SECTION ON THE HISTORY OF ANESTHESIA 

DEPARTMENT OF ANESTHESIOLOGY
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
Birmingham, Alabama

HISTORICAL EXHIBITS

On display December 2006-March 2007:
just inside the Anesthesiology Library
Jefferson Towers 965:

Photo by Steve Pearce

At the 2006 ASA ANNUAL meeting in Chicago, Maurice Albin, M.D., and Kamara A. Savage, B.S., won a First Prize blue ribbon in the graphic arts division of the exhibit for their collage entitled "Their Souls are Resting in Our Hands." Special mention was made of the accompanying brochure which was designed by Kamara Savage. The collage is a historical treatment of the problem of medical ethics as applied to anesthesiology. The collage and the brochure are now on display in the foyer of the departmental library. [Tuesday Report 12 December 2006]

Photo by Steve Pearce

On display [July-November 2006]:
just outside the Anesthesiology Library
Jefferson Towers 965:

"Opium Eaters" and Morphinists"--Narcotic Addiction and the Civil War: Did It All Start There? 
poster presentation by
Maurice Albin, M.D.

On display [January-March 2006]:
just outside the Anesthesiology Library
Jefferson Towers 965:

"Historical Firsts:
The Isolation,Transplantation and Storage of the Mammalian Brain(1962-1968)"
Maurice S. Albin, M.D. 

On display [January-March 2006]:
in the Jefferson Towers 9th floor display case:

"Patent Medicine Advertising Cards."

In 2004 the Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences acquired a large collection of these cards, which were used to advertise trademarked nostrums in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This exhibit offers a selection of the cards featuring beautiful artwork printed by color lithography and touting their claims as a "universal pain killer" and cures for many other ailments. Among the products included are the famous Carter's Liver Pills and Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound. The exhibit offers a glimpse of what drug marketing was like in the United States before the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. These reproductions have been loaned to us by the Museum and its curator Steafnie T. Rookis. The Museum is located on the third floor of the Lister Hill Library; hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. More information is at http://www.uab.edu/historical/museum.htm

On display January 15, 2005-April 2005:

"Military Opposition and Religious Objections to Anesthetics, 1846-1848"
George A. Swanson, M.D., Maurice S. Albin, M.D., A.J. Wright, M.L.S., Kamara A. Savage, B.S.


George A. Swanson, M.D. and his ASA poster

On display November 2004-January 15, 2005:

Jason McKeown, M.D. and his ASA poster

Koller and Halsted at the University of Vienna in the 1870s.
Jason L. McKeown, M.D., Maurice Albin, M.D., A.J. Wright, M.L.S., Kamara Savage, B.S.

On Display March-October 2004:

"Alice McNeal, M.D. [1897-1964]: Alabama's First Female Anesthesiologist"
A.J. Wright, M.L.S.
[more information on Dr. McNeal is here ]

On display November 2003-February 2004:

"History of Epidural Anesthesia: Pages, Dogliotti, Guiterrez, and Ruiz"
poster presentation by
Mark A. Mandabach, M.D.
[also on display May-July 2002]

Also on display during January and February 2004:

DR. OLIVER WENDALL HOLMES, SR., EXHIBIT ON JT9

In November 1846, Dr. Holmes wrote a letter to William T.G. Morton, who had demonstrated successful ether anesthesia for surgery the previous month at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In that letter Holmes suggested the word "anaesthesia" to describe the condition Morton had created in his patient. That word had been used the ancient Greeks to suggest "without sensation," but Holmes was the first to couple its use with gas inhalation to prevent pain during surgery. Holmes (1809-1894) was a remarkable nineteenth-century physician, poet, and novelist who in 1843 published a landmark paper suggesting that puerperal fever was contagious and often caused by contact with health care workers. One of our faculty, Dr. Maurice Albin, has provided some materials associated with Dr. Holmes, and along with biographical material and the text of his letter to Morton, they are on exhibit in the JT9 display case across the hall from Ms. Pat Thompson's office.

Displays coming soon:

"Gardner Quincy Colton's Visit to Mobile, Alabama, in 1848"
poster presentation by
A.J. Wright, M.L.S.

"Mere Amateurs: Early Interest in Physician Anesthesia in the U.S."
poster presentation by
A.J. Wright, M.L.S.

"The Chloroform Plot to Hijack the Monitor!"
poster presentation by 
Maurice Albin, M.D.
[on display July-October 2003; July-October 2005]

"Crawford Long, Ether Anesthesia and Doctor's Day"
[on display March-June 2003]

"Quistorp and 'Anaesthesia' in 1718"
poster presentation by
A.J. Wright, M.L.S. and Ray J. Defalque, M.D.
[on display January-February 2003]

"Opium Eaters" and Morphinists"--Narcotic Addiction and the Civil War: Did It All Start There? 
poster presentation by
Maurice Albin, M.D.
[on display July-November 2006]
[on display November-December 2002]

"The Society of Dutch Chemists and its Contribution to Anesthesia"
poster presentation by 
Ray J. Defalque, M.D. and A.J. Wright, M.L.S.
[on display September-October 2002]

"Historical Role of N2O as a Marker of Brain Function"
poster presentation by
Maurice Albin, M.D.
[on display August 2002]

"Preston Sturges and The Great Moment"
poster presentation by
A.J. Wright, M.L.S.
[on display February-April 2002]

"Anesthesia Timelines"
An exhibit of historical chronologies
[on display May-June 2005]