The History of Medicine Advisory Group
This group of leading scholars, physicians, collectors, and library professionals advises The Huntington Library and its Research division on all aspects of The Huntington’s history of medicine program. Areas of consideration include acquisitions and digitization priorities; exhibitions; opportunities for collaboration; research initiatives; and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives related to the history of medicine. The history of medicine has been an integral part of The Huntington Library since its founding. The objective now is to further develop The Huntington as a major center for the history of medicine in the United States.
Cindy Alberts Carson, M.D., J.D.
From 1983 to 2006, Dr. Carson was professor of law at Whittier Law School. She then completed a medical degree at USC Keck School of Medicine and now practices internal medicine and is affiliated with Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. She has published both medical and legal research, including writings about the rights of scholarly access to historic documents. Dr. Carson and her spouse, John Carson (of counsel, Lewis Roca, Glendale, California), are book collectors and longtime supporters of history of medicine initiatives at The Huntington.
Jacalyn Duffin, M.D., Ph.D., C.M., F.R.S.C.
Dr. Duffin is a hematologist and historian who held the Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine at Queen’s University from 1998 to 2017. She has authored numerous books and has been president of the American Association for the History of Medicine and the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine. She is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and, in 2019, was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
Dr. Fye is emeritus professor of medicine and the history of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He is a major collector—a self-described “bibliomaniac”—and donated his library of cardiology materials to The Huntington. He has written numerous books on medical history and has been president of the American College of Cardiology, the American Association for the History of Medicine, and the American Osler Society. His book, American Cardiology: The History of a Specialty and Its College, won the AAHM’s William H. Welch medal, and he has been awarded both the American Osler Society and the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Dr. Gomez earned an M.D. and practiced as an orthopedic surgeon before completing his Ph.D. in 2010. He is associate professor of history and the history of medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and is a leading expert on the history of science and medicine in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the African diaspora. His book The Experiential Caribbean: Creating Knowledge and Healing in the Early Modern Atlantic has won numerous awards.
Dr. Greene is the William H. Welch Professor of Medicine and the History of Medicine, and director of the Department of the History of Medicine and the Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. He earned an M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard in 2005 and is board certified in internal medicine. He has published two books: Prescribing by Numbers: Drugs and the Definition of Disease and Generic: The Unbranding of Modern Medicine. His scholarship has received numerous awards.
Dr. House graduated from the University of Southern California School of Medicine, completed his residency in otolaryngology, and further specialized with a fellowship in neurotology. He has been Head Physician and President at the House Ear Institute and focuses on disorders of the ear, nose, and throat, particularly neurotological conditions. His extensive experience contributes to the Institute’s leadership in advancing otology and treating ear-related disorders.
Dr. Mahoney is the chief curator of the Dittrick Museum of Medical History at Case Western Reserve University and a historian of medicine, technology, and nursing. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 2014, is a former Public History Fellow at the Science History Institute, and is an expert on the history of nursing in America.
Dr. Molina is a Trustee of The Huntington, former president of Golden Shore Medical Group, and former chairman and CEO of Molina Healthcare. He earned his M.D. from the USC Keck School of Medicine, where he was elected to membership in Alpha Omega Alpha and Sigma Xi. He performed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University and then had a fellowship in endocrinology at the University of California, San Diego. A curator at the Osler Library and a major collector of the history of medicine, Dr. Molina has also endowed the Molina Curator position and has given many other gifts supporting history of medicine initiatives at The Huntington.
Mr. Norman is a leading bookseller of materials related to the history of science, medicine, and technology and has been in the antiquarian book trade since 1964. He is author of the fifth edition of the annotated bibliography of the history of medicine and biology, Morton’s Medical Bibliography, and the co-author, with Diana Hook, of The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine (2 vols.). He has donated numerous books and collections to the Library and previously served on the Huntington’s History of Science Advisory Group.
Dr. Cooper Owens is the Charles and Linda Wilson Professor in the History of Medicine and director of the Humanities in Medicine Program at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She is also a distinguished lecturer at the Organization of American Historians (OAH) and director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia. She is a leading expert on the history of race and medicine, and her first book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology, won the 2018 Darlene Clark Hine Book Award from the OAH.
Ms. Rosenbloom is collection strategies librarian at UCLA and president of the Southern California Society for the History of Medicine. She has written a bestselling book on the history of medicine—Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin—and leads a research team called the Anthropodermic Book Project, whose focus is on books bound in human skin. She was formerly a medical librarian at the USC Norris Medical Library.
Ms. Shaner is historical collections reference librarian at the New York Academy of Medicine, where she assists researchers using one of the world’s most significant historical libraries in medicine and public health. She serves on the Steering Committee of Librarians, Archivists, and Museum Professionals in the History of the Health Sciences and is a leading figure in the field of medical librarianship.
Dr. Swanson is university professor, professor of biological sciences and psychology, and Appleman Professor of Biological Sciences at USC. A leading expert on the organization of brain systems, he is the author of numerous articles as well as the textbook Neuroanatomical Terminology: A Lexicon of Classical Origins and Historical Foundations. Swanson’s research is supported by an extensive personal collection of historical materials on the brain, which he has carefully developed over several decades.
Dr. Virdi is assistant professor at the University of Delaware, and her research focuses on disability history, disability technologies, and material/visual culture studies. She recently published her first book, Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History, and she serves as co-director of the university’s Hagley Program in the History of Capitalism, Technology, and Culture.
Image credit: Walter B. James and Horatio B. Williams, “The Electrocardiogram in Clinical Medicine,” American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 1910. The Fye Collection of Cardiovascular Medicine, Surgery, Science, and Technology. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.