Thursday, March 31, 2011

April Theme Day - Edges

Walking close to the edge they became shadows of their former being.

To see other CDP theme day entries
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
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Cardiac history roundup

The photograph above, dated 1931, portrays the cardiologist Edward Franklin Bland. Born in Virginia in 1901, Bland spent most of his career at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he was an Intern, House Officer, Cardiac Fellow, and finally in 1949 Chief of Cardiology, a post he held until his retirement in 1964. The photograph was kindly presented to the Wellcome Library by Dr Arthur Hollman FRCP, the biographer of Sir Thomas Lewis: Dr Hollman had acquired it as a result of the fact that in 1930 Bland had spent a year on research in Lewis's laboratory at University College Hospital (UCH) in London. [1]

As a result of Bland's year with Lewis, the Wellcome Library has in its Thomas Lewis archive (PP/LEW) a letter from Lewis to Bland dated 25 March 1933. Lewis thanks Bland for submitting a paper to the journal Heart (edited by Lewis) but has to decline it because Heart was about to be replaced by a new journal Clinical science. Lewis advises Bland to "cut out a lot of stuff about coronary anomalies" because it "doesn't really give anything new": coronary anomalies were a special interest of Bland, and one of them is named Bland-White-Garland Syndrome after him, his former colleague at MGH Paul Dudley White, and Joseph Garland, who was a visiting physician at MGH while editor of the New England Journal of Medicine (and himself the owner of a congenital cardiac anomaly).

Lewis then goes on to offer for Bland's consideration a view which, in its teleological phrasing, could mutatis mutandis have been written by Galen. Explaining why, if arterial blood is not available, the myocardium clutches at straws by accepting venous blood as being better than nothing, Lewis says "In these cases Nature performs an experiment on the effects of supplying the heart with venous blood. Now in cases of occlusion of the coronary arteries, the heart is thought by some to be supplied by the Thebesian vessels [named after their discoverer Adam Christian Thebesius (1686–1732)]. The Thebesian vessels open chiefly into the right heart so that if the myocardium is supplied through these vessels it is being supplied chiefly with venous blood." Lewis does not elaborate further.

Finally in this letter Lewis refers to a forthcoming visit by Bland, who must have been about to return to the UK in 1933: "I will talk about them when I see you in a few weeks. We are looking forward to that very much. It is good of you and Jones to drive us about the country." Jones was possibly T.Duckett Jones, Bland's co-author in several papers on the heart disease rheumatic fever. Evidently Bland and Jones had offered to act as chauffeurs to Sir Thomas and Lady Lewis in exchange for Sir Thomas's gifts of physiological wisdom.

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One of the puzzling things about heart transplantation from an outsider's point of view is the sudden emergence to world-wide fame of the previously obscure Dr Christiaan Barnard. Today, he is probably the only transplant surgeon whose name is widely known, yet when experts talk about the history of transplantation, names of other great figures tend to be mentioned, such as Norman Shumway, Roy Calne, Thomas E. Starzl, and Denton A. Cooley. These worked in international centres of surgical research such as Stanford University in California; Houston, Texas; or Cambridge, England — while the man who beat them to the goal and outshone them all in the public mind was apparently a relative outsider: Barnard, working at the University of Cape Town (above) under the pressures of the apartheid regime of the time. How did that happen?

The recent history of Groote Schuur Hospital by Anne Digby and others [2] shows that research at Groote Schuur had developed after a slow start in the 1950s and flourished until the 1980s, though bedevilled by government policies: in the 1960s and 1970s black students were not allowed to cross the corridor which separated the wards for black patients from the white wards. It really was Barnard's first transplant operation on 3 December 1967 which put the hospital on the international map.

The background to these events is presented in a vivid lecture given on 25 January 2011 by Dr. David Cooper to the C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society at the University of Pittsburgh. The lecture has been made available on the internet by Dr John Erlen at the School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh. [3] Dr. Cooper was a surgical associate of Barnard and evidently knew him well. As Cooper shows, there were other names as well, notably "the great John Lewis" (whose achievements in the field went unrecognized) and James Hardy of University of Mississippi at Jackson. Still, Barnard had had the idea of a full human heart transplant in his head for a long time (as Cooper shows from a chance remark made by Barnard early in their acquaintance, while talking about the inadequate treatment a heart patient was receiving). As a result, when he did carry it out, he was remarkably casual about it, showing that he had gone over it in his mind many times without telling anyone. Contrary to legend, Cooper shows that the procedure (apart from a bad patch in the 1970s) was usually very successful in prolonging the lives of patients.

It's a long way from the work of Edward F. Bland, though there is a connection: Barnard developed his techniques of cardiac surgery in the Tetralogy of Fallot, one of those anatomical anomalies that Bland was so interested in. Bland did live to see the establishment of transplantation: he himself must have been blessed with a good heart, for he died in 1992 at the age of 91.
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The history of the Knights of Malta (Knights of Rhodes, Knights Hospitallers, Knights of St John) was one of the interests of the founder of the Wellcome Library, Henry S. Wellcome. He acquired a substantial archive of their papers in Paris in 1933 (subsequently returned to Malta), and several iconographic documents, most notably this painting by Antoine de Favray. In recent years the Knights have focused their medical activities on specific fields such as refugees, people with leprosy, and – most conspicuous in Great Britain -- emergency services: their British outcrop St John's Ambulance is a familiar presence at crowded events such as football matches, gigs and royal weddings.

One of their contributions to emergency medicine was a campaign in France in the 1960s called "Don du souffle" (Gift of breath). Judging from this poster (above: Wellcome Library no. 744037i) which sports the Cross of Malta in the top right corner, it was intended to educate the French public in the possibilities of cardiac resuscitation. The heart — a small organ normally enveloped by the larger lung — is here brought into the foreground, being presented as a red berry on the green leaf of a single lung which folds out from the trachea. Highly stylised anatomy, of course, but all in the aid of saving lives by drawing attention to what can be done with the heart and lung.

[1] Memoir of Bland: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2376608/pdf/tacca00084-0039.pdf

[2] Anne Digby and Howard Phillips with Harriet Deacon and Kirsten Thomson, At the heart of healing: Groote Schuur Hospital, 1938-2008, Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana, 2008, pp. xiii, 281-285

[3] David K.C. Cooper, 'Chris Barnard and the story of heart transplantation', URL: http://mediasite.cidde.pitt.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=0934815fd4154df984f71032e0fe61d1. See also his book Open heart: the radical surgeons who revolutionized medicine, New York: Kaplan Pub., 2010
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Selling Son Of Paleface --- Part Two



To that data of Philadelphia bidding $27,500 in advance for Son Of Paleface should be added this: They had to guarantee $37,500 for Martin and Lewis in Jumping Jacks and six weeks minimum playing time as opposed to Paleface's four. So what did this say to Bob Hope's primacy on the Paramount lot? The Dean and Jerry snowball had rolled for going on three years, its peak in sight for 1952's summer and giddy anticipation for Jumping Jacks. These boys were the fad Abbott and Costello had been ten years before, only to crowds bigger. Bob was around before either and his just showing up was no longer assured boxoffice. Jacks was beating M&L's previous Sailor Beware by a third in many houses, startling all the more was its largest take for Paramount since DeMille's Samson and Delilah and ongoing smash The Greatest Show On Earth. Numbers would tell the tale ... Jumping Jacks finished with $4.1 million in domestic rentals to Son Of Paleface's $3.1. Unkindest cut for Paramount lay in both having been independently financed and shot, by producer Hal Wallis and Hope Enterprises respectively. With Para little more than distributor, thickest gravy would be Wallis and Hope's to scoop.





So could there be wonder at Bob's willingness to pump for Paleface oil? He had radio and emerging TV to help with that. Exposure to either got you wired to his newest in theatres. Hope dropped in on the New York Paramount's opening night to join Louis Prima on stage and introduce SOP, that stand good for a first week swelled to $75G's. Jane Russell was meanwhile Chicago ways to help a newly reopened Oriental Theatre christen Son Of Paleface. There was too Roy Rogers' rodeo situated at Madison Square Gardens, spreading Paleface word through capacity bleachers. Such was media exposure of these combined that got message to masses undreamt of in today's scattered marketplace. Where I lived (well, not yet ... two years to wait for that), exhib friend-to-be Garland Morrison was ass't manager at nearby Elkin, NC's Reeves Theatre, assigned to bally Son Of Paleface without benefit of Bob, Jane, or Roy personal appearing. Garland came through with a borrowed buckboard he'd park front of the entrance with stills and playdate attached. That stunt got him ink in Boxoffice, but I can't help wondering ... weren't functioning buckboards still a fairly common sight on 1952 Elkin streets? They were in neighboring small towns, including my own.




Roy Rogers hadn't intended for Son Of Paleface to be a last theatrical feature. There'd been a break with Republic, recriminations following, and all-over TV dump of westerns sans Rogers' consent he felt entitled to. The company also spread thin reissued oldies to trade on RR's continuing popularity. This King Of Cowboys had built a cross-biz empire nearly a size of Autry's, both entering vid spheres with respective half-hour series in play as Son Of Paleface opened. Roy wanted back in features on independent terms --- was observing Bob Hope's operation a hint? There would be new RR westerns in color and widescreen, released through United or perhaps Allied Artists. That was at least Rogers' plan by 1954, but it wouldn't come off for reasons perhaps lost to time. A return to big screens post-Son Of Paleface might just have been the ticket, for in its way, SOP is among slickest and most accomplished of outdoor shows Roy did. Drop Hope and the thing plays like any of a dozen westerns Rogers did, only this time a much wider audience was getting what for many was first-time exposure to the sagebrush star.







Son Of Paleface's negative became asset of Hope Enterprises. So had a number of his other past Paramount releases. There'd be bookings, occasionally as bottom of duals, into the sixties, but no dedicated reissue. Hope had too much fresh product to compete with himself via vaulties. Besides, he'd revisit Son Of Paleface as Alias Jesse James in 1959, same old west setting and airing of gags that clicked before. What Bob (and partnering NBC) did have of considerable value was backlog of negs coveting syndicators wanted for 60's television lease. Trades heralded Allied Artists-TV scoring the lot in June 1963, ten years of use upon payment of $850,000 for seven Hope starring features dating from 1947's Road To Rio, and all had been solid hits in theatres (one of the highest prices paid for pix for TV, said Variety). A pair had tube-run earlier, Rio and My Favorite Brunette, but The Lemon Drop Kid, The Seven Little Foys, The Road To Bali, The Great Lover, and Son Of Paleface would be new to airwaves and likely major lures. AA even announced reissue for the group under a "Hope Jubilee" umbrella, but I found no evidence of that coming off. Indeed, the package was made available to broadcasters within weeks of the deal, July being launch for the seven to local channels. Son Of Paleface has been released on DVD several times, not always from flattering elements. I'd like knowing who stores negatives of the group with Bob gone. Does his family maintain an interest, or more to point, are they interested? There was packaging of four in the old HD-DVD format, certainly a best I've seen these pictures look. Welcome would be all Hope Enterprise titles arriving in a Blu-Ray box, but with DVD sales in general decline, I guess that isn't likely to happen.
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OHC Blog Carnival: Grateful for Spring Nature Study

Spring Wildflowers with Insect


It is spring! For most of us we are starting to see the beginnings of a greener world with warmer temperatures and more outdoor activity. The poll on my Spring Squidoo lens shows that most readers experience the first signs of spring in the month of March. I know that the participants of the Outdoor Hour Challenge have been taking advantage of the spring weather and this blog carnival gives you lots of spring time inspiration.

I wanted to feature this entry and make sure to let you know about a special thank you I received from Angie (Pebblekeeper). What better way to start off this edition of the carnival! 

I love hosting the Outdoor Hour Challenges each week and this carnival is a fun way to keep you all in touch, as a way to build a community. Thank you for all your effort and support of nature study in your families. It is noticed. 

Enjoy your carnival!

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Winter Insects/Small Square Study 
fox
Winter Mammal Study
crocus
Early Spring Flowers/Bulbs Study
cherry tree
Signs of Spring Observations
frog with cattails
Spring Cattail Observations


Spring Series Cover
Schedule for Spring 2011
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Cut + Paste: Romare Bearden @ Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, NY


American artist, Romare Bearden's (b.1911) practice is complex and wide reaching. This exhibition at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is the first to focus exclusively on collage, the medium through which Bearden arrived at his later style. Created between 1964 and 1983, the 21 works in the exhibition exemplify Bearden's exceptional talent for story-telling as well as his mastery of the medium's fragmentation of form and space. Together, they reveal an innovative artist whose style is distinguishing by partial images, unexpected juxtapositions, harmonious collisions, and a dynamic modernist aesthetic that continues to inspire and challenge viewers today.

While Bearden's early work consisted of figural paintings inspired by the social realism that dominated the 1930s, a trip to Paris in 1950 inspired him to move closer to abstraction. In the early 1960s, he turned to collage in an attempt to redefine the image of man in terms of black experience. Cutting and pasting photographs, paper, fabric, newspaper, and magazines. Bearden often added gouache, ink, pencil, and oil to his surfaces, creating compositions that focused on expansive themes. Bearden went some way to redefine the image of humanity not through the black experience but black experiences. That is to say, his representations of the rural and the urban, African, American and Caribbean explored a broad scope of histories, identities and multiple lives.

The works in this exhibition reflect the artist's belief that art is made from other art. This idea is literally present in the act of collage-making-taking images, colours, and forms out of one context, altering them and juxtaposing them with other-pre-existing images, colours and forms to create something new. It is equally apparent in Bearden's celebration of jazz and blues, the inspiration he draw from African art, and his passion for telling the stories and representing the cultures of ordinary black Americans. Included in the exhibition is The Fall of Troy (1977), from his series based on Homer's Odyssey, a work that offers further evidence of Bearden's dialogue with the canon of European art.

Romare Bearden Collage: A Centennial Celebration is on display at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York until May 21. For further information visit www.michaelrosenfeldart.com

Image: Romare Bearden (1911-1988)
Illusionists at 4 PM, 1967
mixed media collage on board
30" x 40", signed
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY
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Putting Medical Officer of Health reports on the map

The Wellcome Library holds nearly 3,000 Medical Officer of Health reports, the most complete collection of its kind in Great Britain. These can already be searched on our catalogue, where the ‘Place’ and ‘Refine by tag’ facets make it easy to narrow down your search by geographical area.

But it also makes sense to view geographical information on a map:
Every red dot is a placemarker for each report that we hold, and the sheer number of placemarkers shows the volume of this material at the Wellcome Library. As with any Google Map, you can drag and zoom in and out to focus on a particular place.
Placemarkers not only indicate that we have a report for that area. Click one and you get more information about the report itself, as well as a link to it in our catalogue:

The map was created by putting some Library data into a Google Fusion Table. You can play around with the map a bit more there. For example, it’s easy to see a map for records with a particular subject heading, such as ‘Harbors’, by filtering:
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Count Down

Keeping an eye on the Olympic count down clock recently installed in Trafalgar Square.
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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Spring Gardens - Filled With Promise

Plum Tree -Spring Leaves
Our Plum Tree - Leaves are coming on fast this week with the little sunshine we experienced. Plum jelly in the making.

I have started reading  An Oregon Cottage and she has a great gardening/home blog that hosts a Tuesday Garden Party meme.I thought this week I would join up and share with all of you what is going on in my garden right now as spring starts to burst forth.

My garden is definitely not a winter garden. I don't do much more than throw out a few lettuce and carrot seeds in the late fall and those have long been harvested. My boys planted snap peas this past autumn but some critter of the night came and munched them down to the ground. I accept that I live in a habitat that offers yummy treats to my fellow creatures so I took the peas in stride.

Walnut Tree Branches with Sky
Our Walnut Tree - Perhaps the squirrels will leave us some this year. :)

I think the theme of this post is going to be the PROMISE of a summer garden and fall harvest since that is what I observed as I toured around yesterday.

3 29 11 Chives

Our garlic chives are starting to grow again...can't wait.

3 29 11 Oregano

The oregano is filling in and hints at the summer pizza and sauces to come...of course, I had to nip a few leaves just to smell as I walked around the boxes.

3 29 11 Strawberry leaves

My son's strawberry box is greening up nicely as well. We are going to be adding a new strawberry box as soon as we can get through mud to built it. (see the last photo for a photo of the location)

3 29 11 Onions

This should tell you how badly I need to tend to the garden after a long winter. These onions are popping up despite being mixed in with the mullein and the dusty miller. I know I am not going to get to this part of the garden for at least a couple of weeks....just being honest.

3 29 11 Garden Box with Weeds

So as long as I'm being honest, here is what the state of most of our garden boxes at this very moment. Very sad and in need of a good weeding before we can even think about getting something new planted. The saddest part is that if I put my mind to it, I could have this tidied up in an afternoon.


3 28 11 Tulip

Moving away from the vegetable garden and onto the flower boxes is a little bit more cheerful. The tulips are just beginning to give us a hint of their deep purple blooms to come. I love my little tulip patch and look forward to watercoloring the flowers once they start to really shine.

3 28 11 Chrysanthemums

The chrysanthemums that I planted last year look like they made it through the winter nicely. I look forward to seeing their happy little faces in a few months. This box has coneflowers as well so this spot has flowers long into the autumn once it gets started. I decided a long time ago that I needed to include a couple of flower boxes along with the vegetables because it cheers me up to see the color when I look out the window. Food for the soul.

3 28 11 Wallflower

This wallflower has been a great plant in our garden for the last two years. I actually saw some bees buzzing in it too! Happy bees.

3 29 11 Mushrooms

Here are some guys who came uninvited to my garden! My son spotted these whoppers in the back of the bed and of course I had to take a photo.

Now for the exciting part of the post!

New Garden Site

See that fresh garden territory? I finally convinced my husband that this "lawn" was using up valuable garden space and very expensive water (rates just increased again!). We are trying out a few possible configurations to build some raised boxes with one center block bed to hold something artsy. Any ideas are welcome. It usually gets summer sun mid-morning to late afternoon so probably about six+ hours altogether.

So there ends my garden survey for this first week in the spring season. I am truly looking forward to the change of the season.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom
Jami's Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!
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Images From the Bayeux Tapestry

Illustration: Scene from the Bayeux tapestry, 11th century.

The Bayeux tapestry is of course not technically a tapestry but in fact an embroidery. However, often large embroidered hangings have been termed embroidered tapestries and the word tapestry itself, in this case at least, seems to apply to the size of the embroidery rather than its similarity to a tapestry.

Most now see the Bayeux tapestry as being English made, although there is still some continuing debate as to a French origin. However, its more obvious use was as a Norman propaganda piece where the story of the Norman invasion and occupation of England was twisted to suit the victor, as is always the case.

Illustration: Two scenes from the Bayeux tapestry, 11th century.

The tapestry was set out as a long narrative. In some respects, it could be seen as a song or ballad of the story of William and Harold. It was of course meant to reflect both treachery and betrayal, two vital ingredients to any good ballad. William was of course seen as being the injured party with Harold being portrayed as the betrayer. However, from an English standpoint it was seen as a fateful tragedy with William always being seen within the context of a brutal and aggressive opportunist with Harold playing the role of fateful victim.

The Norman invasion has been seen in many guises, ranging from that of the first chapter of the long tradition of aristocracy and institutions that leads up to and includes much that is modern day Britain, to one of unmitigated disaster for England and the common man as well as the painful history of Wales and Ireland from the initial Norman invasions, and the later cycle of wars between England and France. It is perhaps wise in some respects that the Bayeux tapestry remains in Normandy along with most of the Norman kings who ruled England from 1066.

Illustration: Two scenes from the Bayeux tapestry, 11th century.

As to the practical tapestry itself, it was produced with wool on a bleached linen background. The dimensions of the surviving tapestry, it has a missing end, is over 70 metres long with a height of about 50 centimetres. The wool was dyed into eight distinct colours ranging from red, yellow, buff, three types of green and two blues. Because of the phenomenal length of the tapestry, it is actually made up of eight strips of linen of various lengths, which were produced by a number of women, possibly simultaneously.

Interestingly, the start of the tapestry shows the coronation of the English king Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey. It is thought that the missing end of the tapestry shows the coronation of the Norman king William the Conqueror also at Westminster Abbey. Although this can never be verified it would seem plausible that if the tapestry were displayed around the walls of a large enough room, the two ends would be near enough to each other to create a symbolic link between Edward and William the one being the others natural successor. This would have given William a form of legitimacy through embroidery, one that would have been both obvious and public. This would also have placed Harold II's coronation the last English Saxon king as lost part way through the tapestry theme and therefore of less significance.

Illustration: Two scenes from the Bayeux tapestry, 11th century.

If the missing end of the tapestry truly did show the coronation of William the Conqueror it is intriguing to hypothesise as to whether William's final revenge disintegrated through time or whether it was purposely removed by an incensed Englishman, we will probably never know. However, it is interesting to think that William's legitimacy through his crowning at Westminster Abbey has been removed whether purposely or through accident from the Bayeux tapestry. Although the Saxon England of the pre-Norman era was by no means a perfect society, the Bayeux could be seen as a painful reminder of an England that had to endure centuries of rule by an elite that were by no means known for their light hand.

Despite this, the tapestry is an important and substantial piece of textile craft surviving from the 11th century. Although embroidery examples from this period and before do survive in Northern Europe, they are perhaps not as voluminous as a 70 metre length showing a pivotal moment in both English and ultimately French history.

Illustration: Two scenes from the Bayeux tapestry, 11th century.


Further reading links:
The Bayeux Tapestry Embroiderers' Story
The Bayeux Tapestry
1066: The Hidden History in the Bayeux Tapestry
The Bayeux Tapestry: The Life Story of a Masterpiece
The Bayeux Tapestry
A Needle in the Right Hand of God: The Norman Conquest of 1066 and the Making and Meaning of the Bayeux Tapestry
The Bayeux Tapestry: Monument to a Norman Triumph (Art & Design S.)
The Bayeux Tapestry: The Complete Tapestry in Colour
The Bayeux Tapestry: New Interpretations
The Rhetoric of Power in the Bayeux Tapestry (Cambridge Studies in New Art History and Criticism)
The Bayeux Tapestry and the Norman Invasion
The Bayeux Tapestry: The Story of the Norman Conquest: 1066
Anglo-Saxon Propaganda in the Bayeux Tapestry (Studies in French Civilization)
The Study of the Bayeux Tapestry
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