Date:  August 18, 2006
Press Contact:  Alana Quinn, Outreach Manager
Office of Exhibitions and Cultural Programs
202-334-2415; e-mail aquinn@nas.edu
Public Contact: 202-334-2436; e-mail arts@nas.edu

Rare, Historic Medical Cartoons to Be Featured
in Film Series at the National Academy of Sciences Oct. 25 and 26

Washington - From the silent film era to the present, physicians, health professionals, government agencies like the U.S. Public Health Service, and voluntary associations such as the American Cancer Society, have used motion pictures to advance medical science, train doctors and nurses, and educate the public.  A selection of films will be shown from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Oct. 25 and 26 in the auditorium of the National Academy of Sciences Building, 2100 C St., N.W., Washington, D.C.

“The Cartoon Medicine Show: Animated Cartoons from the Collection of the National Library of Medicine,” curated by Michael Sappol of the National Library of Medicine, will feature a rich sampling of rarely screened animated medical cartoons from the 1920s to the 1960s.

The film series will present a variety of medical themes and genres, including dental hygiene, physical fitness, physiology, mental health, malaria, venereal disease, cancer, radiology, biological warfare, and sanitary food preparation.  Each evening will consist of 10 to15 short animated medical cartoons by animators both obscure and well-known, including Walt Disney, Friz Freleng, Zack Schwartz, Walter Lantz, and Shamus Culhane.

SPEAKERS:

Film historian Donald Crafton and medical historians Michael Sappol and David Cantor will provide commentary.  

Donald Crafton is the chair of the department of film, television, and theatre at the the University of Notre Dame.  He is the author of Before Mickey: The Animated Film, 1898-1928 (MIT Press, 1984).

Michael Sappol is a curator and historian at the National Library of Medicine. His scholarly work focuses on the body, anatomy, medical illustration, and medicine in film.  He is the author of A Traffic of Dead Bodies (Princeton University Press, 2002).  

David Cantor is the editor of Reinventing Hippocrates (Ashgate, 2002).  His scholarly work focuses on the history of 20th century medicine, most recently the history of cancer.

Event Details: The Cartoon Medicine Show Animated Cartoons from the Collection of the National Library of Medicine Oct. 25 and 26, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. National Academy of Sciences Building 2100 C St., N.W., Auditorium Washington, D.C.