The John Martin Rare Book Room Annual Open House

Black and white headshot photograph of Greta NettletonJoin us on May 3, 2023, from 3:00-7:00 for the annual John Martin Rare Book Room Open House with featured speaker Greta Nettleton. The open house will run from 3:00-6:00 and highlight historical works on women’s health and those by or about women practitioners, including new acquisitions.

Ms. Nettleton, the author of The Quack’s Daughter: A True Story About the Private Life of a Victorian College Girl, published by the University of Iowa Press in 2014, will speak from 6:00-7:00 about THE GREAT FORGETTING: The Prominent Role of Women in 19th-century Midwestern Medicine. Her talk will dig into the history of the University of Iowa College of Medicine, the first fully co-educational medical school in the nation, and the hidden history of its first female graduates.

The John Martin Rare Book Room Presents

This lecture series highlights the breadth and depth of the collection. It brings together historians of medicine and the health sciences, humanities scholars, librarians, artists, and bibliophiles from all walks of life to tell their stories, the stories of the famous – and not so famous – medical practitioners, scientists, and patients throughout the ages, and the stories of the books themselves. The lectures occur quarterly and occasionally in conjunction with the Iowa Bibliophiles series from the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections.

Waste Not, Want Not: Exploring the Binder’s Waste of the John Martin Rare Book Room (Iowa Bibliophiles) – Damien Ihrig, MA, MLIS – March 8, 2023
Mental Health and the Weight of the Past – Jonathan Reeder, PhD – October 18, 2022
The Origin of Viruses – Charles Grose, MD – June 6, 2022
Eyeing Research Rabbit Holes – Sonja Mayrhofer, PhD – February 16, 2022
The Power of Necessity – Kimberly Sprague, MSN, ARNP, CNM – October 6, 2021
The Roots of Medicine (Iowa Bibliophiles) – Chris Childs, Damien Ihrig, Matt Regan – April 14, 2021
Correctional Measures – Elizabeth Riordan – February 22, 2121
The Medical Arts – Vero Rose Smith – November 16, 2020

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact our office in advance at damien-ihrig@uiowa.edu or 319-335-9154.