title: Harvey Cushing's ghosts: death and hauntings in modern medicine.
abstract: The passing of Yale School of Medicine's 2010 Bicentennial occasions a moment of reflecting on the past, present, and future of medical education and research at Yale and beyond. Last June, a ribbon-cutting ceremony inaugurated the opening of the Cushing Center in the Cushing-Whitney Medical Library. Named after Harvey Cushing, an early 20th-century neurosurgeon and former Yale College alum, the dual education/exhibition space now houses hundreds of gross brain specimens constituting the Cushing Tumor Registry. Originally a personal collection, Cushing donated his numerous medical specimens, photographs, and other medical relics from his deathbed, relinquishing the brains to Yale only under the condition that a suitable space be erected to preserve the many specimens. Some 70 years later and after nearly being destroyed, Cushing's wish is fully realized: The once desiccated, hidden brains have been painstakingly restored and are now on view in the Cushing Center. The brains express Cushing's singular and spectral worldview as a surgeon, artist, athlete, soldier, book collector, and historian.
authors.affiliation: Department of History of Science/History of Medicine, Yale University, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06510, USA. paul.shin@yale.edu
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shin
mesh_terms: D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000266:history* / Q000601:surgery; D003237:Connecticut; D049673:History, 20th Century; D008488:Medical Illustration / Q000266:history; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D009493:Neurosurgery / Q000266:history; D012042:Registries; D014495:Universities