{"id":14808,"date":"2018-07-18T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T15:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=14808"},"modified":"2022-11-13T22:03:32","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T03:03:32","slug":"ephemera-in-the-dr-leonidas-h-berry-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2018\/07\/18\/ephemera-in-the-dr-leonidas-h-berry-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Ephemera in the Dr. Leonidas H. Berry Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Library of Medicine announces new public access to more than 1,600 materials selected and digitized from the Leonidas H. Berry Papers, 1907\u20131982<\/a> manuscript collection including letters, photographs, and ephemera documenting the career and personal life of the trailblazing physician and civil rights advocate. His work is recognized in the NLM traveling banner exhibition <\/em>For All the People: A Century in Citizen Action in Health Care Reform<\/a>; the online adaptation of the exhibition features 1,686 digitized items<\/a> in a digital gallery. Stay tuned this week as Circulating Now features materials from the collection in honor of what would be Dr. Berry\u2019s 116th birthday\u2014July 16, 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Ashley Bowen ~<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Paper<\/a>
Luggage tag from the 3rd World Congress of Gastroengerology in Tokyo, 1966<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among the letters, newspaper clippings, photographs, and memorabilia (like a pen used by President Johnson<\/a>), the Leonidas H. Berry Papers<\/a>\u00a0collection\u00a0also includes many pieces of ephemera. Why might a medical library like the NLM preserve items like a customized napkin<\/a> or the luggage tag<\/a> issued to attendees of the 1966 World Congress of Gastroenterology?<\/p>\n

\"Laminated<\/a>
Dr. Berry’s badge from the 1981 National Medical Association Convention<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ephemera<\/a> refers to materials “not intended to last for more than a short time” like tickets, business cards, labels, invitations, and other items used during daily life. These items, and more like them in the collection of Dr. Berry’s papers, offer insight into the everyday world<\/a> Dr. Berry occupied\u2014from luncheon menus in the 1950s to the logistics of luggage transfer during a major international conference.<\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a>
Program for the Cook County Physicians’ Association installation banquet, 1957<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although ephemera makes up only a small portion of\u00a0the Leonidas H. Berry Papers<\/a>, these disposable items augment the medical history and provide information about Dr. Berry\u2019s life that is not otherwise captured in the formal correspondence, published reports, or photographs that make up the rest of the archival collection. Some of these ephemera are included in the more than 1,680 digitized items<\/a>\u00a0recently selected for digitization.<\/p>\n

Professional and personal ephemera are all present in the Leonidas H. Berry collection The professional ephemera is instantly recognizable to today\u2019s medical professionals: a name badge and ribbons<\/a> from a 1981 National Medical Association Convention, the program for the Cook County Physicians’ Association installation banquet<\/a> covered in Dr. Berry\u2019s handwritten notes, and a Christmas card<\/a> containing both a personal and professional message.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Napkin from Leonidas Berry’s parent’ wedding anniversary celebration, 1950<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The bulk of the ephemera in the Berry collection relates to his professional life. However, a few sentimental objects did make it into the collection. A customized napkin from Dr. Berry\u2019s parents\u2019 50th wedding anniversary<\/a> party is like nothing else in the collection. Although Dr. Berry did not document why he kept this napkin, it compliments an article about the Berry\u2019s anniversary<\/a> in Voice of Missions <\/em>and a photograph<\/a> from the party. In concert, these items present a fuller picture of an important moment in his family\u2019s life. The improbability of a printed napkin surviving for over 60 years also suggests how important his parents\u2019 anniversary was to Dr. Berry, a man with a deep interest in his family\u2019s history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The boundaries between these general categories of ephemera often blur. For example, a retirement card<\/a> from Mary E. Frizzell, president, the Women’s Missionary Society of the AME Church, is both a marker of a professional milestone and a testament to Dr. Berry\u2019s ongoing and deep relationship with the AME Church. Likewise, did Dr. Berry keep an invitation to a reception<\/a> at the Palais de Chaillot by the president of the IV\u00e8me Congr\u00e8s de L’Association des Soci\u00e9t\u00e9s Nationals, Europ\u00e9ennes de Gastro-Enter\u00e9ologies, including his own handwritten description of meal Berry had at the nearby Eiffel Tower, as a professional document, souvenir of the trip, or (most likely) some combination of both?<\/p>\n

Read the first post in this series: Leonidas H. Berry and the Fight to Desegregate Medicine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"AAshley Bowen, PhD is a guest curator for the Exhibition Program in the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Library of Medicine announces new public access to more than 1,600 materials selected and digitized from the Leonidas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605840,"featured_media":14819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42333869,12763,51136828,103],"tags":[168941,3903,678875801,678875893],"class_list":["post-14808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives-manuscripts","category-collections","category-for-all-the-people","category-news","tag-african-american-history","tag-ephemera","tag-for-all-the-people","tag-leonidas-h-berry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ashley-berry-blog-feature-image.jpg?fit=900%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-3QQ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14808"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25380,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14808\/revisions\/25380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}