Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. MD Archives Blog

PubMed Central – a Vibrant Source for History

A recent blog post from the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) celebrates the wonderful resource in the history of medicine that is PubMed Central. Best known as a source of current, full-text biomedical articles, PubMed Central also includes the contents of medical journals dating back to 1809. NLM notes that there are now over 3.8 million total items available in PubMed Central.

A word cloud created by the National Library of Medicine showing the frequency of medical subject terms used to describe articles in PubMed Central.

A word cloud created by the National Library of Medicine showing the frequency of medical subject terms used to describe articles in PubMed Central.

The earliest article that mentions Mount Sinai dates to 1871 and the earliest article found that was written by a Mount Sinai physician was “On the Surgical Dissemination of Cancer” by Arpad G. Gerster, then Director of the Department of Surgery. Gerster was the first to suggest that cancer might be spread by surgical procedure.

Read the NLM blog post and then play around in PubMed Central. You are sure to find something of interest there.

Mount Sinai’s Role in “Love Story”

In honor of Valentine’s Day, the Mount Sinai Archives looks at Mount Sinai’s ties to one of the most romantic movies of all time, “Love Story.”  Yes, that 1970 classic tear-jerker that made the phrase, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” a cultural phenomenon.  It was a meme before memes were a thing.

Filming "Love Story" outside of the Klingenstein Pavilion on 5th Avenue, c1969.

Filming “Love Story” outside of the Klingenstein Pavilion on 5th Avenue, c1969.

So, what role did Mount Sinai play in the movie?  As you know (come on, the movie is 45 years old, there are no spoiler alerts), Jenny, played by Ali McGraw, meets and marries Oliver (Ryan O’Neal) while at Harvard and then falls ill and spends her final days – where else? – at The Mount Sinai Hospital Klingenstein Pavilion.   There is a tense and touching scene at the end of the movie, after Oliver exits KP out onto 5th Avenue, between Ryan O’Neal and Ray Milland, who played his father.

Think this is old news?  Just a few days ago, the Huffington Post ran a piece about how the two co-stars, McGraw and O’Neal, had put in an appearance at Harvard.  Apparently, “Love Story” also means never having to say good-bye.