Today in the Wangensteen Library an anatomy class come in for a tour, so the curators brought out some of their cool old anatomy books. Sadly the medical students in the anatomy class were not that impressed, which is really sad. Medical students no longer care about the history of their profession and it seems like the days of the well rounded ‘Gentleman’ or ‘Gentlewoman’ doctor is long gone.
But here are some photos of the very cool anatomy books-mostly from the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s. You can tell a lot about the history of the book, class, art, and gender issues, etc just from looking at the illustrations in these books. They are such a wealth of information!
