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Visiting the stigmatics of the South Tyrol – II. Maria Domenica Lazzari and Maria von Moehrl
Maria Domenica Lazzari. Coloured engraving, ca 1840. Wellcome Library no. 260i The previous posting introduced the two stigmatics of the South Tyrol and described the visit of T.W. Allies and his two companions to one of them, Maria Domenica… Continue reading
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Visiting the stigmatics of the South Tyrol – I. Maria Domenica Lazzari
Maria Domenica Lazzari. Detail of Wellcome Library no. 708242i Two watercolours and an engraving in the Wellcome Library show two remarkable people in what is now the the northernmost province of Italy, the South Tyrol (Bolzano-Alto Adige). In the… Continue reading
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Inner visions of a twilight world
As already noted here, the exhibition Watercolour at Tate Britain (until 21 August 2011) has a section on Watercolour and War, in which a spectacularly gruesome painting by Charles Bell (1815) from the RAMC Muniments Collection is the earliest exhibit,… Continue reading
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Blind Granny and her kind
“Blind Granny” with her tankard. Wellcome Library no. 16500i A new exhibition Reframing disability has opened at the Royal College of Physicians in their spectacular building on the south-east corner of Regent’s Park. It includes items selected from a collection… Continue reading
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Cardiac history roundup
Wellcome Library no. 679722i The photograph above, dated 1931, portrays the cardiologist Edward Franklin Bland. Born in Virginia in 1901, Bland spent most of his career at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he was an Intern, House Officer,… Continue reading
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A grim day in Minnesota
Wellcome Library no. 677114i This colour lithograph (click on image to enlarge) was recently found in a drawer in the Wellcome Library containing personalia of Henry S. Wellcome, the founder of the Library. It shows the hanging of 38… Continue reading
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Professor A and Professor B discuss Darwinism in Berlin
The idea of man’s evolution from animals is an ancient one. Some statements on the subject by the Greek philosopher Anaximander (ca. 610–after 546 BC): “The first living creatures were born in moisture, enclosed in thorny casings, and as their… Continue reading
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A Wellcome Chinese New Year in Glasgow
Inaugurating the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, the exhibition China through the lens of John Thomson 1868-1872 opened at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow on 4 February 2011. It was opened by Professor Nick Pearce (Director of the Institute for… Continue reading
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Item of the month, January 2011: A moment of pain and triumph.
Lithograph by C. Felixmüller, ca. 1922. Wellcome Library no. 727758i This is a home birth in the 1920s. In other times or places, the two – subsequently three – people involved might have had moral support from women friends of… Continue reading
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Here be tigers
In this oleograph (Wellcome Library no. 26596i) from Bombay, the apsara (nymph) Menakā attempts to seduce the yogi Viswāmitra. She succeeds, and a daughter Sakuntalā was born of their union. We might notice that, in this work by the Indian… Continue reading