OPEN TODAY: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.

Beautiful Science: Medicine

Nov. 16, 2008–March 17, 2020
Dibner Hall of the History of Science

In the exhibition Beautiful Science: Ideas that Changed the World, the medicine gallery illustrated the wildly different and sometimes extreme ways the body has been represented. It charted physical experiences from birth to death and traced the development of new techniques for understanding and treating diverse medical conditions.

Stained 16th century book cover with a drawing of people looking at a surgery.
Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical
Transparency of early X-ray
Stained 16th century book cover with a drawing of people looking at a surgery.
Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical
Transparency of early X-ray

De humani corporis fabrica (Epitome: On the fabric of the human body, 1543), by Andreas Vesalius.

Anatomy, descriptive and surgical, 1858, Henry Gray

Transparency of an early diagnostic x-ray, 1896, Michael Pupin