Robert D. Hicks, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Chemical Heriage Foundation
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org
Founded more than two centuries ago, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia carries National Historic Landmark status as the birthplace of medicine in the United States. The main historical assets owned by the college are its historical library, once the primary medical reference library in the United States, and the Mütter Museum, founded 150 years ago, a collection of anatomical and pathological specimens and medical instruments. One feature of the collection is the cabinet of mementos, a “repository of historic souvenirs,” which was assembled a century ago by Robert Abbe, MD. The cabinet’s mementos include a quartz piezo-electric apparatus presented by Marie Curie and made by Pierre Curie. A tool for measuring the strength of an electron discharge from radium, this relic seems out of place. Why is this device part of a cabinet of medical mementos? How and why was this apparatus enshrined as a relic of medical history, and why did the college seek a memento from Marie Curie, who presented it to the college in person? This presentation explores the curious presence of Curie’s gift.
Robert Hicks is currently the director of the Mütter Museum and Historical Medical Library and the William Maul Measey Chair for the History of Medicine at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Before this he was the Roy Eddleman Institute Director for Interpretation and Education at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. (He is also very fond of leeches.)