The Winter 2024 issue of the Waring Library Society Newsletter is available now. In this issue, Waring Library Society President Dr. Jacob Steere-Williams discusses Dr. Francis Bonneau Johnson’s contributions to studying filariasis in Charleston; JoAnn Zeise highlights the tableaus used as part of MUSC\u27s centennial celebration; Tabitha Samuel announces the completion of the MUSC Bicentennial Resources guide; and Anna Marie Schuldt shares Waring\u27s recent events in celebration of Black History Month.https://medica-musc.researchcommons.org/wls-newsletters/1007/thumbnail.jp

Medical University of South Carolina

Schuldt, Anna Marie

Waring Historical Library

Waring Library Society

English

MEDICA@MUSC (Medical University of South Carolina)

NO. 70WINTER 20242Waring Library Society Newsletter, No. 70 Winter 2024President’s CornerThe Holy City’s “Most Loathsome” DiseaseBy Jacob Steere-WilliamsCurator’s CommentsTableaus for the MUSC Centennial By JoAnn ZeiseProject UpdatesMUSC Bicentennial Resources Highlighted in New Online GuideBy Tabitha SamuelEvent UpdatesBlack History Month at the Waring Historical LibraryBy Anna Marie Schuldt01020304030506073Waring Library Society Newsletter, No. 70 Winter 2024Dr. Francis Bonneau (“F.B.”) Johnson was born in Charleston on January 17, 1881, the son of Historian and Reverend John Johnson, of St. Philip’s Church. F.B. Johnson and I share a birthday, separated only by a mere 96 years! A graduate of the College of Charleston (my beloved institutional home) and the Medical College of South Carolina (my adopted institutional home), in 1903, Johnson undertook a prodigious medical career. He interned at Bellevue Hospital in New York, completed a postgraduate study at the Mayo Clinic, and travelled for additional study in Chicago, Boston, and Vienna. And then he returned home to the Holy City, first as Assistant in Pathology and Bacteriology in 1909. In 1919 he became Professor of Clinical Pathology, a post he held until retirement in 1946. He was a tireless leader, involved with the American Society of Clinical Pathology, and he even served as President of the South Carolina Medical Association. Johnson is undoubtedly one of Charleston’s most important medical innovators.Johnson was a pioneer in American parasitology, contributing to an important, but overlooked story in the history of Charleston. Until around World War II, Charleston was the endemic epicenter of Lymphatic filariasis (Filaria Bancrofti) in the entire The Holy City’s “Most Loathsome” DiseaseJacob Steere-Williams, PhD President, Waring Library SocietyUnited States. The disease was likely endemic in Charleston from the eighteenth century, as it was intimately tied to Charleston’s history as the North American center of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Filaria Bancrofti has long been endemic to tropical West Africa, and in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was also endemic in Barbados, a key social and economic partner to Charleston. Filariasis is a mosquito-transmitted viral infection, one that is most commonly associated with the development of elephantiasis, a severely debilitating, and visually disfiguring disease.By the mid nineteenth century there were consistent, but scattered reports of elephantiasis in the Charleston medical literature, including published accounts and manuscripts held at the Waring. In 1886 Cuban physician Dr. John Guiteras visited Charleston to study the presence of the disease in the blood; he succeeded in 1886, seeing the microfilarae for the first time in history from blood extracted from a Charlestonian women with the disease. Charleston was “on the map,” so to speak, regarding filariasis, but it was unclear the extent, and uniqueness of the disease in the region. Enter Dr. F.B. Johnson.In 1914 Johnson conducted the first large-scale clinical epidemiological investigation of filariasis in Charleston. He found that of the 400 individuals he randomly tested at Roper Hospital, there was a shocking infection rate of 19.25%, scattered across gender and racial lines, though white women had the highest infection rates. Johnson 4Waring Library Society Newsletter, No. 70 Winter 2024also helped to pioneer the use of acetic acid in detecting microfilaria in the blood. Johnson’s study was widely reported, garnering the attention of the United States Public Health Service, who in 1917 sent a team led by Surgeon Edward Francis to study the endemic incidence of filariasis in seven southern towns (Charleston, Beaufort, Georgetown, Savannah, Milledgeville, Jacksonville, Tampa). Only Charleston was widely infected. In the 1920s, aided by Johnson’s study and the confirmation of the USPHS investigation, Dr. Leon Banov and other Charleston public health officials conducted widespread anti-mosquito campaigns. It was also during this period that Charleston finally kept pace with other sizeable American cities in ushering in municipal sewage and water filtration systems. Together these measures likely contributed to the decline of filariasis, which was absent from Charleston hospital records by the mid 1930s. Charleston’s medical history, as this example shows, is inexorably infused with the history of port city life; the exchange of people, diseases, goods, and ideas. Filariasis was again feared as a public health problem at the end of World World II as American serviceman contracted the disease in the South and Central Pacific, another global region where the disease was endemic. Fortunately the disease was no longer endemic in Charleston by that time. But the city still holds the reputation as the last endemic stronghold of lymphatic filariasis in the U.S. Notes: Elephantiasis, Typhoid Fever, Diabetes, and the Eye from Francis Peyre Porcher Papers, MSS 299, Waring Historical Library, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston.5Waring Library Society Newsletter, No. 70 Winter 2024As most of us are aware, the Medical University of South Carolina celebrates its 200th Anniversary this year. The school is hosting several special events to mark the occasion. But how did the school celebrate its past anniversaries? Thankfully, we have records for both the centennial (1924) and the sesquicentennial (1974) in our collection. For this newsletter, we are sharing some of the 1924 celebrations which took place on November 12 and 13.The school centennial had much of the typical celebratory fare. There were plaque unveilings, banquets, the bestowing of punch bowls, and a seemingly endless series of speeches. To document the occasion, the school printed a book that included congratulatory newspaper articles, a history of the school, transcriptions for all those speeches, a list of the faculty who served in the recent World War, as well as the name of each graduate over the previous 100 years.A group of faculty and staff also presented a tableau, or tableau vivant, which in French means “living picture.” These emerged from 18th century salons in Europe, reaching their height of popularity from the 1830s to the 1920s. In a tableau, costumed performers recreate well-known scenes from art, mythology, and history. Each performer is precisely posed, frozen in place, and silent for the duration, which was Tableaus for the MUSC CentennialJoAnn Zeise  Curator, Waring Historical Library Tableau titled, “Vaccination”about 45 seconds for each scene. There would be several scenes presented in a performance often with musical accompaniment. The tableau fell from favor with the advent of moving pictures although there has been a recent revival thanks to social media.For the Centennial, faculty and staff created and performed a tableau with 11 scenes called The Story of Medical Progress from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. They portrayed everything from the discovery of bacteria to the professionalization of nursing. Dean Dr. Robert Wilson presented narration accompanied by piano. Sadly, there is not a tableau for our bicentennial. Happily, we have included a photograph from 1924 tableau performance that might inspire you.6Waring Library Society Newsletter, No. 70 Winter 2024With the MUSC Bicentennial events taking place throughout 2024, the Waring has developed the MUSC Bicentennial Resources guide to feature the library’s materials relating to the history of MUSC. The guide includes lists of the Waring’s online exhibits, digital collections, quick facts, collection finding aids, and oral histories that explore the events, people, and entities that have been foundational to and shaped the history of the institution. The resources featured in the guide will provide greater context to the historical highlights shared through the traveling exhibits, documentary, lectures, and other projects developed by the MUSC Bicentennial Steering Committee. Because the events and projects developed by the Bicentennial Steering Committee will be MUSC Bicentennial Resources Highlighted in New Online GuideTabitha Samuel Digital Archivist, Waring Historical Library more celebratory in nature as we commemorate MUSC’s founding and honor its 200-year history, the events are not designed to provide a deeper historical and educational glimpse into the history of the institution. For those who want to delve deeper and learn about aspects that may be more difficult to confront, such as the politics surrounding MUSC’s founding, our online exhibit, “’Men of Unsullied Reputation:’ The Founding of the Medical College of South Carolina” serves as a starting place. The MUSC Bicentennial Resources guide will provide community members with thoroughly researched historical narratives and a wealth of supporting primary sources within the library’s holdings that contextualize the events and people impacting the history of the institution on a broader scale. As the featured resources are available online, anyone anywhere can dive into the history of MUSC on their terms and at their leisure.We invite you to explore the guide and learn more about the history of MUSC.MUSC Bicentennial Resources Banner Image7Waring Library Society Newsletter, No. 70 Winter 2024Every February the Waring Historical Library takes the intentional steps to highlight the intersection of Black history and medical history in honor of Black History Month. This year we hosted a series of three events, the WLS Black History Month Lecture, the SHC Noon Lecture, and the Medical Milestone pop up exhibit, all curated to spotlight Black history and Black voices. Across these events, we reached over 150 individuals virtually and in person.WLS Black History Month Lecture:  Ghost Values and American SlaveryThis year we had the honor of hosting Dr. Daina Ramey Berry from the University of Califorina Santa Barbara to present on her book The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation, specifically highlighting her concept of “ghost values” and its connection to early medical education and dissection. In her introduction, she informed the audience that while she has presented her research to the likes of the College of Physicians in Philadelphia, this event marked the first time she presented her research specifically at a medical university.SHC Noon Lecture: John A. McFall P.D.The following week, Lahnice Hollister discussed Black History Month at the Waring Historical LibraryAnna Marie Schuldt Assistant, Waring Historical Library the multitude of discoveries she uncovered in the process of researching Dr. John A. McFall’s life and publishing his manuscript. Dr. McFall wrote about the adversities he faced as a pharmacy student and as a pharmacist in Charleston, South Carolina when segregation was legal. Through his grandniece, Lahnice, his story was brought to life for our noon lecture.We are pleased to inform everyone that this lecture was recorded and, in agreement with Lahnice, will be publically accessible on our YouTube channel. Watch her presentation today!Medical Milestones Pop-Up Exhibit:  “All A Gladly Received”: McClennan-Banks Memorial HospitalDuring the era of segregation in Charleston, South Carolina, the Black community came together to establish a much needed Hospital and Training School for Nurses. At the time, white hospitals either excluded or segregated Black patients and barred Black physicians from admitting and attending to their patients. When at risk of shutting down the Training School, once again the Black community came together to help establish the McClennan-Banks Memorial Hospital. This month’s pop-up focused on discussing the instution’s history as a significant part of the Charleston medical district in the late 1800s and 1900s.

Waring Library Society Newsletter, Winter 2024

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Waring Library Society Newsletter, Winter 2024

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