2011 AAHM Annual Meeting

American Association for the History of Medicine

Thursday, April 28, 2011 10:30 am EDT

REGISTRATION FORM For help with registration, please call UPenn Conference Services at 215-898-9319 or email {encode="confsvcs@upenn.edu" title="confsvcs@upenn.edu"}. Hotel rooms can be reserved at the Sheraton Society Hill at a rate of $189.00 per night. You must reserve a room by April 6, 2011 to receive this rate. Lower Priced Accomodations are available at the Club Quarters Hotel located at 17th and Chestnut Streets. The rate is $119.00 per night. Individuals can call 203-905-2100 to make a reservation and should identify themselves with University of Pennsylvania and use group code: UOP428. Reservations must be made by March 21, 2011 to receive this rate.
 
Also of interest:
History of Women's Health Conference April 28, 2011 Pennsylvania Hospital Health for Sale: Posters from the William H. Helfand Collection April 2, 2011 - July 31, 2011 Philadelphia Museum of Art Bioethics: History Informing the Future Barbara Bates Center for the History of Nursing 25th Anniversary Symposium Wednesday April 27, 2011
The Sigerist Circle will meet on 28 April 2011 in Philadelphia just before the annual AAHM Meeting.
Benefit Concert for the Center for Public Health Initiatives The program includes a musical tribute to the memory of Dr. Mark Silverman, former president of the American Osler Society. Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 8:00pm Harold Prince Theatre, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St.
Annual Meeting of the American Osler Society will follow the AAHM meeting in Philadelphia, May 1 – 4.
 
Join us in Philadelphia April 28-May 1, 2011 for the
84th annual meeting of the AAHM.
The University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and the Chemical Heritage Foundation look forward to welcoming you to the birthplace of American medicine for a busy and exciting meeting. Susan Lederer and the Program Committee are preparing another lineup chock-full of stimulating sessions, and the setting—well, the Local Arrangements Committee must apologize in advance for the dilemmas attendees will face as they decide how to divide their time among Philadelphia’s unmatched archival and library collections, a plethora of nearby historic sites, and the conference sessions. Our city’s many medical firsts—North America’s first hospital, first medical school, first pharmacy school, and first medical society—barely scratch the surface of Philadelphia’s medical history riches. The highlight of the meeting will be the Garrison Lecture and reception at the National Constitution Center, a short walk from the conference hotel. The setting is unforgettable, with the sweeping foyer facing a lovely view of Independence Hall (illuminated at night) across the green expanse of Independence Mall. Martin Pernick of the University of Michigan will deliver the 2011 Garrison Lecture.  The meeting will take place at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel, located in the epicenter of Philadelphia's historic district, practically in the shadow of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell Center. Within a few blocks of the hotel are Pennsylvania Hospital (North America’s oldest), with its archives and surgical amphitheater, the museum and library of the American Philosophical Society, and the Chemical Heritage Foundation. (In addition to its fascinating museum exhibits on alchemy and other historical topics, CHF boasts a magnificent library of rare books and .) The home of Phillip Syng Physick (known as the “father of American surgery”), Christ Church Burial Ground, Elfreth’s Alley (oldest continually inhabited street in the U.S.), historic City Tavern, the First and Second Banks of the United States, Carpenters’ Hall, Franklin Court Museum and Historic Site, the Betsy Ross House, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Independence Seaport Museum, and Washington Square Park all await you within five blocks of the Sheraton! Many AAHM members will already be familiar with the treasures of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia library and archives; a short trolley ride will take you from the hotel to this unrivaled collection in the history of medicine. Take a break from research to marvel at the “disturbingly informative” Mütter Museum of medical specimens and oddities downstairs, and relax in the College’s historic medicinal garden outside. In 2007, Thomas Jefferson University announced plans to sell Thomas Eakins’s 1875 masterpiece The Gross Clinic, deemed by many art historians the most important American painting of the nineteenth century, to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. Philadelphia civic leaders rallied to raise $68 million to match the sales price and keep this monument to Philadelphia’s tradition of medical innovation in its hometown. It is now shared between the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), both easily accessible in Center City Philadelphia. During the AAHM meeting, the newly restored Gross Clinic will be on view at PAFA, while Eakins’s other landmark surgical painting, the University of Pennsylvania’s Agnew Clinic (1889), is displayed at the PMA, which will also feature “Health for Sale: Posters from the William H. Helfand Collection.” The University of Pennsylvania’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library will be exhibiting items from its Walter Lear Collection on the history of the health left. Other noteworthy research resources nearby include Drexel University’s Archives and Special Collections (specializing in Women in Medicine and in Homeopathic Medicine), the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Hagley Museum and Library. The American Philosophical Society Museum will be showing “Of Elephants and Roses: Encounters with French Natural History, 1790-1830,” which includes fossilized mastodon teeth sent by Thomas Jefferson to the Jardin des Plantes, stunning watercolors of roses and exotic lilies painted by P.-J. Redouté for the Empress Josephine, and Sèvres porcelain decorated with an American tree named after Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia’s Old City, in which the Sheraton Society Hill is located, is also home to many of the city’s best restaurants and boasts an active nightlife. Dining options of every variety imaginable, live music, and many other entertainment options lie within easy walking distance. Philadelphia is easily accessible by all major airlines, including discount carriers such as Southwest. Rail service on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor runs very frequently, as do the very inexpensive and comfortable buses of Bolt Bus and Megabus (featuring wireless internet access). We look forward to seeing you in Philly! David Barnes Ruth Schwartz Cowan LAC Co-Chairs