices, one of the most influential bands of its generation. In addition to being a prolific songwriter/recording artist, Pollard is a gifted and prolific visual artist, working mostly in the medium of collage. Town of Mirrors collects the very best of Pollard’s visual art and lyrics/poetry. Featuring over 175 of Pollard’s favorite collages, hand-picked by the artist, as well as over a dozen new collages produced exclusively for this collection, Town of Mirrors is the first comprehensive collection of Pollard’s visual art ever released.” –Publisher information.
“Tricia Rose is the distinguished dean of hip hop studies in America. Her recent book not only affirms this grand status but also transforms our understanding of the present and future of hip hop-and race-in America. Rose’s courageous voice and progressive vision are so badly needed at this time!” -Cornel West, http://www.triciarose.com/hiphopwars.shtml
Read a Time magazine interview with author Tricia Rose.
“Crude Reflections/Cruda Realidad chronicles the human and environmental impact of oil drilling in the Ecuadoran Amazon, where the pollution is so extensive that medical experts currently predict thousands of deaths from cancer and the disappearance of five indigenous rainforest communities. Community leaders and doctors already report elevated rates of cancer in the region, as well as birth defects. Photographers Lou Dematteis and Kayana Szymczak have documented the physical and emotional reality of those affected by this toxic contamination, roughly 30 times greater than the more widely reported Exxon Valdez spill.” –Publisher info.
WatchJusticia Now!, a documentary about the legacy of oil drilling in North Ecudaor.
Man on wire [videorecording] directed by James Marsh
[Bailey/Howe Media Resources (Ground Floor), DVD 6204]
“On the morning of Aug. 7, 1974, after months of preparation and years of dreaming, a French daredevil named Philippe Petit stepped into the sky above Lower Manhattan. For almost 45 minutes he ambled back and forth on a metal cable strung between the towers of the World Trade Center, a feat of illegal tightrope walking that, according to a New York Police Department sergeant who recounted Mr. Petit’s act of physical poetry in dry press-conference prose, would more aptly be described as dancing. For many years after, Mr. Petit’s stunt was a cherished footnote in the annals of New York history, one of the touchstones of a crazy, awful, glittering era in the life of the city. The destruction of the twin towers in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, revived the memory of that earlier aesthetic assault on the buildings, which is now the subject of Man on Wire, James Marsh’s thorough, understated and altogether enthralling documentary.” -A. O. Scott, New York Times
Read A. O. Scott’s complete review of Man on Wire.
