The Archives for Women in Medicine
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The JCSW has undertaken a major effort to establish and fund the Archives
for Women in Medicine, a center for activities relating to the documentation
of women in medicine. Historian Jill Lepore has commented, “… those
who hold the evidence, make the history.” The evidence of women’s
activities and influence in medicine is at risk. An accurate history
of medicine’s development in the twentieth century cannot be written
without it. The Archives for Women in Medicine will provide the
resources needed to capture, preserve, and provide access to that
evidence to current and future researchers, students, and professionals.
Find out more about the Archives:
Click here to find out more about the fundraising effort.
About the Archives for Women in Medicine
The Archives will be a center for activities relating to the documentation of women in medicine, initially within the Harvard-Longwood community. The Archives will acquire, process, preserve, provide access to, and publicize the papers of women physicians, researchers, public policy makers, teachers, health care workers, and administrators. Other activities include the production of exhibits, printed materials, and oral histories. The Archives will be staffed by an archivist and housed in the Manuscripts Division of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections in the Countway Library.
It is important to capture and retain the history of women in one collection to recognize the enormous changes women brought to medicine in the mid and late 20th century. To add a small number of collections to the general manuscript holdings would recognize outstanding individual achievements, but not the achievements and impact of the group as a whole. This collection will call attention to both outstanding health care leaders and the social phenomenon of women in medicine.
Why a special project to document women?
Contemporary historian Jill Lepore has observed that, "those who hold the evidence make the history." Where is the evidence of women's contributions to Harvard medicine? Despite this century's remarkable shift in the composition of the student, research, clinical, teaching, and administrative roles, women are nearly invisible from a documentary point of view. Without a special effort to overcome this documentary gap, future generations of doctors, scholars, and students will not understand the past actions and events that define their current experiences. If we continue to gather and process women's papers at the current rate, the disparity in holdings will persist for many generations.
How can I find out more about the initiative?
Click here to see our Frequently Asked Questions.
For more information, contact members of the Archives subcommittee, Dr. Nancy Tarbell (ntarbell@partners.org), chair, or Kathryn Hammond Baker (kbaker@hms.harvard.edu).
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Dr.
Myrtelle Canavan, discoverer of Canavan's Disease, state pathologist
and Curator of the Warren Anatomical Museum, is shown here on
the steps of the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, now Massachusetts
Mental Health Center, in 1917.
Dr.
Canavan's papers contribute to the documentation of women's activities
in the Harvard medical community. For more information about Dr.
Canavan, click here.
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