The first state-level medical history society to have a website. Our goal is to promote interest, research, and writing in medical history, and we are dedicated to the discussion and enjoyment of the history of medicine and allied fields.
MHSNJ
Midweek Medical History Newsletter
Hello Members and Friends of the Medical History Society of New Jersey!
This is the first edition of our new MHSNJ newsletter, highlighting a few articles, books, presentations, announcements, programs, and just about anything that we think might be of interest to our members. (Will this newsletter be monthly, every other week, or weekly? Well, let’s see what happens and find out together!)
We hope that this newsletter and our monthly Zoom meetings will help stimulate our collective interest in medical history and grow our MHSNJ community.
And now for our news items:
1. Vaccine logistics are a hot topic, to say the least. In case you missed it, in December the New York Times explained “How New York City Vaccinated 6 Million People in Less Than a Month,” discussing NYC’s smallpox vaccination program in 1947. One of the featured historians was David Oshinsky, who was the MHSNJ’s Saffron Lecturer in 2018. The photos and audio clip in this article are fantastic! In January, the Times also covered “Five Past Vaccine Drives and How They Worked.” 2. This next link is more current events than medical history, but right now we all know we are living through historic times. If you want to know what’s going on regarding COVID and vaccination in New Jersey, and particularly at Rutgers, please see / hear the COVID-19 Health Briefing and On the Pandemic Podcast.“ RBHS Chancellor Brian Strom and Mary O'Dowd, Executive Director of Health Systems and Population Health Integration at RBHS, are the hosts of two biweekly series designed to help us all better understand the landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Learn straight from the experts! 3. Karen Reeds reports that the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts in Madison NJ has an exhibit entitled Cholera to COVID-19: Epidemics, Pandemics, & Disease. The website itself looks terrific! On Thursday, February 4, at 7pm via Zoom, the Museum is hosting History of Merck’s Commitment to Improve Public Health.“ Discover the long history of Merck and learn how they navigated past pandemics through the eyes of this pharmaceutical company from 1895 through the 1990s.” Pre-registration is required for access to the Zoom link. Museum members are free; non-members, $10, which supports the museum's activities. Click here to register! 4. And we end this first newsletter with an article about . . . the history of newsletters! It's not medical history, and you have to register to read it, but the Economist declares: “Launching a newsletter today is like launching a blog 20 years ago, or a podcast five years ago.”
1. Vaccine logistics are a hot topic, to say the least. In case you missed it, in December the New York Times explained “How New York City Vaccinated 6 Million People in Less Than a Month,” discussing NYC’s smallpox vaccination program in 1947. One of the featured historians was David Oshinsky, who was the MHSNJ’s Saffron Lecturer in 2018. The photos and audio clip in this article are fantastic! In January, the Times also covered “Five Past Vaccine Drives and How They Worked.”
2. This next link is more current events than medical history, but right now we all know we are living through historic times. If you want to know what’s going on regarding COVID and vaccination in New Jersey, and particularly at Rutgers, please see / hear the COVID-19 Health Briefing and On the Pandemic Podcast.“ RBHS Chancellor Brian Strom and Mary O'Dowd, Executive Director of Health Systems and Population Health Integration at RBHS, are the hosts of two biweekly series designed to help us all better understand the landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Learn straight from the experts!
3. Karen Reeds reports that the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts in Madison NJ has an exhibit entitled Cholera to COVID-19: Epidemics, Pandemics, & Disease. The website itself looks terrific! On Thursday, February 4, at 7pm via Zoom, the Museum is hosting History of Merck’s Commitment to Improve Public Health.“ Discover the long history of Merck and learn how they navigated past pandemics through the eyes of this pharmaceutical company from 1895 through the 1990s.” Pre-registration is required for access to the Zoom link. Museum members are free; non-members, $10, which supports the museum's activities. Click here to register!
4. And we end this first newsletter with an article about . . . the history of newsletters! It's not medical history, and you have to register to read it, but the Economist declares: “Launching a newsletter today is like launching a blog 20 years ago, or a podcast five years ago.”
On that note, if you have news, comments, questions, or anything you want to pass along, please email bob.vietrogoski@rutgers.edu with “MHSNJ newsletter” in the subject line.
Until next time . . . .
Stay healthy,
Bob Vietrogoski
Special Collections L Librarian in the History of Medicine, Rutgers University Libraries
Preview of coming attractions: a new book from George Hill, medical essays from Michael Nevins, the Blackwell sisters, and a great medical humanities website . . .
www.mhsnj.org
© The Medical History Society of New Jersey | All Rights Reserved
