We offer a robust lecture and exhibits program to foster discovery and demonstrate the research value of the collections. All events and exhibits free and open to the public. For more information please contact Polina Ilieva.
Current exhibits
In-person: Maternal Health and Images of the Body in Japanese Ukiyo-e
Available for viewing on the third floor of the UCSF Kalmanovitz Library at Parnassus Heights from November 2023 through December 2024. This exhibition explores the historical perspectives surrounding the human body and maternal health in Japan through the lens of ukiyo-e woodblock prints. The central question framing the selection of the exhibited images, most provided by the UCSF Japanese Woodblock Print Collection and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) collection, is how was the human body represented in mid-19th century Japan? Ukiyo-e refers to a genre of hand-drawn paintings and woodblock prints from the Edo period (1603–1868) to the 20th century. By drawing on various visual arts and medical media, this exhibit examines pregnancy and childbirth in early modern Japan and how birth control methods such as abortion and mabiki (infanticide or “thinning out”) were viewed at the time. UCSF ID required to enter or contact Archives and Special Collections to schedule a viewing.
Online: Maternal Health and Images of the Body in Japanese Ukiyo-e
This online exhibit has been generated based on the in-person exhibit held at the UCSF Kalmanovitz Library.
Online: Bernard Zakheim Murals at UCSF
A digital experience for viewing the New Deal-era murals, titled “The History of Medicine in California” and “Ancient and Modern Medicine.”
Online: They Were Really Us: The UCSF Community’s Early Response to AIDS
The exhibit highlights ways individual professionals affiliated with UCSF acted to address HIV/AIDS following its outbreak in the 1980s.
Past events
What can AZT tell us about drug development in the early AIDS epidemic?
John E. Lesch
April 27, 2022 video recording
Women Physician Pioneers of the 1960s: Their Lives and Profession Over a Half Century
Susan E. Detweiler, MD
March 16, 2022 video recording
Toward a History of Black AIDS Activism
Dan Royles and Antoine Johnson
December 6, 2021 video recording
Medical Care for All, Regardless
Donald W. Waters
November 17, 2021 video recording
Pause, Breathe, and Re-Connect: Poetry and Discussion
April 29, 2021 video recording and visual summary
The Myth of the Perfect Pregnancy: A History of Miscarriage in America
Lara Freidenfelds, PhD
March 6, 2020 video recording coming soon
A History of Healing with Carry the One Radio
February 27, 2020 video recording
The Soul of Care with Arthur Kleinman
February 12, 2020 video recording
Symposium: Memory Lives On: Documenting the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
October 14–5, 2019 video recording
In Whose Best Interest? Children, Aspirin Poisoning, and the Pharmaceutical Industry, 1947-1976
October 18, 2019
Elderhood Author Louise Aronson in Conversation with Sharon Kaufman
September 18, 2019 video recording
Documenting While Black
August 14, 2019 video recording
Heart to Heart: Dr. Sandeep Jauhar in Conversation with Dr. Victoria Sweet
March 22, 2019 video recording
What Came Before Zero? STIs Among Men Who Had Sex With Men in California, 1945-1965
Richard McKay, D.Phil
January 10, 2019
Lest We Forget: Slavery, Race and the Birth of American Gynecology
Associate Professor of History Deirdre Cooper Owens
December 10, 2018 video recording
Medicine as Mission: Black Women Physicians’ Careers, 1864-1941
Meg Vigil-Fowler, PhD., with Renee Navarro, MD and Aimee Medeiros, PhD
October 10, 2018 video recording
Group Weight Loss and Multiple Screening: A Tale of Two Heart Disease Programs and the Problems of Postwar American Public Health
Nicolas Rasmussen
June 7, 2018 video recording
A Long Way from Wisconsin — The Work and Wanderings of Henry Wellcome
Marilyn McEntyre
April 24, 2018 video recording
The Evolution of Urology at UCSF
UCSF Department of Urology
March 14, 2018
50 Years of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics
David E. Smith
October 6, 2017 video recording
“Do the Best for Our Soldiers”: University of California Medical Service in World War I
Morton Rivo and Wen Shen
May 23, 2017 video recording
The History of Higher Education in California: A Big Data Approach
Zach Bleemer
March 3, 2017 video recording
What Will It Take To End AIDS?
Jon Cohen, Amy Maxmen, and Misha Friedman
January 11, 2017 video recording
Fake Silk: The Lethal History of Viscose Rayon
Paul Blanc
December 2, 2016 video recording
Embracing the Future as Stewards of the Past: Historical Medical Collections in the 21st Century
Jeffrey Reznick
October 21, 2016 video recording
Vaccination and Society Since the Sixties
Elena Conis
September 30, 2016
Heightened Expectations: The Discovery and Early Uses of Growth Hormone
Aimee Medeiros
May 17, 2016 video recording
A History of Neurological Surgery at UCSF, 1912-2015
Mitchel Berger, Brian Dolan, Lawrence Pitts, Grant Gauger, and Art Lyons
March 11, 2016 video recording
The Transformation of Anesthesia, 1900-1960
John Severinghaus and Merlin Larson
December 4, 2015 video recording
History, Science and Art of Ocular Prosthetics
Robert Sherins
May 28, 2015 video recording
The Forgotten Epidemic: HIV/AIDS in Women and Children
Arthur Ammann
February 26, 2015 video recording
Karl F. Meyer: California’s Forgotten Microbe Hunter
Mark Honigsbaum
December 5, 2014 video recording
Shimkin’s “Lost Colony” (1947-1953): Early Interdisciplinary Cancer Research at UCSF
M. Michael Thaler
October 13, 2014 video recording
Learning from Our History: Lessons at UCSF from the Early AIDS Epidemic
John Greenspan, Paul Volberding, Molly Cooke, and Jay Levy
April 16, 2014 video recording
Tracking Disease, Forecasting Futures
Laurie Garrett
February 21, 2014
Past exhibits
Seeing the Self Anew: How Art and Science Intersect
2022
Open Wide: 500 Years of Dentistry in Art
2018
Do the Best for Our Soldiers: University of California Medical Service in World War I
2017
Selections from the UCSF Cornerstone Collection and Health Sciences Artifacts
2017
HIV: A Plague of Violence Against Women
2017
Vision for the Future: Advancing MRI Technology at UCSF’s Radiologic Imaging Laboratory, 1975-2000
2016
An Engine of Inquiry and Change: The UCSF Library
2016
Many Faces, One UCSF: Celebrating 150 Years of Innovation, Education, and Care
2015
History, Science and Art of Ocular Prosthetics exhibit
2015
Windows on Science at the Exploratorium
2015
Eric L. Berne Archive: The Birth of Transactional Analysis
2014