Exhibition and Lecture: Ceaseless motion: William Harvey's experiments in circulation

Royal College of Physicians, 

11 St Andrews Place, 

Regent's Park, 

London NW1 4LE

19 January 2018 to 26 July 2018

Library, Archive and Museum
Telephone: +44 (0)20 3075 1543
Email: history@rcplondon.ac.uk

Opening January 2018, a new exhibition coinciding with the Royal College of Physicians' (RCP's) 500th anniversary exploring the life, work and legacy of revolutionary anatomist William Harvey – the physician who revealed the secrets of circulation.

The 'Ceaseless motion: William Harvey's experiments in circulation' exhibition runs from 19 January to 26 July 2018, and is open Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm.

William Harvey (1578–1657) was an anatomist and physician with an insatiable curiosity about the inner workings of all living creatures. Harvey lived through an extraordinary age of scientific revolution, to which he would contribute with his own discovery on the heart and blood circulation.

Within his London home, Harvey conducted countless experiments and observed the beating hearts of many animals, including dogs, eels, crows and even wasps. As an anatomist, he was able to dissect the bodies of hanged men, in the anatomy theatre at the Royal College of Physicians.

It is absolutely necessary to conclude that the blood is in a state of ceaseless motion; that this is the function which the heart performs by means of its pulse; and that this is the sole and only end of the motion and contraction of the heart. William Harvey, 1628 

Oil on canvas portrait of William Harvey by unknown artist, c.1650. (detail) 

In 1628, after 10 years of painstaking solitary research, Harvey at last published his discovery in a book, known as De motu cordis. His idea, that blood is pumped around the body by the heart in a state of ceaseless motion, proved highly controversial to some, challenging 1,500 years of established scientific and medical belief.

Harvey encouraged his fellow physicians ‘to search and study out the secrets of nature by way of experiment’. His legacy of curiosity, research and discovery has had a lasting impact on the practice and science of medicine. This exhibition places William Harvey at the heart of the RCP as it celebrates its 500th anniversary.

#WilliamHarvey

William Harvey's demonstration rod. Whalebone and silver c.1616

Exhibition launch
Join us on Thursday 18 January to celebrate the opening of the first exhibition in the RCP's 500th anniversary year with a lecture by Professor Andrew Cunningham on the life and legacy of William Harvey. The lecture is free to attend but booking is essential.
Book via Eventbrite

Visiting information
The exhibition will be open from 19 January to 26 July 2018, Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm.
Opening times may vary – check the RCP visiting page for closure days before your visit.

Museum lates
New for 2018, the RCP museum including the 'Ceaseless motion' exhibition will be open until 8pm on the first Thursday of the month. No booking required, free museum and exhibition entry.

Forthcoming RCP museum lates:
Thursday 1 February 2018, 5–8pm
Thursday 1 March 2018, 5–8pm
Thursday 3 May 2018, 5–8pm
Thursday 7 June 2018, 5–8pm.

Exhibition team and contributors

Exhibition team: Kristin Hussey, Matthew Wood, Pamela Forde, Natalie Craven and Katie Birkwood.

Exhibition contributors: National Portrait Gallery, Royal College of Surgeons, Science Museum, British Cardiovascular Society, Worcester College, University of Oxford and Wellcome Collection.

Special thanks to: Chocolate Films, Spectrum Drama, Professor Ludmilla Jordanova and Professor Andrew Cunningham.

For all media enquiries please contact Discover Medical London

Details
Price to attend: Free
Contact us

“Art, Anatomy, and the Body: Vesalius 500″, NYAM's second annual Festival for Medical History and the Arts

The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Saturday, October 18, 2014
11:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

On October 18, NYAM’s Center for the History of Medicine and Public Health presents its second-annual Festival for Medical History and the Arts. “Art, Anatomy, and the Body: Vesalius 500″ will celebrate the 500th birthday of anatomist Andreas Vesalius.

Vesalius’ groundbreaking De humani corporis fabrica (The Fabric of the Human Body) of 1543 is a key Renaissance text, one that profoundly changed medical training, anatomical knowledge, and artistic representations of the body, an influence that has persisted over the centuries. Our Festival is one of a global series of celebrations of his legacy.

Our day-long event will explore the intersection of anatomy and the arts with a vibrant roster of performers and presenters, including

• Heidi Latsky’s “GIMP” Dance Project;
• the comics artists of Graphic Medicine;
• Sander Gilman on posture controlling the unruly body;
• Alice Dreger on inventing the medical photograph;
• Bill Hayes on researching hidden histories of medicine;
• Steven Assael, Ann Fox and Chun-shan (Sandie) Yi on anatomy in contemporary art;
• Chase Joynt’s Resisterectomy, a meditation on surgery and gender;
• Brandy Schillace on ambivalent depictions of female anatomy in the 18th century;
• Lisa Rosner on famous body snatchers Burke and Hare;
• the art of anatomical atlases with Michael Sappol;
• medical 3D printing demos by ProofX;
• anatomical painting directly on skin with Kriota Willberg;
• Daniel Garrison on translating Vesalius for modern audiences;
• Jeff Levine and Michael Nevins on revisiting the Fabrica frontispiece;

and many more.

In connection with the Festival, NYAM’s Center will host 4 hands-on workshops

1. From the Cradle to the Grave: Session One: The Cradle

Working with NYAM’s conservation team, produce your own articulated anatomical figures in the Gladys Brooks Book & Paper Conservation Laboratory. Participants will have time to make at least one paper baby and pelvis, which can be produced as paper dolls or magnets.

2. From the Cradle to the Grave: Session Two: The Grave

Working with NYAM’s conservation team, produce your own “exquisite corpse” in the Gladys Brooks Book & Paper Conservation Laboratory. To produce a Vesalian-themed exquisite (or rotating) corpse, this workshop will employ a special, rotating binding structure and mix-matched facsimile images from NYAM’s rare book collections to allow students to create their own unique, moveable pieces of art.

3. Renaissance Illustration Techniques Workshop with Marie Dauenheimer, Medical Illustrator

Artists and anatomists passionate about the mysteries of the human body drove anatomical investigation during the Renaissance. In this workshop, students will learn and apply the techniques used by Renaissance artists to illustrate anatomical specimens.

4. Understanding the Hand, physical anthropology workshop with Sam Dunlap, Ph.D.

Basic anatomical dissection, illustration, and knowledge continue to be fundamental in many fields from evolutionary biology to surgery, medical training, and forensic science. This workshop will offer participants the opportunity to explore the human hand and its anatomy, which will be demonstrated with at least three dissections.

Workshop registration fees cover both the workshop and all-day admission to the Festival.

For more information and to register, see http://nyamcenterforhistory.org/vesalius-500/

Paul Theerman, PhD
Associate Director
Center for the History of Medicine and Public Health
New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY, 10029
212.822.7350
http://nyamcenterforhistory.org/

The Oxford-Globe Forum for Medicine and Drama in Practice

The Oxford-Globe Forum meets twice a year, alternating between Shakespeare’s Globe and the University of Oxford. It brings together researchers and practitioners in medicine, theatre and academia to explore a designated theme.

The theme for October 2014 is Anatomy and Dissection. Papers are informal and are limited to 12-15 minutes; the aim is to enable discussion among different constituencies of interest.

Registration is required: the £15 fee includes a sandwich lunch and coffee.

To register, go to the calendar at www.gtc.ox.ac.uk/whats-on-calendar. Then click on 4 October.

To offer a paper, please send your proposed title and a brief abstract by September 15th to english.office@ell.ox.ac.uk (Inquiries may be made to this email address too.)

4 October 2014 at the University of Oxford, 10.00am-4.30pm
Sponsored by Globe Education and Green Templeton College, University of Oxford

Venue Address:
University of Oxford,
Green Templeton College,
43 Woodstock Road
Oxford, OX2 6SG

Call for Papers: Ars et Medicina symposium

7-8. May 2012, The Norwegian Institute in Rome, Italy

From antiquity to the present, medical science and art have been inextricably entwined. The first anatomical theories in Ancient Greece developed in conjunction with and parallel to artistic theories about human proportions. From the 16th c. artists practiced dissection in order to improve their depictions of human form, and their drawings in anatomical atlases were used to educate generations of medical professionals. The Charcot school in Paris studies art works in an attempt to improve their understanding of psychological phenomena like hysteria. Sigmund Freud ´s psychological theories were enriched by his study of literature, and his theories inspired the arts of literature and film. The theory and practice of connoisseurship is based on principles borrowed from medical science. Contemporary artists collaborate with medical scientists, and medical professionals still find inspiration for new medical techniques and practices in art. The lectures in this symposium will necessarily be only a small selection of in-depth case studies illustrating the varied relationships between art and medicine.

The symposium lectures will be structured in sessions composed of lectures related to each other by topic and/or disciplinary perspective. Both medical scientists with interests in the arts, and scholars of the arts with interests in science and medicine are encouraged to participate. One goal of the symposium is to provoke all participants to confront the challenge of engaging in discussion of how medical science and the humanities enrich and inspire each other.

We hope that the participants will attempt to transcend disciplinary borders and challenge pre-existing interpretations of the relationship between medical theory, practice and artistic expression.

All lectures will be published as videopodcasts. Selected papers will be included in a subsequent edited digital book or journal volume devoted to the symposium topic. The symposium papers should be 20 minutes (ca. 10 double-spaced pages) and in English.

Please send a one-page CV and an abstract of 150-200 words to Einar Petterson einarp@ifikk.uio.no by March 15, 2012.

Participants will be notified by March 25, 2012.

Organizers:
Einar Petterson, Professor of Art History, University of Oslo, Norway
Knut Kvernebo, MD, PhD, FRCS, Professor of Cadio-Thoracic Surgery, Oslo University Hosptial, Ullevaal

The symposium (reception, lunches and a symposium dinner) is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo, Norway.

Professor dr.philos. Einar Petterson
Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas
University of Oslo
Norway
einarp@ifikk.uio.no