Manifesting Medicine

Increasingly, historians and museum curators are using technological artefacts as expressions of human culture. Reflecting the broad scope of interaction between science, technology and society, they can help us see not just machines, but also imaginative worlds of the past. Building on the growing interest, three of the world's greatest depositories of material heritage in the history of technology: the Deutsches Museum in Munich, the Science Museum in London and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington are co-operating in a series of publications which explore the use of objects as resources in the study of the history of science, technology and medicine. Each volume explores the range of uses of objects but will focus on a particular area of study. With its focus on modern technology, this book is a history of medicine written to show that those who encounter the artefacts of this book, in its pages and perhaps even "in the flesh", will be confronting subjects such as: blood, life, danger and conception. "The well-illustrated volume successfully highlights the complex ways in which historians and curators can work with objects, beyond merely using them as illustrations for previously developed ideas....This book conveys some of the rich potential for scholars and curators to use the resources of the world's museums creatively. Upcoming volumes in the series will have a high standard to meet."
-Technology and Culture, January 2001