KCUMB Sponsors Changing the Face of Medicine Exhibit

9/25/2009

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Sept. 25, 2009) — Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences joins two local medical schools in hosting “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians,” a national traveling exhibition that tells the story of women doctors in America.

Kansas City is one of only 61 sites across the United States chosen to host the exhibit, which illustrates how women in America have struggled for the past two centuries to gain access to medical education and to work in the medical specialties of their choosing.

The exhibit will be on display Oct. 3 through Nov. 11 at Dykes Library at the University of Kansas Medical Center. The KCUMB Library, the University of Kansas Medical Center’s Dykes Library and the Clendening History of Medicine Library, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Health Sciences Library are sponsoring the exhibit and will host a variety of free events (http://library.kumc.edu/womeninmedicine/events.html).

The exhibition kicks off with an opening reception at 3 p.m. Oct. 3 and will feature a keynote address by Marjorie Sirridge, M.D., former dean of the UMKC School of Medicine. Dr. Sirridge is also profiled in the exhibit. KCUMB will sponsor the reception, which will take place in Dykes Library on the University of Kansas Medical Center campus.

From Oct. 3-Nov. 11, the KCUMB Library will also feature a display of women physicians who graduated from KCUMB. This display will feature key women in KCUMB’s history, including Mary L. Butterworth, D.O., and Mamie E. Johnston, D.O., the first graduate of KCUMB. Additional highlights include historical pictures, awards and publications by KCUMB women alumni.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM), Bethesda, Md., and the American Library Association, Chicago, organized the traveling exhibition with support from the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health, and the American Medical Women’s Association. The traveling exhibition is based on a larger exhibition that was displayed at the NLM from 2003-2005. The local exhibit received additional support through grants from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine and the Health Sciences Library Network of Kansas City.

To learn more information regarding the exhibit, visit the exhibit’s Web site at http://library.kumc.edu/womeninmedicine.