Beaumont Medical Club Lectures

The Beaumont Medical Club was founded in 1920 by a group of Yale University School of Medicine physicians and faculty members including George Blumer, former dean, C.-E.A. Winslow, renowned microbiologist and public health practitioner, and M.C. Winternitz, well-know pathologist and dean of the medical school. Although the club's first meeting was held on December 14, 1920, the club adopted its official name three months later after some discussion. The founders were interested in naming the club for a distinguished physician, choosing William Beaumont, a Connecticut native and an early pioneer in physiology in this country, as an appropriate honoree.

The club was organized to promote the study of the history of medicine and to celebrate the contributions of physicians and medical scientists in promoting the welfare of mankind. From its inception, the Beaumont Medical Club has met on six or seven Friday evenings during the academic year in the Yale Historical Library to hear presentations by members and invited speakers. The meetings have been preceded by an informal tea and have been followed by a sherry hour and dinner for members and invited guests in the Beaumont Room almost since the beginning of the club's history.

Today, tea is served at 4:30 P.M. in the Beaumont Room on the second floor of the Sterling Hall of Medicine above the medical library; the presentation starts at 5 P.M. in the Historical Library on the first floor; sherry and refreshments are served in the library immediately following the presentation; and dinner is served in the Beaumont Room from 6:30 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.

Membership in the Beaumont Medical Club is open to both physicians and non-physicians with a serious interest in the history of medicine. Anyone interested in applying for membership should contact Ronald T. Rozett, M.D., M.P.H. at rrozett@comcast.net.

2009-2010 Schedule

September 25, 2009		“Canadian Health Care: So Near Yet So Far” John S. Hughes, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine
October 8, 2009		The Frederic L. Holmes Lecture (Co-sponsored by the Section of the History of Medicine) “The Mystery of Presence: an Approach to the Comparative History of Medicine” Shigehisa Kuriyama, Ph.D., Reischauer Institute Professor of Cultural History in the Departments of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and History of Science, Harvard University
November 6, 2009		“Rudyard Kipling and Doctors: A Second Opinion” Robert W. Lyons, M.D., Associate Clinical Professor, Yale University School of Medicine Professor, University of Connecticut School of Medicine
January 29, 2010		“Scurvy as a Putrid Disease” Thomas Gariepy, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Health Care Administration, Stonehill College, Easton, MA
March 26, 2010		The George Rosen Memorial Lecture “How Rubens Taught Himself Anatomy—A Look at his Anatomical Drawings” Anne-Marie Logan, Ph.D., Rubens Scholar and Guest Research Curator, Peter Paul Rubens: The Drawings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005
April 23, 2010		The Beaumont Lectureship in the History of Medicine “Reflections on Recent Epidemics” Lawrence K. Altman, M.D., Medical Columnist, The New York Times and Author of Who Goes First: The Story of Self-Experimentation in Medicine
May 21, 2010		The Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Hartford with the Hartford Medical Society and the Robert U. Massey History of Medicine Society, University of Connecticut School of Medicine