A Strong Record of Success

In fall 2008 the Winkler Center moved into Phase I of its new home in the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library at the heart of the Academic Health Center. The new space features the Stanley J. Lucas, MD, Board Room, an elegant meeting, lecture and reception space largely funded by the Lucas Family. The Lucas Board Room provides a showcase for some of the Center’s treasures, such as the spectacular Cantagalli exhibit of a 109-piece set of ceramic jars replicating a 15th century Italian apothecary as well as a sampling of medical artifacts and photographs. The Lucas Board Room will be the site of a medical history lecture series sponsored by the Cecil Striker Society, a constituent member of the American Society for the History of Medicine and the Winkler Center’s recognition society for all gifts totaling $1,000 or more annually. These donors are also recognized through the University’s Charles McMicken Society.

The Winkler Center’s impressive collections include many treasures:

• 70 archives from internationally prominent medical figures, including:
  • Albert B. Sabin, MD, widely acclaimed UC researcher who developed the live oral polio vaccine
  • Robert A. Kehoe, MD, pioneer in early lead poisoning studies who is considered to be the “father of environmental health”
  • Leland C. Clark, PhD, co-developer of the world’s first viable heart-lung machine and inventor of glucose and oxygen sensors
  • Elwood V. Jensen, PhD, a Lasker award winner for his work in breast cancer research
• More than 35,000 volumes from 1500 A.D. to present on the history of medicine and other health professions
• A working medical library of the 19th century including manuscripts, archives, photographs, medical artifacts, and medical instruments
• The exhibit of a 15th century apothecary shop produced by the renowned Cantagalli kiln and first shown at the Paris Exposition in 1899
• More than 5,000 photographs representing medicine as it was practiced in the late 19th century to the most modern technology of today’s scientists
• Oral history interviews with more than 60 of Cincinnati’s pioneering and preeminent physicians and medical researchers
• 2,000 historic medical artifacts and instruments, including one of the last iron lungs used by the March of Dimes in Cincinnati; the first heart-lung machine; and Civil War field surgery kits
• A rare books collection that contains an original copy of the largest medical book ever published, Paolo Mascagni’s Anatomiae universai icones, 1823 to 1832, measuring 990mm by 715mm