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This evening is an introduction to the architectural remains of medical care in the city. While many sites of New York’s medical history have been lost, especially interiors and equipment that we can no longer view except through images, New Yorkers are fortunate that our streets still present lively remnants of the past. History professor Bert Hansen will place numerous NYC sites into the main chapters of medical development for the last 200 years. The lecture invites everyone to wander the city with new eyes for medical heritage.

In this talk, Samir Boumediene will present a book based on his PhD dissertation published in France a few months ago. Entitled La Colonisation du Savoir, it tells the story of New World medicinal plants from 1492 until the presages of Haitian revolution in 1791. Examining botanical expedition, drug trade, religious missions and everyday life practices, Boumediene’s book shows how Europeans appropriate both American materials and indigenous knowledge during that period. His research also demonstrates how Europeans rejected some medicinal plants and, even more, how Indians or slaves protected their knowledge through secrecy, frauds, or poisoning. The various stories will be presented through the commentary of four images. The first image will help to set the stage by explaining the problem of science and colonization; the three others will focus on a specific aspect: the understanding of novelty, the control of distance, and medicinal plants as a tool of resistance.

Starting at the Academy, a small group will visit several sites in upper Manhattan including the Cardinal Cooke building and the former Cancer Hospital. high point will be special access to the newly restored medical history murals painted by Charles Alston and others at Harlem Hospital in the 1930s. An illustrated lecture on the architectural history of medicine in New York City taking place on May 11 is a recommended complement to this tour, but not required.

Starting near NYU’s newest hospital building, the walking tour will head south to view numerous sites along a section of the historic “bedpan alley” neighborhood, including the former Lying in Hospital (now the Rutherford Building), beautifully restored New Deal murals in Bellevue hospital, a horse-drawn ambulance from the 1890s, and the German Dispensary. For the hardy, an optional extension will continue to the West Village to see NYC’s oldest surviving medical building, the Northern Dispensary. An illustrated lecture on the architectural history of medicine in New York City taking place on May 11 is a recommended complement to this tour, but not required.

What do early modern book titles like Aristotle's Masterpiece, The Queen's Closet, and Natural Magic all have in common? These books, printed in Europe and continuing the medieval tradition of "books of secrets. In this three-part series, explore The New York Academy of Medicine's collections in the Rare Book Reading Room.