The Southern California Medical Museum
Annual Report 2009-2010
The Historical Committee met 11 times during 2009/2010 fiscal year, and our members still give generously of their time in support of the Medical Museum. We are continuing our efforts to recruit new members to serve on the Committee. Accomplishments of the Historical Committee this past year include:
Museum Publicity
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*Our museum’s website “ www.socalmedicalmuseum.org “ continues to be very successful. Donations of artifacts to the museum and group tours are attributed to the public discovering the Southern California Medical Museum on the internet. The website features many photos of our museum exhibits and new photos have been added since last year. Many links are provided to various medical museums and organizations. The website will be a continuous project as it is with most websites.
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*A professional tri-folded color brochure of the museum has recently been printed. We would like to express our appreciation to Jenise Solorio and Linda Sue Myers, SBCMS Staff, for their assistance in developing the brochure, The brochure will be placed at other museums and places of interest.
Museum Displays:
* Our docents were very busy with 26 tours since July 1, 2009. Approximately 350 adults, college/high school students, and Boy Scouts enjoyed visiting the museum, seeing the many displays of medical instruments representing various specialties. Group tours with less than 6 people used the written “Docent Tour Guide” developed in 2008 when a docents are not available.
* A new display cabinet now has items relating to preventing infectious disease by vaccination.
Future Goals and/or Projects:
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*The Colors of Medicine, a book written by Dr. Elliot Weinstein, will be published prior to the end of 2010.
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*Revival of the Friends of the SCMM program to help fund raising for projects. We would encourage board members to support the Friends of SCMM.
Donations
* Our Museum continues to truly live up to our name, the “Southern California Medical Museum”. We continue to receive donations of equipment and books from physicians and others throughout Southern California.
Medical Museum’s Annual Open House Event
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*Our 13th Annual Open House event, titled “The Needle Versus the Pox” was successful with approximately 55 people in attendance. Dr. Hans Davidson opened the afternoon event and introduced our guest speaker Rick Miller. A veteran public health officer, Rick shared his first hand experiences in Somalia in the battle to eradicate Small Pox. Incredible photographs were shown of remote African villages and other locales during his years with the World Health Organization (WHO). The audience joined Rick on a safari abroad and followed how health officers combat killer diseases like small pox, tuberculosis, HIV-AIDS, and the dreaded Guinea worm. Artifacts shown were a bifurcated needle for small pox vaccinations, a Guinea worm in formaldehyde, a ceramic statue of a small pox goddess, and a mesh water filter. Doctors Elliot Weinstein, Hans Davidson, and Tom Gibson gave docent-led tours after the presentation.
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* We would like to express our appreciation to the Alliance for assisting at the registration table and providing the refreshments, and to the Medical Society as a whole for all their assistance with the logistics of this year’s Open House.
Recently we lost a long-time committee member, docent, friend and fellow colleague, Stanley Korfmacher, M.D. Throughout many years, Dr. Korfmacher donated his time (as the first curator of the museum) and interest building our museum, including a vast collection of old medicine bottles and quackery items. He will be greatly missed.
In closing, I would like to recognize and thank all of our active and corresponding members for giving freely of their time and efforts for the Historical Committee. I also want to express our thanks for the tremendous help the Medical Society staff has been to our Committee and Museum.
On behalf of Historical Committee members and myself, I would like to express our appreciation to the Executive Committee and Board of Directors for their continuing support of our Committee and activities, and for allowing me the opportunity to serve as Chairman of the Historical Committee.
Elliot Weinstein, M.D., Chairman
