For the Medical Record - Michael Seminara ===

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Mia Levenson: Hello and welcome to another episode of For the Medical Record, a podcast from Johns Hopkins University's Center for the Medical Humanities and Social Medicine. My name is Mia Levenson.

Richard Del Rio: And I'm Richard del Rio.

Mia Levenson: And today we have with us Michael Seminara. He is a curator of the historical collections for the Institute of the History of Medicine here at Hopkins.

And we're really excited to talk with him today about his work, curating for a medical library and what we can, what us from the medical humanities can learn about, about libraries and, and why they're so important for our work.

Richard Del Rio: I think this is gonna be a really cool episode because Mia, as you know, it is research season. Classes are ending, things are getting wrapped up, and people can go and dig into the archives. [00:01:00] So to talk to someone who works in this very important library, I think is really cool.

Mia Levenson: So Michael, how are you doing?

Michael Seminara: I'm great actually. Thanks for having me. I've always wanted to be on this podcast. I've never been on a podcast before.

Mia Levenson: We're so excited to have you. So, just to start us off, we wanna know sort of how you came to the Institute for the History of Medicine, and sort of how your librarian work has intersected with your interest in the history of medicine?

Michael Seminara: Sure. That's a, that's a great question. So I've been here for just about exactly three years now. I was at the University of South Dakota previously. I was working on a rare book collection there, uh, Western Americana, uh, some other interesting bits, uh, history of the violin collection. Plus I was their archivist who was working with their archival holdings, lots of political papers, things like that.

What really drew me here to the institute was the quality of the collection and the books themselves. It is an incredible [00:02:00] rare book collection, but also an incredible circulating book collection, a a book collection that's very clearly been built in a manner that's meant to be utilized by active researchers doing research in any sort of medical history topic.

So we have books that date back from the 15th century all the way to books that were published last week. Uh, and it's a tradition that I'm trying to keep growing just to make sure that our, we have the most comprehensive collection, the most useful collection for anybody who's really in the Baltimore area, who wants to travel to Baltimore to work in the history of medicine.

Richard Del Rio: Now, this is a library in a, in a medical school but has the purpose of this library changed over time? I mean, how familiar are you with the history of this space?

Michael Seminara: So the history is interesting, right? So we're in a historic building, right? The building was, uh, dedicated in 1930. We are in the Welch Medical Library building, but the historical collection is actually part of the Institute of the History of Medicine and not technically under [00:03:00] the umbrella of the Welch Medical Library. So the medical library does things that a medical library would be expected to do, right?

They provide, uh, research services for medical students, also on this campus, public health and nursing students who are working towards their degrees, not history degrees, but their degrees in their specific disciplines. So what we do is a bit different because we are a history library. Uh, we've always been situated on the top floor on the third floor of Welch, uh, ever since the founding of the institute, but always separate.

Mia Levenson: So you're not just sort of a curator and bringing things to the library, but you also work in research services. So if we're imagining, you know, a student or a scholar coming up to the third floor of Welch and is not sure where to begin, how would you help them get started? What does the process of introducing researchers to the library look like?

Michael Seminara: Sure. One of the things that I really enjoy about [00:04:00] my role is the ability to work with students and researchers. Um, so generally the first thing that we do is I, I try to make clear the distinctions between the different organizations here at Hopkins.

So Hopkins libraries are set up somewhat differently than other libraries, so I do wanna make sure that our researchers know that we are not the medical library, we've already covered that, but also that we are not the medical archives. So if anyone's doing research on a Hopkins physician, they really ought to go check out the Chesney Medical Archives because they'll have way more for them there at Chesney than we will at the institute. But we do have some on the history of Hopkins physicians, uh, mostly publications from Hopkins physicians, but for the actual archives for the papers, you wanna go to Chesney.

After I've made that distinction clear, we'll start with our basic reference interview, see what the, uh, what the topic of research is, maybe what the time period and we'll start diving into sources.

Uh, generally I like to start with the print sources. We have a great print collection on site. It's very easily [00:05:00] accessible. So we'll start, sometimes if there's time we'll start with just a, a browsing of the, of the shelves for that particular subject area. After that we can talk more about, uh, secondary sources, uh, things that you might want to find outside of our library.

Richard Del Rio: So in addition to people who are doing, pursuing research projects in history of medicine. , I imagine you get all kinds of guests, right? , Just people who want to check out this beautiful room.

And for our listeners out there who haven't had the chance to visit the Institute yet, it is a beautiful space , wood everywhere, the wonderful smell of books from all time periods , all kinds of materials. I remember our one time you showed me a book, I, I believe it was from Indonesia that was made from Palm leaves. That was specifically suited for tropical weather. Fascinating stuff. What about folks who are teaching classes? I mean, I'm sure you get people coming here just to get ideas or to get materials just so they [00:06:00] can bring back to their classrooms. What kind of resources do you have for teaching classes?

Michael Seminara: So I do, I work with. I work with teachers and professors all the time to sort of, um, cater these one-off, uh, rare book sessions to sort of introduce their students to the topic via our book collection. So like recently actually, we had a group of students working in an art history class, right?

So the professor reached out and wanted to set up a visit. They came to the institute. We talked about our collections as they relate to Ancient G reece, and we have a lot of really incredible books on ancient Greece, and it was, for me, I actually really enjoy these types of requests because it gives me the opportunity to go into our collection and pull books that I might have otherwise not pulled or not seen.

So in this instance, it was one of the first times that I got to really look closely at some of our Greek language printing and some of it's pretty early Greek printing. So one of the books that was pulled for this course was a, um, was a 1522 Venetian imprint, in a very [00:07:00] early Greek printing of Hippocrates.

So the aphorisms of Hippocrates didn't appear in its original Greek in print until, well until the 16th century. So this very well might be the first time that we see Greek printed aphorisms of Hippocrates.

Richard Del Rio: And people are just able to walk in and take a look at it.

Michael Seminara: So yes, if they have an appointment, generally we, we encourage people to make appointments. It's good to know ahead of time, especially if they're working with raw materials, because I've gotta pull those rare materials. It used to be that people could browse our shelves for our, our recent books, our modern publications. That policy has changed. It's a library wide policy that's changed.

So generally it's better if we have notice that way I can have the books prepared and, and ready.

Mia Levenson: So, you know, I think especially as, as a researcher, I think it's easy to, [00:08:00] you know, go to the library when I am struggling finding something myself, or I just need to go and like, grab a book and leave. But, what do you wish scholars knew about, about libraries, about the, the library that you currently, curate for that they might not already know?

Michael Seminara: So I guess what I wish most scholars knew is what you find online for most collections, and this is especially true for our collections, is really just the tip of the iceberg. If you talk to the curator, if you talk to the librarian or to the archivist, you're going to find out, uh, so much more about what materials are available that would suit your topic.

So it is always worth it to reach out directly to whoever. Works on a daily basis with the collections and just have a conversation about the, what materials are, are there, what might be of interest. But you wouldn't have thought of it based on a keyword search. For [00:09:00] instance, if you're doing research in dentistry, you'd have to look and if you're doing early modern dentistry, you'd have to look in early books on surgery, right?

So, or early printed works on surgery. Don't always have dentistry as a, a keyword when you search the catalog, but often enough you will find. Information on early dentistry in those surgical works.

Mia Levenson: What is the coolest object that you have? I know you hate this question, but I love asking it because every time I ask it, you answer something different. So what? Right now? Do you think it's the coolest object you have at the library?

Michael Seminara: This is a question I get all the time, and it is,

Richard Del Rio: Let's get into it.

Michael Seminara: Yeah.

And it's an incredible, it's an incredibly difficult question to answer because our books are so interesting, right? Our collections are just, uh, they're just fun to work with. So really my favorite book, my, the most interesting book happens to be whatever is crossing my desk at the time. Somebody asks, which is why it's always a different answer.

This just this morning actually, I was [00:10:00] working through some of our prints in our Jacobs room. And our Jacobs collection is absolutely incredible and I try to get in there when I can to, to really get to know it better.

Richard Del Rio: Can you tell us more about the Jacobs Collection?

Michael Seminara: Sure.

Richard Del Rio: For those who don't know.

Michael Seminara: Yeah. Henry Barton Jacobs was a physician here at Hopkins. He taught briefly in the school of medicine. He was a good friend of William Osler and he actually, he left and he went to private practice after Osler went to Oxford. In 1930, he gifted the Institute his collection of medical books. And now on the third floor here, we've got a room, the Jacobs Room, which houses is his portrait and his collection. His collection is unique because he focuses on a couple of particular areas. He's interested in the French school of physicians. He's interested in vaccination and smallpox, tuberculosis, and his friend, Osler.

So he also has a really great collection of prints, and this print collection needs some descriptive work. It's mostly images of physicians, but there's also some really interesting things in there. Uh, hospital [00:11:00] blueprints, caricatures, some public responses to vaccination in, uh, right after Jenner's vaccine. But this morning when I was looking through there, I, I was looking at this really sort of beautiful image.

A painting actually of a, of a skull. And it's a Benjamin West actually gifted it to a Scottish physician. And it's cool things like that that you don't really expect to find in our collection, but when you do, they're, they're just really interesting and it's very easy to get sidetracked by something just visually stunning like that.

Another really interesting thing about the Jacobs collection is his, his interest in vaccination and his his collection around Edward Jenner is, um, it's remarkable, right? So we have, and students love to see this, but we have some of the hair from the cow that was used to develop that first, Jenner's first vaccine.

We also have letters, correspondence, um, received by Jenner as he was working on the vaccine from other [00:12:00] physicians at the time. Uh, it's an incredible collection.

Richard Del Rio: It really is a fascinating thing. And what kind of brought me or raised awareness to me about the robust collections here at the Institute Library were the exhibits when I first came. And it's not just images, but also tools and devices. , Can you talk a little bit about the work you do with your teammates about putting together exhibits, how the public can access them, and what your inspiration usually is for picking an exhibit?

Michael Seminara: Sure. Yeah, that's a great question. We have a really incredible exhibit space, our second floor gallery, and it is open and available generally to anybody with a Hopkins ID to walk in and see what exhibits we have on. Currently we have no exhibit on because we are just about to put up our next exhibit.

But to talk a little bit about some of the earlier ones. We did this really great exhibit on AIDS and public outreach. So, uh, sort of public messaging around, around the [00:13:00] aids epidemic.

Richard Del Rio: Can, can you speak a little bit about the collection that you, that, that the things that you were showing at the aids aids exhibit?

Michael Seminara: Sure. Yeah. So for that one, we work closely with the Cheney archives and they have a wonderful collection of early AIDS research, from a physician who focuses in public health. So it's also a collection of sort of pamphlets, data , basically anything that you would need to let people know updates, right? The public, give the public updates on where we are in treating this disease. Because AIDS was one of those diseases where it, there was a bit of lag time, right? Uh, there was some misinformation out there and there was some time before treatment really started being developed in a way that was helpful honestly, for people who were suffering.

And actually, I'm still buying AIDS material. And I just recently purchased some, some, a really interesting pamphlet and a collection of photographs actually on AIDS treatment in Cuba in 19, in the early [00:14:00] 1990s.

Richard Del Rio: What did you notice from this acquisition?

Michael Seminara: Well, it, it, it literally just arrived. , But what's really, really interesting is we get to see the, sort of the ins and outs of the, the treatment facility, without the patients, right? So we don't have to worry about patient privacy with this collection. It's, it's sort of the technical details of how the hospital was set up specifically for AIDS patients, how research was being done also onsite at the facility, what was being done to make people sort of as comfortable as they possibly could be while they were dealing with aids.

Mia Levenson: So how do you go about curating, where do you source materials from?

Michael Seminara: So, when. So when I'm buying materials, are you talking about exhibits or just purchasing?

Mia Levenson: I'm just talking about sort of like how did you come in contact with these aids pamphlets from Cuba?

Michael Seminara: Yeah. Oh, actually this was pretty great. Um, so I've got a, I've got some really wonderful [00:15:00] colleagues over at the Sheridan Library.

Sheridan Libraries are the library system for the, for the undergraduate and, and graduate school arts and sciences over on Homewood campus who purchase, who regularly purchase special collections materials for, for their collections. And somebody, uh, a bookseller reached out to one of my colleagues over there, had this really great catalog with lots of medical stuff, and they forwarded on to me and I was reading through it and I saw it and I was like, absolutely, we, we need more stuff on AIDS in our collection.

And it just, it was something that, that I had to buy.

Mia Levenson: And for just everyday sort of sourcing. Mm-hmm. Where. Is it just serendipity? Is it just, you know, uh, someone from Sheridan will contact you or you have other booksellers that'll contact you? How do you go about sourcing materials for the library?

Michael Seminara: Yeah, so I'm in contact with a number of booksellers, right? I get, I get tons and tons of catalogs for, for rare books. And for modern books, I, I generally go to the to the [00:16:00] presses themselves to source them. It's that time of year, right? It's the end of the fiscal year. So I've been doing actually a lot of buying.

It's funny how the end of the fiscal year also sort of. It lines up with lots of recent publications at the academic presses are really turning out a lot of really great new scholarship in history of medicine. So I've been sort of bouncing around the University of Chicago Press, university of North Carolina Press, just purchasing new books for our circulating collection that, all of them look incredibly interesting and all of them I'm sure will be utilized by scholars and students. Um, but generally, yeah, I work directly through the rare book sellers in their catalogs or through the university presses.

Mia Levenson: We'll end it with this. There's, you mentioned an exhibit coming up.

Michael Seminara: Mm-hmm.

Mia Levenson: What's the exhibit? What are you excited about for the summer?

Michael Seminara: All right, so coming up soon, uh, very soon, actually, the first week of June, we're putting up a new exhibit. , The title is Eyes on Wilmer: 100 Years of Ophthalmology at John Hopkins.

And it's a fun one. It's sort of a part [00:17:00] institutional history, part history of ophthalmology. The viewer will be guided through some early texts on ophthalmology. They'll see a Baltimore connection because there was some really great printing on ophthalmology done in Baltimore, plus images created in Baltimore, uh, including from a lo local, uh, lithography company based in Baltimore.

But the sort of core will be celebrating the centennial of the Wilmer Eye Institute. So Wilmer Eye Institute has been here for a hundred years. They've been seeing patients here at the hospital for a hundred years and it's, they've seen many really talented ophthalmologists come through there who've made some really great contributions to the field. And all of that will be on display.

Richard Del Rio: Michael, thank you so much for spending time with us, chatting with us, and telling us about all the interesting work that's happening at the Institute's Library. Uh, I know it's such, it's so awesome to just be a few doors down from this library and pursuing [00:18:00] my research, pursuing my work.

It really is fantastic thing. So I encourage all you listening out there. If you're in Baltimore, come and visit, especially if you're interested in medical history, which I assume you are 'cause you're listening to this podcast. So come check it out.

Michael Seminara: Yes, please come visit us. Our library is open weekdays Monday through Friday, so a nine to five. Just so you can send me an email. You can send our, our historical collection account an email. It's just historicalcollection@jhmi.edu. And, uh, we'll get back to you. We can set up a time for visit or we can just talk in history medicine.

Mia Levenson: Michael, thank you so much for being here.

Michael Seminara: Thank you.