11th annual Davenport lecture
• Speaker: Dr. Sherwin Nuland
• Time: 7-8:30 p.m. today
• Where: Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, in the Gallery, Room 100
From the earliest times, artists have used their skills to depict the human condition in all its states. Today, these graphic images from the past can speak to stories of illness and wellness, cures and quackery, hope and despair.
The interplay between art and medicine long has fascinated Dr. Sherwin Nuland, who tonight will deliver the Davenport Lecture. His talk is entitled “As Others Have Seen Us: Graphic Art and the Art of Medicine,” and draws from Nuland’s extensive collection of images dating from the 14th-century in which artists depict physicians, patients, diseases and treatments. Nuland’s talk is the 11th in an annual series sponsored by the Center for the History of Medicine.
The lecture is free and open to the public, and takes place from 7-8:30 p.m. at Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, in the Gallery, Room 100. Attendees are asked to enter from the Diag side of the building. For directions or more information, call 734-647-6914.
Nuland is a prolific and award-winning author and surgeon emeritus at Yale. His books include “How We Die,” a reflection on the modern way of death, which won the National Book Award and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and “The Mysteries Within: A Surgeon Explores Myth, Medicine and the Human Body,” describing the ways in which superstition and religion influence the development of medical thought and our own notions of our bodies.
The Davenport lectureship is named for the late Horace W. Davenport, Ph.D., who died in August 2005 at age 92. He was chair of the Department of Physiology for 22 years, from 1956-78. Davenport was one of the world’s preeminent gastric physiologists. His landmark studies led to the discovery of the stomach’s barrier to injury. After retiring from active faculty status in 1983, Davenport pursued his longtime interest in the history of physiology and medicine, publishing numerous books and articles including “Not Just Any Medical School: The Science, Practice, and Teaching of Medicine at the University of Michigan,” 1850-1941 (University of Michigan Press, 1999).
The annual Davenport Lecture is sponsored by the Center for the History of Medicine. This year’s co-sponsors are the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Office of the Vice President for Medical Affairs, Institute for the Humanities, Department of Urology, Department of English Language and Literature, the Bentley Historical Library, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Program in Science, Technology, and Society.
