Remembering Katrina (Ten Years Later) A Matas Library Photo Album

We are reposting a number of the photographs from the Katrina Display that was at the entrance of the Rudolph Matas Library in the Spring of 2006 are available on the web. Many of the photos were taken by the Matas staff that were sheltered at the Health Sciences Center during the storm and aftermath in August of 2005. (Original Posting, 8/29/07)




See more about the Katrina & Beyond exhibit on the Uptown campus. 

Leave no one behind : Hurricane Katrina and the rescue of the Tulane Hospital / by Bill Carey.Matas (Books Stacks): WA 295 C37 2006

A Matas Library Exhibit on The Bogalusa Heart Study and Gerald S. Berenson, MD.

Finding the answers to fundamental questions about heredity, diet, and environmental aspects of early coronary artery disease and essential hypertension became the life work of Tulane alumnus and cardiologist, Dr. Gerald S. Berenson. This exhibit highlights the Bogalusa Heart Study, featuring the Health Ahead/Heart Smart curriculum, a few of Dr. Berenson's many awards, newspaper articles, books, and other ephemera.

Visit the library to view the exhibit, The Bogalusa Heart Study: Gerald S. Berenson, MD. - Comprehensive—and ahead of his time, which will remain open through the summer.

Dr. Gerald Berenson started the Bogalusa Heart study in 1973 and continued his research for the next 39 years. Watch a video about this groundbreaking research study.

A PubMed Search for "The Bogalusa Heart Study".

John Barry's The Great Influenza .. Popular Culture!

Get the Pun? Want to read the book?

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis. Feb, 11, 2009. From Comics.com -- The great influenza : the epic story of the deadliest plague in history / John M. Barry. NewYork : Viking, 2004. (MATAS LIBRARY - WC 515 B279 2004)

More information about John Barry, Tulane Faculty.
Thanks to Kathleen Puglia..."This was in yesterday's comic pages. How many authors wind up in the funnies?" - Thu 2/12/2009

Dr. Michael DeBakey, In Memoriam

Image of Dr. Emile Holman, Dr. Rudolph Matas and Dr. Michael DeBakey. Rudolph Matas is presenting the Rudolph Matas Award in Vascular Surgery (Violet Hart Medal) to Dr. DeBakey, April 6, 1954

Dr. DeBakey received his B.S. from Tulane in 1930, his M.D. in 1932, and a M.S. in 1935. He was a faculty member of the Tulane School of Medicine's Department of Surgery from 1937 to 1948. He invented the roller pump while still a student at Tulane, which became an essential component of his heart-lung machine.

TULANE TALK (Dr. Michael DeBakey by Scott Cowen, Tulane President), July 14 , 2008

For more information: McCollum, C. The distinguished service award medal for the Society of Vascular Surgery, 1999: Michael Ellis DeBakey, MD. Journal of Vascular Surgery , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , Pages 406 - 409. doi:10.1016/S0741-5214(00)90171-X

Links to the Matas Library Past

"The best remedy for the "blues" and the best way to forget discouragement about the progress of medicine, that I know, is to peep into the reading rooms of the library, as I have done often, and see twenty-five, fifty and more students, teachers and physicians of the community there working and storing up in their own minds and souls the knowledge and thoughts so bountifully gathered there for them; or to arrive early on a Monday morning and see on the receiving tables, the loads of books and material which were taken out for use over the weekend. It gives me a real thrill and a boost of spirits every time I see it." - p.8 Address, Charles C. Bass, M.D.

"There is much that I could say regarding my now historic relations with this library which, since its birth, I have looked upon witha paternal solicitude almost as if it were my own child..." - p. 21, Response. Rudolph Matas, M.D.

From the Program and addresses at the Dedication of the Rudolph Matas Medical Library, November 29, 1937. (Reprinted: New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, pp.532-539, Vol. 90, No.9, March 1938)

Carlos Finlay and Tulane

The Matas Library has some of the original documents related to Carlos Finlay and his early work on yellow fever on display. Rudolph Matas translated one of Finlay's important early works: "The Mosquito Hypothetically considered as an agent in the transmission of yellow fever poison", by Dr. Charles Finlay. New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, NS9 (1882):601-616.



For more information on Carlos Finlay:

Finley, Carlos E. (1940) Carlos Finlay and Yellow Fever, New York: The Institute of Tropical medicine of the University of Havana by Oxford University Press. Matas Library Location: WZ 100 F49p

Rodriguez Cabarrocas, Raoul. (1960) "Carlos J. Finlay and Yellow Fever". Bulletin of the Tulane Medical Faculty, 19(4):219-228. [Dr. Rodriguez was the recipient of the B. Bernard Weinstein Award] (.pdf version online)

Tulane and Charity Hospital Exhibit

There is a Charity Hospital Exhibit on display at the Entrance to the Rudolph Matas Library. A few of the images are available as a slideshow.

"The history of Tulane University School of Medicine’s involvement with Charity Hospital is long and storied. Tulane, originally founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834, has long played a role in both caring for the poor and shaping the future of the hospital." - The History of Tulane University School of Medicine's Involvement with Charity Hospital - By Douglas R. Lincoln (Class of 2007)

See related publications:

Leighninger, Robert D., Jr. Big Chairty: A History of New Orleans' Public Hospital. Louisiana Cultural Vistas (Fall 2007):p.19

Katz, Alan. Big Charity: A History of Emergencies. Tulane Medicine, 23(1): 14-21. Spring 1992 (First appeared in New Orleans Magazine, Nov. 1991)

Tulane Memory enhanced by a recent donation the Matas History Collection

The History Collection of the Matas Library has a number of resources from the founding of the Medical School in 1834. These historic items include the prospectus and lecture tickets. Our collection was recently enhanced by N. Robert Elson, M.D. (1979).

Dr. Elson donated a historic copy of the Weekly Picayune, Sept. 23, 1844 to the Matas History Collection. The paper includes an ad for the Medical College of Louisiana, Session of 1844-1845. The ad, which appears on page 255, lists the annual course of lectures with the faculty; John Harrison, M.D., James Jones, M.D., Warren Stone, M.D., J.L. Riddell, M.D., A.H Cenas, M.D. (Dean), A. H. Carpenter, M.D., A. J. Wedderburn, M.D. and John F. Eustis. The paper will be exhibited in the case at the entrance to the Matas Library.

What else happened in 1844 at the Medical School? A school library was established and a librarian was hired. Dr. Isidore Labatut donated several hundred valuable works, spurring the faculty to establish a library in April 25, 1844. For more information concerning the Medical Department of the University of Louisiana in 1844 read the 1984 book by John Duffy titled: The Tulane University Medical Center: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Medical Education.

Exhibit on the History of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

A new exhibit in the Rudolph Matas Library features gastrointestinal instruments on loan from the collection of Dr. George E. Welch. The display includes a historical timeline of gastrointestinal endoscopy from 1804 to the present. The exhibit is located in the glass cases in the hallway off the main reading area. We are grateful to Dr. Welch (photo to right) and Dr. John J. Hutchings for their efforts in making this exhibit possible.