GPH PhD students exploered the treasures of the Hagströmer Library
On a gray November day, a happy bunch of GPH PhD students visited the Hagströmer Library, KI’s world-class collection of historic medical literature chronicling the emergence of medicine and health sciences in Europe as they exist today.
In the charming Haga courthouse, participants were offered glimpses into amazingly detailed anatomic prints and richly illustrated 500-year-old herbals, including one printed using the original plants first coloured and then pressed onto paper. In the library’s current special exhibition on women's health, curator Anna Lantz detailed how early (male) obstetricians acquired their knowledge and skills from (female) midwives and then restricted the status of midwives to pass the knowledge off as their own.
Anna also explained the library’s current work to make its collections available to researchers by digitization. After this illuminating experience, the afternoon was rounded off over some drinks by the open fire of Boulebar Haga. The Hagströmer Library is a KI treasure well worth visiting and its reading room open to anyone interested, but pre-booking is required.