Celebrating 200 Years of Oliver Wendell Holmes

If we were to think of public figures in terms of vintage, then 1809 was a very good year. That’s made 2009 a stellar year for bicentennials. Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were feted earlier this year. Locally, ongoing events sponsored by the Countway Library’s Center for the History of Medicine have honored another cultural luminary – Oliver Wendell Holmes, famed physician and author, and former professor and dean at Harvard Medical School.

Holmes, who is best remembered for his investigation into the contagiousness of puerperal fever and for “Old Ironsides” and other poems and essays, turned 200 on August 29. His bicentennial recently brought together scholars from across North America for “Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes and the Spirit of Skepticism.” The symposium, held on Nov. 17, featured talks by HMS lecturer in the History of Medicine Amalie Kass and (in absentia) Harvard History of Science professor Charles Rosenberg, among others.

The symposium also marked the opening of “The Scalpel and the Pen: the Life and Work of Oliver Wendell Holmes,” an exhibit now on display at the Countway Library. Watch the video recording of the symposium or view a multimedia preview of the Holmes exhibit. For more information on the Holmes events, or to learn about other programs sponsored by the Countway Library and the Center for the History of Medicine, visit www.countway.harvard.edu.