{"id":18006,"date":"2019-11-27T11:00:06","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=18006"},"modified":"2024-01-04T10:15:55","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T15:15:55","slug":"we-are-thankful-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2019\/11\/27\/we-are-thankful-for\/","title":{"rendered":"We Are Thankful For\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>Thanksgiving is a time to reflect upon the many things in our lives for which we are grateful.\u00a0 Traditionally at this time Circulating Now<\/em> features materials from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) historical collections related to the holiday. Past posts have explored thoughts on Thanksgiving during wartime<\/a>, early illustrations of turkeys,<\/a> food-borne illnesses<\/a> (always a favorite!), as well as the History of Medicine Division (HMD)\u2019s field trip to the National Agricultural Library<\/a> (an institutional \u201cFriendsgiving\u201d).<\/p>\n

This year, we are sharing personal reflections from our staff about items or collections which we are thankful the Library is preserving for current and future generations. Of course, we are grateful for all of NLM’s historical collections<\/a>, acquired and preserved by our valued predecessors, but many have become particularly meaningful to those of us who are fortunate to work with the collections daily. Some items reveal new ideas, while others challenge our understandings about a person or an historical event. Some items reveal underrepresented roles, make us smile, or completely surprise us. We often encounter such items when we acquire new collections, describe to support discovery in our databases, curate them for exhibitions, digitize them for public access, and preserve them for the future.<\/p>\n

We also want to share our gratitude for the researchers\u2014around the world and from a variety of disciplines\u2014who use our collections every day, engage with them in new ways, and whose perspectives reveal new narratives about the past. And we are grateful to you, the readers of this blog.<\/p>\n

Here are just a few of these such items, selected by staff across History of Medicine Division (HMD), alongside personal reflections on why the item they selected is meaningful to them.<\/p>\n

Is there a collection or item in the NLM historical collections that is personally meaningful to you?\u00a0 We welcome you to add yours in the comments section of this post below!<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>By Nicole Baker, Reference Librarian<\/em><\/p>\n

Letter written by George Washington<\/em>, 1780
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

While this item in and of itself is an incredible part of our collection, the reason it is meaningful to me is what it represents. When I first started working in HMD as a Pathways Intern in 2015, I was feeling frazzled about my future aspirations and unsure which direction to head. By hiring me as a young and inexperienced intern still in undergraduate school, HMD gave me the opportunity to learn about librarianship and working with rare and historical materials for the first time. As I began to realize my passion for this field and learning more about it, one of my most vivid memories was with this item (the George Washington letter). Holly Herro, my office mate at the time and conservator extraordinaire, was working on the letter and brought me over to show it to me. She taught me that aging paper often smells like maple syrup because of the chemical breakdown it goes through when it gets older. As a young intern, I was in awe to be around such an important item written by an icon in American political history and to work alongside such intelligent librarians like Holly. Almost 4 years later I’m now a Reference Librarian, and this item is still dear to me as it represents the early stages in my love for historical items here at the National Library of Medicine. I couldn’t be more thankful for every learning experience I’ve had since then and will have in my work at NLM.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Letter written by George Washington, 1780
National Library of Medicine #101656751<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\"An<\/a>By Sarah Eilers, Historical Audiovisuals Curator<\/em><\/p>\n

Obedience<\/em>, 1965 by Stanley Milgram (16mm film)<\/p>\n

Over the years I\u2019ve read a fair amount about Stanley Milgram\u2019s famous \u201cObedience to Authority\u201d experiments. Milgram explored the extent to which people were willing to hurt others if ordered to do so by an authority figure, and what factors might contribute to that willingness. Because it\u2019s Thanksgiving, I won\u2019t dwell on the dispiriting outcome of the 1962 work, in which two-thirds of participants administered (fake) shocks of the highest voltage possible to the hapless guy (an actor) behind the wall. What I will say is that I\u2019ve always found it fascinating\u2014recognizing, too, that the experiment is unethical by today\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n