National Library of Medicine Exhibits

Health care reform has been a contentious political issue in the United States for more than a hundred years. This exhibit tells the lesser-known story of how movements of ordinary people helped shape the changing American health care system.

Displays the abiding relevance of the Frankenstein story to contemporary questions about science and technology. Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel explores individual and societal responsibility through its discussion of scientific advancement and medical ethics.

Explores images, manuscripts and records that tell the stories of the nurses who witnessed firsthand the effects of domestic violence and campaigned for change. Through both their research and practice, nurses were among the first to identify women who were battered as a population with specific health needs that were largely neglected by the medical community.

Nurses and nursing have been the frequent subjects of postcards. This display is a unique archive of 2,588 postcards and over 100 years of images of nurses and the nursing profession from around the world. These images are informed by cultural values; ideas about women, men, and work; and attitudes toward class, race, and national differences

The classification of mind altering drugs has shifted at different times throughout the history of America. While some have remained socially acceptable, others have been outlawed because of their toxic and intoxicating characteristics.

Explores the story of George Washington’s own health and examines the ways in which he sought to safeguard the health and wellness of his family, staff, slaves, and troops. Washington’s story also illuminates the broader context of the experience of illness and the practice of medicine.

Explores the rise of AIDS in the early 1980's and the evolving response to the epidemic over the last 30 years. The title, Surviving and Thriving, comes from a book written in 1987 by and for people with AIDS that insisted people could live with AIDS, not just die from it.