This resource is important to chiropractors because in late 2002, the Council on Chiropractic Guidelines and Practice Parameters (CCGPP) approached the Work Loss Data Institute about researching and authoring treatment guidelines for the chiropractic profession. Since 2006, new chiropractic guidelines have been incorporated in the updated documentation of the ODG.

Chiropractic is playing an increasingly important role in helping injured workers recover and return to productivity, and the costs of chiropractic are growing as a total percentage of workers’ compensation costs. To learn more about the ODG, check out “A DC Insider’s Guide to the Official Disability Guidelines” in Dynamic Chiropractic, which explains the resource and discusses why chiropractors should become familiar with it.     —Phyllis Harvey

How To Get Well

Old Dad Chiro
B.J. of Davenport
Three Generations
The Palmer Technique of Chiropractic
Chiropractic History

The ALA is currently sponsoring a book spine poetry contest, and voting for favorite poems will remain open through April 26; all submissions can be viewed here.

Palmer Library contains a variety of poetic works, and Special Collections and Archives has several volumes that relate to chiropractic, such as Twentieth Century Zephyrs; or Reminiscences of Chiropractic (1916), Paths around Palmer (1958), and Chiropractic in Four Seasons (1998). In addition, we have the volume, P.S.C. and Other Poems, by William H. Rauchfuss, D.C. Valedictorian of his class, Rauchfuss hailed from Paterson, New Jersey, and graduated from Palmer in 1920. Modestly produced with typewritten carbon-copies, the book contains such gems as “Frat Yells” and “Sorority Yells,” which conclude with the following stanzas, respectively:

Ye-ow! Ye-ow! me-oh-my!
Delta Sigma Chi! Yi-yi!
Chiro! chiro! absolute-lee!
We yell like hell for the P.S.C.!

Yip, yap! Mabel! B.J.!
Yip-de-addity, boom-de-aye!
Sublux! Palpate! this is our cry—
We are the gals of the Delta Phi Chi!

With spring finally arriving in Iowa, may everyone enjoy such exuberance and perhaps add their own versifying—chiropractic or otherwise—to the literary canon.

Phyllis Harvey, M.Ln., is Collection Management Librarian at Palmer’s Davenport campus. Even though based in Iowa, Phyllis manages the Library’s collections for all three Palmer campuses, work which encompasses the acquisition of books, audiovisuals, and journals, as well as the maintenance of electronic database contracts. She also administers a number of the tools the Library offers users, such as the

Another significant component of Phyllis’ duties is the provision of reference services. All told, Phyllis has over 15 years of experience answering users’ questions and performing literature searches. Among Phyllis’ contributions to the chiropractic profession is her volunteer service since 2002 as Editor of the Index to Chiropractic Literature, an invaluable and heavily utilized online resource for students, faculty, clinicians, and researchers.

In her leisure time, Phyllis is an avid reader of fiction. She also loves spending time walking around her family’s farm and helping to care for their current pets, which include cats and horses. Phyllis is pictured here with her beloved horse, Flash, who sadly expired in February.

Continuing with the

Mabel founded the oldest chiropractic organization in the world, the Sigma Phi Chi Sorority, and authored the first chiropractic anatomy textbook, Anatomy (1918). Her influence is also evident by her pamphlet, “A Woman’s Appeal to Women,” which was published in the early 1920s and is available in Palmer’s Special Collections and Archives.

In this pamphlet Mabel encourages women to consider a career in chiropractic. She states, “Never before has there been such wonderful opportunities to women for practical service; and in my opinion, there is no other profession in the whole world so splendidly adapted to women as CHIROPRACTIC.” She asks women to “think of the children” and to tap into their “feminine qualities of patience and sympathy” in order to help the ailing and ultimately “to grow intellectually, socially and financially.”

The Appeal also states emphatically that “The World Needs Thousands of Women Chiropractors,” and Mabel’s own example contributed greatly to the influx of women at Palmer and in the wider chiropractic profession. Palmer has been very active in recruiting women over the years and has continued to graduate many female chiropractors in each successive class. To read further about Mabel’s influence on women in the chiropractic field, visit the library to consult “The First 100 Years of Women in Chiropractic” in Today’s Chiropractic (vol. 24, no. 1, 1995) and “Women in Chiropractic: The Past and the Present” in the ICA Review (vol. 52, no. 4, 1996).   —Rosemary Riess

In 1904, Mrs. Barbara Brake from Melbourne, Australia travelled to Davenport with her sister-in-law, Martha Brake Thompson, to obtain D.D. Palmer’s help in relieving the pain of her congenitally dislocated hips. They stayed in Davenport  to study chiropractic, and then returned to Melbourne and established their own practices. Mrs. Barbara Brake is believed to be the first chiropractic patient and practitioner from Australia. Other Australian women soon followed suit, with Helen McKenzie being the first Australian chiropractic graduate, completing her studies at Palmer in 1923. She is pictured here in an advertisement for her practice that appeared in The Chiropractor, May 1931.

Marjaleena Mäkinen was born in 1940 in Pori, Finland. She travelled to Norway seeking relief from bad asthma and discovered chiropractic. She was inspired to study chiropractic herself, graduating from Palmer College of Chiropractic in March 1968. After she graduated from Palmer she returned to Finland to start her own practice but was challenged by the National Board of Health (NBH), who suggested that she return to the U.S. Not to be deterred, Mäkinen hired a lawyer and was able to open her own chiropractic practice in May 1969 in her hometown of Pori, and despite further confrontation, the practice still survives today as the oldest chiropractic clinic in Finland. To learn more about Mäkinen or other European women of chiropractic, check out Chiropractic in Europe: An Illustrated History, which is available both in Special Collections and in the circulating collection of the Library.       —Rosemary Riess

With

The Rubel College of Chiropractic, which the catalogue calls the “first chiropractic school of the race,” was incorporated in 1914 in Alabama, and in 1921 in Chicago, by Fred H. L. Rubel, D.C. (pictured above). The college was created “to open the field of instruction to all races, no matter what the color of their skin may be, so as particularly to give members of the colored race an opportunity to learn one of the greatest modern professions—Chiropractic.”  Dr. Rubel was joined in his work by Julian Dawson, M.D., who was an instructor of Anatomy and other subjects at the college. More on the background of Dr. Rubel can be found in the article, “Fred Rubel: The First Black Chiropractor?” published in Chiropractic History (vol. 11, no. 1, June 1991, pp. 8-9). Both the original Rubel College catalogue and the corresponding Chiropractic History article can be viewed in Special Collections and Archives at the David D. Palmer Health Sciences Library. Reading Room hours are 8:30am-4pm, Monday-Friday.     —Rosemary Riess

A pioneering work on the functioning of the human heart is, of course, William Harvey’s

. . . it is absolutely necessary to conclude that the blood in the animal body is impelled in a circle, and is in a state of ceaseless motion; that this is the act or function which the heart performs by means of its pulse; and that it is the sole and only end of the motion and contraction of the heart.”

– Chapter 14, “Conclusion of the Demonstration of Circulation” (translated by Robert Willis).

The device pictured here, a Cardiac Display Unit manufactured by Bobbitt Laboratories, was donated to the library in 1978 for use in demonstrating the flow of blood through the heart by means of flashing lights.

Anatomical models have long played a role in the teaching of human anatomy. Dr. Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux (1797-1880) designed and fabricated many such tools in the nineteenth century. As cultural, legal, and environmental concerns limited the efficacy of using cadavers for instruction, Auzoux pioneered the development of papier-mâché anatomical models, which were employed to represent the structures of humans, as well as animals and plants. For those interested in learning more, the Smithsonian Institution’s online exhibition, Artificial Anatomy: Papier-Mâché Anatomical Models, is highly recommended.

Palmer College of Chiropractic’s own Dr. Mabel Palmer authored the first anatomical text in chiropractic, Anatomy, published in 1918. The Library also has numerous works on cardiology, some of which can be browsed here.

While at The University of Iowa, I researched the importance of the paperback revolution to scholars and the history of 1950s Science Fiction magazine readership as part of an early form of fan culture.  I worked as an Archivist Assistant for two years at the Iowa Women’s Archives and the Boyd Law Library. Some of my responsibilities included processing new collections, writing finding aids, reference requests, working with Archon database software and working on exhibits. This is the type of work which I will continue in the Palmer Library Special Collections and Archives as well as digitization projects and updating the blog. My professional goal is to make historical archives more accessible to the community.

Before my graduate degree, I worked at the Figge Art Museum for several years both in the curatorial and visitor services departments where I worked on exhibits, updated the Artsystems database and assisted visitors with their information requests. My undergraduate degree, a B.A. in American Studies from the University of Hull, England, gave me a good background in a variety of different cultural fields from literature and history to art and film. As part of this degree, I spent a year abroad at the University of Iowa where I met my husband, Tim Riess, who was an electrical engineering student at the time. After we got married, I moved to Davenport, IA where I currently reside with Tim and my mischievous rabbit, Charlie. My hobbies include reading British science fiction and mystery novels and painting.

There is a new biomedical image search engine available from the National Library of Medicine. Called Open-I, the database, which is currently in beta form, will initially contain around 600,000 images, but plans are to expand that to over a million. Not only can users access images, but the database can also provide citation information, the outcome statement from the article and the most relevant figure from it. All this extensive indexing has been from full text open access collections such as PubMed Central. 

Cases Database is a new, open-access resource from BioMed Central. Containing thousands of peer-reviewed medical case reports from publishers such as Springer, BMJ Group and PubMed Central, it allows clinicians, researchers, and members of the public to search for and compare cases for similarities and trends. The site is easily searchable, and free registration allows the user to create a personalized database to track case reports of interest.

The winner will be invited to attend the annual meeting of the Association for the History of Chiropractic during the year the medal is conferred, which this year will take place in Greeley, Colorado on June 22, 2013. Registration, airfare (as set by the board but not to exceed $500), two nights in the hotel, and a year of membership in the AHC will be provided for the winner. A cash prize is also awarded.

Submissions must be made by February 15, 2013. Papers must be submitted in accordance with the guidelines of the journal, Chiropractic History. Submissions and other inquiries should be directed to the Executive Director at ahc1895@gmail.com.

A second essay competition, the Gibbons-Wardwell Medal Essay Contest, is open to graduate and undergraduate students in any field of study who are not D.C. students. The guidelines for this contest are similiar to the Rehm Medal Essay Contest, and may be found on the ACH web site.