Edward G. Miner: Rare Books Collection
- Rare Books & SerialsThe origin of the rare book collections of the Edward G. Miner Library dates from the very beginnings of the University of Rochester School of Medicine &Dentistry(est. 1925) when George W. Corner (1889-1981), chair of the Dept of Anatomy and chair of the Library Committee, coaxed a local surgeon to establish a fund for the acquisition of historically important books for the new Medical Library.
Art and Anatomy
Interacting with Arts in Medicine: "A site that has gathered a range of images, poems related to the experience in anatomy lab."
Street Anatomy: "Wide range of imagery from representational to the fantastical."
MedinArt: "Extensive coverage of the field of contemporary visual arts in medicine, with particular focus on anatomy."
Training Doctors to Draw "in 2017, Dr Francois Luks began leading an undergraduate course at Brown University called "Physician as Illustrator". As he told Medscape, "There is no question that illustrations are easier for patients to understand than are long explanations using multisyllabic words"."
Historical Anatomies on the Web
- National Library of Medicine: Historical Anatomies on the Web"digital project designed to give Internet users access to high quality images from important anatomical atlases in the Library's collection."
Art Exhibits and Museum Publications
- The Body Inside and Out: Anatomical Literature and Art Theory“The relationship between artists and physicians during the Renaissance (roughly 1300 to 1600) was symbiotic. Artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci, who were interested in exacting the human form in their art...
- The Anatomy of Renaissance Art"The Renaissance may be best known for its artworks: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and “David,” and Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and “Vitruvian Man” have without a doubt shaped the course of art history...
- BODIES The Exhibition"BODIES...The Exhibition offers an intimate and informative view into the human body."
- BODYS WORLD"Each BODY WORLDS exhibition contains real human specimens, including a series of fascinating whole-body plastinates as well as individual organs, organ configurations, blood vessels and transparent body slices."
- Art and Anatomy in Renaissance Italy"In Italy in the sixteenth century an unprecedented and widespread interest in anatomy gave rise to a unique collaboration between science and art.
Books
Anatomy of Anatomy by
Photographs and texts taken by documentary photographer Meryl Levin who accompanied members of the class of 2001 at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in the anatomy lab
ISBN: 0970274408Publication Date: 2000
First Cut by
With humor, compassion, and wisdom, Howard Carter recounts the semester he spent watching first-year medical students in a human anatomy lab. From the tentative early incisions of the back, the symbolic weight of extracting the heart, and by the end, the curious mappings of the brain, we embark on a path that is at once frightening, awesome, and finally redemptive.
ISBN: 9780312195465Publication Date: 1998
Human Body Theater by
Welcome to theHuman Body Theater, where your master of ceremonies is going to lead you through a theatrical revue of each and every biological system of the human body! Starting out as a skeleton, the MC puts on a new layer of her costume (her body) with each "act." By turns goofy and intensely informative, theHuman Body Theater is always accessible and always entertaining. Maris Wicks is a biology nerd, and by the time you've read this book, you will be too! Harnessing her passion for science (and her background as a science educator for elementary and middle-school students), she has created a comics-format introduction to the human body that will make an expert of any reader -- young or old!
ISBN: 9781626722774Publication Date: 2015
Stiff by
Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers--some willingly, some unwittingly--have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.
ISBN: 9780393324822Publication Date: 2003
Body Language by
InBody Language physicians and medical students chronicle their challenging, often harrowing experiences. The anthology is broken into six sections: Medical Student, First Year; Second Year; Clinical Years; Intern; Resident; and Attending. Other anthologies have featured poems about medicine and healthcare, but the approach of this collection--poems written by doctors-in-training proceeding step-by-step through the medical training experience--is unique in medical literature. By presenting physicians who are also skilled poets addressing a diverse range of medical situations,Body Language offers fascinating insights into the inner world of people who regularly face life-and-death decisions.
ISBN: 1929918860Publication Date: 2006
Body of Work by
A "gleaming, humane" (The New York Times Book Review) memoir of the relationship between a cadaver named Eve and a first-year medical student Medical student Christine Montross felt nervous standing outside the anatomy lab on her first day of class. Entering a room with stainless-steel tables topped by corpses in body bags was initially unnerving. But once Montross met her cadaver, she found herself intrigued by the person the woman once was and fascinated by the strange, unsettling beauty of the human form. They called her Eve. The story of Montross and Eve is a tender and surprising examination of the mysteries of the human body, and a remarkable look at our relationship with both the living and the dead.
ISBN: 9780143113669Publication Date: 2008
Bodystories by
BodyStories is a book that engages the general reader as well as the serious student of anatomy. Thirty-one days of learning sessions heighten awareness about each bone and body system and provide self-guided studies. The book draws on Ms. Olsen's thirty years as a dancer and teacher of anatomy to show how our attitudes and approaches to our body affect us day to day. Amusing and insightful personal stories enliven the text and provide ways of working with the body for efficiency and for healing. BodyStories is used as a primary text in college dance departments, massage schools, and yoga training programs internationally.
ISBN: 9781584653547Publication Date: 2004-02-01
Art and Anatomy by
On Tuesday evenings at NYU School of Medicine, art supplies are set out on tables and the anatomy lab is transformed into a studio, with a great spirit of creative enterprise. This is Art & Anatomy, a unique drawing seminar in NYUSoM¿s Master Scholars Program in Humanistic Medicine. The drawings made here¿by medical students, doctors, and other health professionals¿show how powerful and compelling the imagery of anatomy can be. They invite us not just inside the body, but into the rite of passage that is gross anatomy.
ISBN: 0996324259Publication Date: 2018-03-01
One Breath Apart by
What started in the mid-seventies as brown-bag lunchtime optional seminars for students, faculty, and staff of the (then) University of Massachusetts Medical Center evolved into a magnificent project. The medical students'' courageous willingness to acknowledge their feelings about death and dissection has made this book possible. It is our hope that this slim volume - this collection of words and images created by the medical students at University of Massachusetts during the last thirty years (and augmented by Meryl Levin''s documentary photographs of students from Weill Medical College of Cornell University and their journal entries written in 1998 and published in "Anatomy of Anatomy") - will provide you with what good doctors provide for their patients: catharsis, personal insights, and support. From the Foreword: ''One of the enduring images of my first year in medical school is the narrow, unshaven face of Ernest, the cadaver I shared with three classmates whose names I can''t remember. We named him ''Ernest'', so we could impress our parents by telling them how we were working in dead earnest. In reality, like most cadavers in those days, he was an anonymous indigent man who died in the county home and whose remains were used for our education without his consent. My group was considered lucky because cancer had burned away every bit of Ernest''s fat, thus making him an excellent ''specimen'' for dissection. Even then I knew that Ernest was more than a specimen, but it took a long time to understand that he was actually my first mentor in the joys and sorrows and successes and failures of medicine. Surprisingly, it was Ernest rather than my basic science professors - the living ones, that is - who provoked the most important questions about what it means to be a doctor and forced me to confront them. As I recall, though, this was a solitary process because my classmates and I never discussed, or perhaps even admitted to ourselves, our feelings of ambivalence, fear, pain, gratitude, and exultation, or the changes in us as persons during the first year of medical school. We tried to hide all this because at the time that''s what doctors were supposed to do. Today things are different. As students at UMass, you are especially privileged to have a module like "One Breath Apart" integrated into your anatomy experience. This module provides you the opportunity to explore and share your personal responses to dissection, and with this publication it gives you access to an additional resource: a splendid introduction to the written and visual tradition established by UMass students over the last two decades, along with evocative photographs and journal entries from the medical students at Cornell, documented by Meryl Levin in "Anatomy of Anatomy". As I read through this book, I was struck by the Nancy Long''s title poem. She writes, ''I pretended you were here/To teach me the details''. How reminiscent of my own experience those words are! ''Then I saw your face/And I knew...'' That''s the turning point. As physicians we can either embark on the journey of learning to see others'' faces and to hold their hands, or we can attempt to distance ourselves and focus only on ''details''. This is a decision that every medical student must make, and our cadavers present the first difficult challenge. In a 2006 class poem, UMass students wrote, ''We felt the brain/And imagined its power to create. We held the heart/And imagined its ability to embrace''. These words represent an affirmation of empathy and compassion over detachment. One of the most compelling images of "One Breath Apart" shows the anatomy cadaver as a bridge spanning the chasm that lies between ignorance, darkness, and death on one side and knowledge, health, and life on the other. Dozens of tiny figures march across the span. Like me, they won''t forget the backbone of that bridge. As another UMass student writes, ''I know that I will be irrevocably altered" - Jack Coulehan, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Stoney Brook University, NY.
ISBN: 0895033968Publication Date: 2009-09-15
Anatomy of a Metahuman by
Explore the powers of DC Comics' greatest characters like never before through stunning anatomical cutaways and in-depth commentary from the Dark Knight. Concerned about the threat that so-called "metahumans" may pose to the world, Batman has begun compiling a detailed dossier on their incredible physiology and abilities. From villains like Killer Croc, Bane, and Brainiac, to Batman's own comrades, including Superman and Cyborg, the file brings together the Dark Knight's fascinating personal theories on the unique anatomical composition of these formidable individuals. This stunning and unique book delves into the incredible abilities of DC Comics characters like never before. Using beautifully illustrated anatomical cross sections depicting twelve different DC characters, the book, told from Batman's unique perspective, will explore how these "metahumans" physical makeup differs significantly from that of the average person. From detailed theories on how Superman's eyes shoot heat rays to an in-depth exploration of how Aquaman is able to breathe under water, the book delves into the deepest secrets of these classic characters. Also featuring chapters on the anatomy and abilities of Doomsday, Aquaman, Swamp Thing, Darkseid, Martian Manhunter, and more, this one-of-a-kind book will change the way you look at metahumans forever.
ISBN: 9781608875016Publication Date: 2018-09-18
Leonardo's Foot by
A Selection of theScientific American, History, and BOMC2 Book Clubs "An in-depth look at the anatomy and history of feet reveals their often overlooked importance in human evolution, medicine and art." --Science News "Stylish, informative, entertaining, and pleasantly personal . . . Whether Rinzler is exploring how our feet explain or illuminate such topics as evolution, disability, racism, diet, or desire, she maintains a fascinating perspective on the peculiarities of being human." --Rain Taxi Review of Books "This neat little book draws a clear picture of our feet, providing understanding that extends far beyond the obvious. Readers often like to walk away from a book feeling they learned something--that the author left them with a new way to look at an old idea, and this book fulfills that need." --City Book Review "Rinzler lifts the lowly human foot to new heights in this appealing book." --Booklist (starred review) Leonardo's Foot stretches back to the fossil record and forward to recent discoveries in evolutionary science to demonstrate that it was our feet rather than our brains that first distinguished us from other species within the animal kingdom. Taking inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci's statement that "the human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art," Carol Ann Rinzler leads us on a fascinating stroll through science, medicine, and culture to shed light on the role our feethave played in the evolution of civilization. Whether discussing the ideal human form in classical antiquity, the impressive depth of the arching soles on the figures in Sandro Botticelli'sBirth of Venus, an array of foot maladies and how they have affected luminaries from Lord Byron to Benjamin Franklin, or delving into the history of foot fetishism, Rinzler has created a wonderfully diverse catalog of details on our lowest extremities. This is popular science writing at its most entertaining--page after page of fascinating facts, based around the playful notion that appreciating this often overlooked part of our body is essential to understanding what it is to be human. Carol Ann Rinzler, a former nutrition columnist for the New YorkDaily News, has contributed to a number of publications, including theNew York Times. She is the author of more than twenty books on health and medicine, includingNutrition for Dummies, an international bestseller translated into fourteen languages.
ISBN: 9781934137628Publication Date: 2013-05-21
Taking Root to Fly by
What started in the mid-seventies as brown-bag lunchtime optional seminars for students, faculty, and staff of the (then) University of Massachusetts Medical Center evolved into a magnificent project. The medical students'' courageous willingness to acknowledge their feelings about death and dissection has made this book possible. It is our hope that this slim volume - this collection of words and images created by the medical students at University of Massachusetts during the last thirty years (and augmented by Meryl Levin''s documentary photographs of students from Weill Medical College of Cornell University and their journal entries written in 1998 and published in "Anatomy of Anatomy") - will provide you with what good doctors provide for their patients: catharsis, personal insights, and support. From the Foreword: ''One of the enduring images of my first year in medical school is the narrow, unshaven face of Ernest, the cadaver I shared with three classmates whose names I can''t remember. We named him ''Ernest'', so we could impress our parents by telling them how we were working in dead earnest. In reality, like most cadavers in those days, he was an anonymous indigent man who died in the county home and whose remains were used for our education without his consent. My group was considered lucky because cancer had burned away every bit of Ernest''s fat, thus making him an excellent ''specimen'' for dissection. Even then I knew that Ernest was more than a specimen, but it took a long time to understand that he was actually my first mentor in the joys and sorrows and successes and failures of medicine. Surprisingly, it was Ernest rather than my basic science professors - the living ones, that is - who provoked the most important questions about what it means to be a doctor and forced me to confront them. As I recall, though, this was a solitary process because my classmates and I never discussed, or perhaps even admitted to ourselves, our feelings of ambivalence, fear, pain, gratitude, and exultation, or the changes in us as persons during the first year of medical school. We tried to hide all this because at the time that''s what doctors were supposed to do. Today things are different. As students at UMass, you are especially privileged to have a module like "One Breath Apart" integrated into your anatomy experience. This module provides you the opportunity to explore and share your personal responses to dissection, and with this publication it gives you access to an additional resource: a splendid introduction to the written and visual tradition established by UMass students over the last two decades, along with evocative photographs and journal entries from the medical students at Cornell, documented by Meryl Levin in "Anatomy of Anatomy". As I read through this book, I was struck by the Nancy Long''s title poem. She writes, ''I pretended you were here/To teach me the details''. How reminiscent of my own experience those words are! ''Then I saw your face/And I knew...'' That''s the turning point. As physicians we can either embark on the journey of learning to see others'' faces and to hold their hands, or we can attempt to distance ourselves and focus only on ''details''. This is a decision that every medical student must make, and our cadavers present the first difficult challenge. In a 2006 class poem, UMass students wrote, ''We felt the brain/And imagined its power to create. We held the heart/And imagined its ability to embrace''. These words represent an affirmation of empathy and compassion over detachment. One of the most compelling images of "One Breath Apart" shows the anatomy cadaver as a bridge spanning the chasm that lies between ignorance, darkness, and death on one side and knowledge, health, and life on the other. Dozens of tiny figures march across the span. Like me, they won''t forget the backbone of that bridge. As another UMass student writes, ''I know that I will be irrevocably altered" - Jack Coulehan, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Stoney Brook University, NY.
ISBN: 0964580500Publication Date: 1995-08-01
Graphic Medicine Collection
- Graphic Medicine CollectionIn their 2010 analysis, “Graphic medicine: use of comics in medical education and patient care,” Michael Green and Kimberly Myers argue that comics also are a valuable tool for medicine. “To read a comic effectively, you must understand not only what is overtly seen and said but also what is implied. This is because much of the action takes place outside the boundaries of comic panels in the blank space known as the gutter. Thus, readers of comics, like doctors in the exam room, must determine meaning by inferring what happens out of sight and without words.”
The Reflector
Using materials and methods from the humanities can help students understand anatomy. Created by a medical student and medical school faculty for first year students, The Reflector supports a wide range of learning, from anatomical, to professional, to personal.
Poetry
PRACTICAL ANATOMY by William H. Wandless
How to Draw the Human Heart
- How to Draw a Human Heart"After being diagnosed with scoliosis at nine and undergoing spinal fusion surgery at thirteen, Laura Ferguson was bedridden for a year and given art classes to help pass the time...