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07/21/2004
Media Only:
Paul Rosenthal (202) 633-3656
How Did Postwar Medical Advances Lead A Shift in American Culture?
What happened at the end of World War II that prompted a massive transformation in how Americans related to their doctors and the world of medicine? In a Meet the Author program sponsored by the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, museum visitors can learn how the development and widespread use of technologies such as plastic surgery transformed visions of medicine beyond something to simply keep you physically healthy. The program is free and open to the public, and will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 3 at noon on the first floor of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Historian David Serlin, author of the new book Replaceable You: Engineering the Body in Postwar America, and Smithsonian medical history curator Katherine Ott will discuss how nationalistic pride in postwar society encouraged many Americans to put tremendous faith in the power of medicine to rehabilitate and otherwise transform the lives and bodies of the disabled and those considered abnormal. Be they amputees from WWII, disfigured young women who survived the bombing of Hiroshima, or a former G.I. who reassigned his gender, many followed new avenues in medical technology. The program is presented in conjunction with the Lemelson Center's Inventing Ourselves exhibit, investigating the history and design of artificial limbs, implantable devices, and sports performance enhancers.
SI-271-2004
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