Nuts! The John Brinkley story

One of visitors' favorite exhibits at the Melnick Medical Museum is about Quack medicine. It features odd devices and medicines that were sold directly to customers to use in their homes. The creators or "doctors" of these items exist on the fringes of traditional medicine and the law, and are often involved in conscious acts…

more on mental illness with Backstory podcast

The latest episode of one of my favorite podcasts, BackStory, looked at the history of diagnosis and treatment of mental illness in the United States this week. I like this podcast because it looks at a theme over several centuries and takes pains to set the right context for each time period. The experts they…

Bon Voyage!

The museum's 1952 Emerson Iron Lung is on its way across the country in a comfy climate controlled, air-ride equipped trailer. It was picked up last week and will travel to San Francisco to be part of a documentary on the life of a woman who lived in an iron lung for more than 60…

Look! We got a new website!

Its here! The new website for the museum is live today. Check it out at http://ysu.edu/melnick-museum/. With all the changes going on at the museum (relocation, storage, and new display areas to name the big ones), it was time to build a new site that would reflect the new direction. I hope you like it. It was made…

Albert Sabin archival collection digitized

June 3, 2013 –The University of Cincinnati Libraries have completed a three-year project to digitize the correspondence and photographs of Albert B. Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine and distinguished service professor at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine and Children's Hospital Research Foundation from 1939-1969. The collection is freely and publicly available…

2012 in review

  Here's an excerpt: This blog had 35,000 views in 2012! Not surprisingly, the post on Medicinal Alcohol and Prohibition was the most popular! Click here to see the complete report. Check back soon for more exciting topics in 2013! Thanks!

More on the replica Iron Lung

"I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if people could get into (the iron lung),’ but I couldn’t let them into the real one that we have,” said Cassie Nespor, museum curator. Enter Andy Phillips, YSU carpenter and primary force behind the effort to build a replica “iron lung” that visitors could get in and experience…

New medical report on Lincoln assassination found

A researcher for the Papers of Lincoln project has found a medical report from 1865 written by the first doctor to reach President Lincoln. The Times Union reports that it was found in the Surgeon General's correspondence files at the National Archives. Dr. Charles Leale had only been a doctor for 6 weeks when he…

A Yacht, A Mustache: How a President Hid His Tumor

In 1893, President Grover Cleveland noticed a lump on the top of his mouth. It grew over the next few months and was diagnosed as cancer. The physician recommended that it be removed as soon as possible. However, President Cleveland did not want to alarm the county by announcing that he had cancer. The U.S.…

We’re on YouTube!

The Rose Melnick Medical Museum now as a YouTube channel! You can find a short video describing the museum, our collections, and an interview with the curator here: General tour and interview We also have a new video which talks about the general evolution of medical practice in America using the city of Youngstown, OH…