Menger in his study.

Through the Eye Piece of the Microscope … San Antonio Nature Observations

November 30, 2012

Dr. Rudolph Menger was an early San Antonio doctor who loved nature and is best remembered for his nature observations and pictures.  He was born in San Antonio, Texas on April 21, 1851, to Johann and Augusta Menger.  His parents, native Germans, arrived in Texas in 1846. Menger attended the German-English school, a school established […]



Archives Matter!

October 24, 2012

What is an Archives?  Is it some mysterious club that only library workers belong to?  The short answer is no.  Chances are you have an archive at home -maybe love letters to your spouse, family photos, mom’s wedding gown, a collection of your favorite vinyl records.  My personal archives consists of photographs, handwritten love letters from my husband, my […]


Anatomists and their art

August 6, 2012

In October 2011, Dr. Charleen Moore, Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Health Science Center’s Department of Cellular and Structural Biology, gave a fascinating presentation on “Anatomists and Their Art” which featured many of the most important works in the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library.  Dr. Moore explained the interrelationship between anatomical study and art by […]


Darwin’s On the Origin of Species: A Rare Treasure at the P. I. Nixon Medical Historical Library

June 27, 2012

Summer is a great time to explore nature and science with your family. The P. I. Nixon Medical Historical Library may be a place to begin your adventure. The library owns a rare first edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for […]


Early ophthalmology text turns 500 this year

June 8, 2012

The PI Nixon Medical Historical Library is celebrating the 500th birthday of one of its treasures, an edition of Symphorien Champier’s Speculum Galeni.  The book includes one of the first treatises on ophthalmology ever printed. Symphorien Champier (1472-1539) was an early French humanist and physician to Charles VIII, Louis XII, and the Duke of Lorraine.  […]


John Bell, Scottish Anatomist and Surgeon

April 3, 2012

John Bell was born on the 12th of May 1762 to humble beginnings.  He was the second of four boys, his father, Rev. William Bell, was a man of considerable courage, and John’s mother was well educated and quite a talented artist.  And so we fast forward to 1779. It was in 1779 at the […]


Image of leg amputation by Charles Bell - Belldigital.lib.uiowa.edu

The Compassionate Surgeon: A Tribute to Sir Charles Bell

March 29, 2012

Sir Charles Bell was Scottish and grew up in Edinburgh during the 18th century. He was a part of the famous Bell surgeons of Scotland. His older brother  John Bell was a surgeon and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of the city of Edinburgh. John is best known for founding the […]



Albrecht Dürer’s Human Proportions

March 27, 2012

Albrecht Dürer, one of the greatest known artists of the Northern European Renaissance, is best known for his beautiful engravings and religious paintings.  Dürer was ahead of his time with his landscape paintings, which were the first of their kind, and the unique self-portraits that he started when he was only 13-years-old. He was born […]