Library hosts ‘Changing the Face of Medicine’ exhibit

Women doctors are the focus of a new traveling exhibition that opened Aug. 10 at the Bernard Becker Medical Library.

The Becker Library and the Academic Women’s Network are hosting the exhibit at the School of Medicine.

“Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians” tells the story of how American women who wanted to practice medicine have struggled over the past two centuries to gain access to medical education and to work in the medical specialty they chose. The exhibit, on display through Sept. 18, features several prominent female physicians from the School of Medicine, including Virginia Weldon, M.D., and the late Gerty Cori, M.D., who won the Nobel Prize with her husband, Carl Cori, M.D., for discovering the enzymes that convert glycogen to sugar and back into glycogen.

Interactive kiosks traveling with the exhibition offer access to the National Library of Medicine’s “Local Legends” Web site, which features outstanding women physicians from every state, including Jessie Ternberg, M.D., Ph.D., professor emerita of surgery and of surgery in pediatrics at the School of Medicine. A section of the Web site called “Share Your Story” allows the public to add the names and biographies of women physicians they know.

An opening reception and lecture will be held at 6 p.m. Aug. 13, featuring Ellen S. More, Ph.D., head of the office of Medical History and Archives and professor of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. A panel discussion will be held at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 3, featuring Walt Schalick, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medical history, University of Wisconsin-Madison, as moderator; Ternberg; Pat Cole, M.D., associate professor of clinical medicine; Dayna Early, M.D., associate professor of medicine; and Lisa Moscoso, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics.

The traveling exhibition has been made possible by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health. The American Medical Women’s Association provided additional support.