Announcing the 40th Lecture Season!

C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society

40th Lecture Season (2023-2024)

“The Child Amputee in Post-World War II America”

September 26, 2023, 6-7:15pm Eastern Time ~ Annual Ravitch Lecture ~
Lisa Joy Pruitt, PhD (Middle Tennessee State University)

Before 1945, the standard of care for child amputees and/or those with congenital limb differences was to delay treatment and rehabilitation when possible or otherwise to cope with surgical procedures and prosthetic limbs designed for adults. After 1945, practitioners coordinated their efforts, revolutionized the rehabilitation of child amputees, and profoundly influenced the development of pediatric prosthetics.

40th Annual Nursing & Health Care History Conference

American Association for the History of Nursing (AAHN)

September 28-30, 2023, at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown

Patricia D’Antonio, PhD, RN, FAAN (Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania) with be the keynote speaker. The Reynolds Society is a sponsor, and volunteers are needed. Email us or the AAHN.

Day trip to the Donora Smog Museum

Saturday, October 28, 2023, 10am-2pm

Join us to recognize the 75th anniversary of the thermal inversion that killed 21 people in 1948 and birthed the modern environmental movement. Please RSVP no later than October 20. Attendance and parking are free, but donations to this small-town operation are accepted. We will carpool down from Pittsburgh and plan to eat lunch at the Early Bird Diner afterward (you pay for lunch). The museum is wheelchair accessible, although the large bathroom does not have handrails.

“Putting Science to Work: Women Healers and

the Pursuit of Medical Knowledge in Early Pennsylvania”
November 14, 2023, 6-7:15pm Eastern Time ~ Sylvan E. Stool Memorial Lecture

Susan H. Brandt, PhD (University of Colorado, Colorado Springs)

The history of women physicians in the United States often begins with the 1850 founding of the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia. However, mid-19th-century women physicians merely continued the legacies of other women healers from earlier centuries. In this talk based on her book, Women Healers: Gender, Authority, and Medicine in Early Philadelphia (2022), Susan Brandt argues that women not only were essential health care providers but also were on the frontlines of scientific knowledge production.

"'Could a situation be more ghastly?': Doctors, Disinfectants,

and the Dead After the Johnstown Flood of 1889”

January 23, 2024, 6-7:15pm Eastern Time

University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health Lecture

Vicki Daniel, PhD (Case Western Reserve University)

An historian of American medicine and the body, with specific interests in the practices centered on the dead body, Dr. Daniel will speak on the public health response to the 1889 "Great" Johnstown Flood. The early development of state responses to mass fatality events was strongly shaped by ideas of public health and concerns about the presumed threat of the dead body, which added to the grief of the survivors by requiring immediate burials, leading to a high number of "unidentified" remains.

The annual C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society business meeting will happen at this meeting, which we hope to hold in person for the first time since before the pandemic. It will also be live-streamed. We are currently seeking candidates for the position of Vice President; please email us if you are interested.

“Accompanying History: The Journey to Undocumented Physicians”

February 20, 2024, 6-7:15pm Eastern Time ~ John Erlen Lecture

Mark G. Kuczewski, PhD, HEC-C (Loyola University Chicago)

Medical history and bioethics are siblings under the rubric of “health humanities.” For this lecture, Dr. Kuczewski will explore the history of undocumented healers in the United States. He has been engaged in bedside clinical ethics issues for more than 25 years. For the last decade, he has also been an articulate spokesperson for the just and equitable treatment of immigrant patients, medical students, and clinicians.  At noon, Dr. Kuczewski will present a Grand Rounds entitled “Caring for Immigrant Patients: Clinical and Institutional Challenges” to the University of Pittsburgh Department of Medicine. 

“Forming the Modern Physician: Gender, Race, and Science

in Early Twentieth-Century Medical School Design”

April 2, 2024, 6-7:15pm Eastern Time ~ Inaugural Michaels Lecture ~

Katherine L. Carroll, PhD (Independent Scholar)

Architectural historian Dr. Carroll has presented widely on medical school design and the intertwined ways in which the built environment influences scientific culture, as well as the ways in which cultural and social priorities affect building choices. As the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine celebrates the one-year anniversary of the opening of the new West Wing of Scaife Hall, tune in to hear thoughtful commentary about how past schools have made other choices.

All lectures will be streamed online from 6-7:15pm Eastern Time via Zoom, hosted by the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC). You do not need a special account or application to join the free live stream. The easiest way to get both a reminder and the link is to join our e-mailing list. If the speaker agrees, the event will be recorded and shared via email and our website. Please share widely!

HAPPY 40th lecture season to the REYNOLDS SOCIETY! Consider increasing your donation this year to the round number of $40 so that we can continue to bring you fascinating content. Otherwise, annual membership is $10 for trainees and $25 for everyone else. Dues support speaker honoraria and can be paid online (Venmo or Square) or via snail-mail to Adam Davis, 327 Four Mile Run Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15207. If you are unsure whether you have already paid your dues this calendar year, simply email to inquire. 

The C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society thanks the University of Pittsburgh Center for Bioethics and Health Law for its support of the continuing relevance of medical history in our world.