Osler Library Exhibition Vernissage | Curiosities of Conception
All are invited to attend a vernissage to celebrate the opening of our newest exhibition,聽Curiosities of Conception;聽Selections from the聽Osler聽Library of the聽History of Medicine, 聽January 24, 2019, at 5:30 pm.
Co-curated by Shana Cooperstein and Frances Cullen with contributions from Robin Lynch, Lauren Harnish, Rach Klein, Anya Kowalchuk, and Kristy Kong
RSVP required. TO RSVP, please click here.
Drawing from the rich holdings of the Osler Library of the History of Medicine,聽Curiosities of Conception聽looks specifically at the ways that medical discourses have responded to and perpetuated the image of the monstrous maternal from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. It does so by bringing together medical texts revolving broadly around the topics of conception, childbirth, and parenting. While medical discourses did move to replace the mythology of the monstrous birth with the language of science and reason, this exhibition argues that they also actively participated in the cultural construction of female sexuality as aberrant and of the mother figure as monstrous.
Photo: Image of Mary Toft, called the "Rabbitbreeder", from聽Steevens, George.聽A Complete collection, of all the facts, both printed and manuscript, relating to Mary Tofts, the celebrated Rabbit Woman of Godalming听(1726).
