From Our Partners: ““FACTS AND INFERENCES”—DIGITIZING SHADOWS FROM THE WALLS OF DEATH PART 1”

NLM has digitized and made publicly available for the first time, one of four known copies of Shadows from the Walls of Death: Facts and Inferences Prefacing a Book of Specimens of Arsenical Wall Papers, 1874. In this three-part series learn more about the origins of this rare book, the digitization effort, and the arsenic pigments of the 19th century.

By Krista Stracka ~ Krista Stracka is a Rare Book Cataloger for the Rare Books and Early Manuscripts Section in the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine.

In a digitization workflow, the assessment of the physical condition of each book is a critical step to determine whether its fragile pages can withstand the rigors of scanning without damage. However, for one book in the NLM collection, these considerations also had to be flipped. Aside from a random paper cut, what if the book itself could potentially harm the person scanning each page? Contained inside the binding of the rare but increasingly popular Shadows from the Walls of Death: Facts and Inferences Prefacing a Book of Specimens of Arsenical Wall Papers are 84 samples of wallpaper sheets colored with arsenical pigments. In appreciation of North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) Week, this three-part series will provide a behind-the-scenes look at actions that were taken by NLM staff to safely scan this curious book (now available online) and the hazardous pigments contained inside.

Faded printing on green paper gives the title of the book, author and additional information.
Detail of the original cover of Shadows from the Walls of Death: Facts and Inferences Prefacing a Book of Specimens of Arsenical Wall Papers, 1874
National Library of Medicine #0234555

The inclusion of these pigments was intentional, as you may have guessed by the dramatic title. Published in 1874, Shadows from the Walls of Death was written and compiled by Dr. Robert C. Kedzie to raise awareness about the beautiful yet toxic pigments used by many wallpaper manufacturers. Shadows from the Walls of Death is composed of a letter of introduction issued by the Michigan State Board of Health and an eight-page preface by Dr. Kedzie, the Chairman of Committee on Poisons, followed by over 80 arsenical wallpaper samples. Dr. Kedzie purchased these samples from leading dealers in Lansing, Detroit, and Jackson to compile 100 copies that were then distributed to public libraries in the state of Michigan. Out of concern for patron health, most copies have been discarded or destroyed and only four are known to exist today. The National Library of Medicine’s copy was sent in 1874 to John Shaw Billings, who was then serving as director of the Library of the Surgeon General’s Office. The other three surviving copies are located at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Harvard University.

A striped pattern with grey flowers and green stripes.

Although arsenic has been used as poison and as medicine since antiquity, the nineteenth century witnessed a surge in its use in industry to manufacture consumer goods, earning the nickname “the arsenic century” from historian James Whorton. Coloring agents containing arsenic were both cheap to produce and capable of yielding vivid hues. In particular, the vibrant shades of Sheele’s and Paris green pigments became especially fashionable, leading to a demand for a variety of goods in these colors, including clothing, furniture, playing cards, toys, food…and wallpaper. Of these products, wallpaper raised much concern from the medical profession and the public as reports of illness increased with exposure to the poisonous substance in the home and on the job. Nausea, headaches, diarrhea, joint pain, skin diseases, and other symptoms of arsenical poisoning were reported to disappear once time was spent away from the offending pigments.

A vining pattern of green leaves and flowers.

Concerns about the toxic effects of arsenical wallpaper were raised as early as 1839 when German chemist Leopold Gmelin submitted a letter to a newspaper about his own findings. Although demand in the United States decreased temporarily, warnings were brushed aside by consumers as manufacturers and members of the medical profession questioned the hazards. Symptoms of arsenic poisoning were easily mistaken for those of cholera or dysentery. Susceptibility varied widely among individuals exposed to the wallpaper—even within the same household—leading many to doubt its harmfulness. Aside from physical effects, employment was another driving factor. The use of these pigments was quite lucrative, providing work for many who accepted the conditions as part of the job. With these conflicting messages, arsenical greens became highly fashionable again in the 1860s.

A shield type pattern with green pendants and white flowers on a grey background.

In response to this resurgence, education campaigns increased in the next decade to eliminate the use of arsenical pigments. As Dr. Frank Draper stated in the 1872 Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts, “the demand ceasing, the supply will cease; and a correct taste in color will find its gratification in agents which possess no poisonous character.” Two years later, the Shadows from the Walls of Death campaign was created in Michigan. By sending the book to the leading libraries in Michigan, Dr. Kedzie went a step further than other campaigns to make the information accessible to the public. Through these efforts, demand increased for safer products which ultimately led manufacturers to produce arsenic-free wallpaper. The benefits reached both the consumers and the workforce.

By digitizing this copy, The National Library of Medicine went one step further to be the first library to make Shadows from the Walls of Death freely accessible to the everyone online. Before sending the book through to the scanning stage of the digitization workflow, NLM staff were careful to consider employee exposure and contacted the NIH Department of Occupational Health and Safety (DOHS) for guidance on the recommended protection to use while scanning arsenical wallpaper and for future handling of similar materials, because Dr. Kedzie was not the last to include samples of arsenical wallpaper in a publication!

On Wednesday—National Occupational Health and Safety Professional Day—learn more about the safety analysis and sampling performed in cooperation with DOHS in Part 2 of this series!

Like a good mystery? Discover Shadows from the Walls of Death as seen on Mysteries at the Museum “Jack the Ripper, Wooden Money, Deadly Décor which premiered Thursday, July 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Travel Channel.

Images from the Library

Looking through our recent uploads, this cover caught my eye: front page of "Social Ethics"

It’s from an anonymous “synopsis” of the papers given at a May 1886 meeting of the Society of Medical Jurisprudence and State Medicine (New York State) which was held at the Academy of Medicine (now a MHL partner!) This copy of the pamphlet was given out with the “compliments of Wm M. McLaury, M.D.,” listed as one of the trustees of the Society.

New to the MHL!

We’ve got 269,122 items in the MHL and the number is growing every day! Here are some of our latest additions:

Check out all our latest additions here!

Highlights from the MHL: National Potato Month!

Among other things, September is National Potato Month and we are prepared.

Need recipe ideas? There are hundreds (really!) in Potato cookery (1907):

Are you a gardener looking to improve the potato? Try A study of the factors influencing the improvement of the potato (1908):

Or perhaps you have some kind of vermin problem? Potato bugs, perhaps? Try some Rat dynamite (1850):

“Transplanting Technology: Dr. Michael DeBakey and Cold War Technology Transfer”

~Post courtesy Stephen Greenberg, Section HEad, Rare Books and Early Manuscripts, History of Medicine Division.

You are cordially invited to the next NLM History of Medicine lecture, to be held Thursday, May 24, from 2 pm to 3:00pm in the NLM Lister Hill Auditorium, Building 38A, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD.  This special program will be the second annual NLM Michael E. DeBakey Lecture in the History of Medicine, honors the legacy of Dr. DeBakey as it exists in modern medical practice and in the ongoing public service of the NLM.

 

This year’s lecture will be delivered by Heidi Morefield, MSc — 2017 NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellow in the History of Medicine, Doctoral Candidate, Department of the History of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland:

“Transplanting Technology: Dr. Michael DeBakey and Cold War Technology Transfer”

At the height of the Cold War, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, one of the most prolific American surgeons of the 20th century, made several trips to China and the USSR to survey the medical landscape on the other side of the Iron Curtain. DeBakey became a broker of valuable medical information, teaching new techniques and introducing new machines in the USSR and China, while reporting on the conditions of Chinese and Soviet medical institutions back home to the American public. His diplomatic success was possible in part because of his willingness to take less high-tech medical systems seriously—he praised the barefoot doctors and was “impressed” with Russian medical inventions that were showcased during his visits. With rich diary entries describing his visits, DeBakey understood medical technology as being appropriate only in context. He situated both the Western technology he helped transplant to the East as well as that which he encountered there within the topography of the Soviet and Chinese medical systems. In reflecting upon DeBakey’s Cold War travels, this talk will interrogate how his influence and mobility shaped perceptions of both American and communist-sphere medical technology

The NLM Michael E. DeBakey Lecture in the History of Medicine is supported by a generous gift to the NLM by the Michael E. DeBakey Medical Foundation. This lecture will be live-streamed globally, and subsequently archived, by NIH VideoCasting.

 

 

 

All are welcome.

A Conversation About Graphic Medicine

~Post courtesy Stephen Greenberg, Section Head, Rare Books and Early Manuscripts History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine.

You are cordially invited to the next NLM History of Medicine lecture, to be held on Thursday, March 1, from 2:00pm until 3:30pm in the NLM Lister Hill Auditorium, Building 38A, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD. NLM Director Patricia Brennan, RN, PhD will host “A Conversation About Graphic Medicine” with pioneers from this emerging genre of literature that combines the art of comics and the personal illness narrative.

 

Dr. Brennan will be joined in conversation by Ellen Forney, cartoonist, educator, author of the New York Times bestselling graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me, and guest curator of the new NLM exhibition, Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived and Well-Drawn!; MK Czerwiec, RN, MA, Artist-in-Residence at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, author of Taking Turns: Stories from HIV-AIDS Care Unit 371, and co-manager of GraphicMedicine.org; and Michael Green, MD, physician, bioethicist, and professor at Penn State University’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and co-author with MK Czerwiec and others, of The Graphic Medicine Manifesto.

 

“A Conversation About Graphic Medicine” will address the place of graphic medicine within medical literature and the landscape of personal health communication in the 21st century. This special public program is in conjunction with the new NLM exhibition, Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived and Well-Drawn! on display in the History of Medicine Division Reading Room on the first floor of the NLM, Building 38 and online here: www.nlm.nih.gov/graphicmedicine.

 

This lecture, like all NLM History of Medicine Lectures, will be free, open to the public, live-streamed globally, and subsequently archived, by NIH VideoCasting. All are welcome to attend onsite and remotely:

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/lectures/index.html

 

The specific live-stream URL for this talk is here: https://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?live=26989&bhcp=1

 

Sign language interpretation is provided for all lectures. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate may contact Erika Mills at 301-594-1947, Erika.Mills@nih.gov, or via the Federal Relay (1-800-877-8339).

 

Due to current security measures at NIH, off-campus visitors are advised to consult the NLM Visitors and Security website:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/about/visitor.html

In addition, we warmly welcome you to visit our blog, Circulating Now, where you can learn more about the collections and related programs of the NLM’s History of Medicine Division, and watch for interviews with guest participants in the upcoming Conversation about Graphic Medicine:
http://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/

Here also you can read interviews with previous lecturers:
http://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/tag/lecture/

 

Sponsored by:

NLM’s History of Medicine Division

Jeffrey S. Reznick, PhD, Chief

 

Event contact:

Erika Mills

301-827-4577

Erika.Mills@nih.gov

NLM Book Symposium

~This post courtesy Stephen Greenberg, Head, Rare Books & Early Manuscripts, History of Medicine Division.

You are cordially invited to a public symposium to mark the recent publication of Images of America: US National Library of Medicine, and the simultaneous availability via NLM Digital Collections of the complete book at:

https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/ImagesofAmericaNLM

and original versions of the 170+ images which appear in the book in black and white:

https://go.usa.gov/xNfnw

Learn more about this new, publicly-available publication here:

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/illustrated-history-nlm-published-2017.html.

The symposium will be a part of the NLM History of Medicine Lecture Series and will take place next Thursday, July 13, 2016, from 2:30pm to 4pm in Lipsett Amphitheater on the first floor of the NIH Clnical Center, Building 10, on the NIH Campus in Bethesda, MD.

If you cannot join us onsite, you can watch the proceedings via NIH Videocasting: https://videocast.nih.gov/. You can also participate in the proceedings via Twitter by following #NLMHistTalk.

Sign language interpretation is provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate may contact Stephen J. Greenberg  at 301-827-4577, or by email at stephen.greenberg@nih.gov, or the Federal Relay (1-800-877-8339).

Due to current security measures at NIH, off-campus visitors are advised to consult the NLM Visitors and Security website:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/about/visitor.html

Sponsored by:
NLM’s History of Medicine Division
Jeffrey S. Reznick, PhD, Chief

Event contact:
Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD

Head, Rare Books & Early Manuscripts
History of Medicine Division
National Library of Medicine, NIH
301-827-4577
stephen.greenberg@nih.gov