Outreach
Arizona State University Embryo Project Photograph Collections
By Jane Maienschein
In the 1970s Stanford University Embryologist Harold Heath sent a box of photographs to Frederick B. Churchill, who was a Professor in the History and Philosophy of Science Department at Indiana University. Heath was born in Indiana, he knew that Churchill was the leading historian of embryology, and he wanted his photographs to be used and therefore wanted them to be housed somewhere with an interest in the history of biology. Heath made it clear that he was donating the photographs for use by scholars and the public.
Created 2008-10-24
Last modified 4 years 10 months ago
Format: ArticlesBiological Lectures Delivered at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole
By EP Editorial Team
The Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, began in 1888 with one building housing researchers upstairs and students in a shared lab and lecture space downstairs. For the first two years, instruction took the form of general lectures covering a range of topics in zoology. In addition, the trustees offered some public lectures in Boston to raise funds for the lab.
Created 2008-10-24
Last modified 4 years 10 months ago
Format: ArticlesLennart Nilsson (1922- )
By Olivia Conley
Lennart Nilsson is a world-renowned photojournalist recognized for his exploratory images of the inside of the human body. Throughout his career, Nilsson has received a great deal of publicity for his images documenting the human reproductive system and the morphology of viruses. His photography was the first to capture early human development and the developmental stages of embryos and fetuses. These images have helped shape the way the public visualizes development.
Created 2010-06-24
Last modified 3 years 4 months ago
Format: ArticlesMaking Visible Embryos (2008- ), by Tatjana Buklijaz and Nick Hopwood
By Karen Wellner
Making Visible Embryos is a 2008 online exhibition of embryos authored and designed by Tatjana Buklijaz and Nick Hopwood who work in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. Hopwood's research on the history of Ziegler wax models and the use of visual aids to promote the teaching and learning of science is well known.
Created 2010-06-25
Last modified 3 years 4 months ago
Format: ArticlesImages of Embryos in Life Magazine in the 1950s
By Olivia Conley
Embryonic images displayed in Life magazine during the mid-twentieth century serve as a representation of technological advances and the growing public interest in the stages of embryological development. These black-and-white photographs portray skeletal structures and intact bodies of chicken embryos and human embryos and fetuses obtained from collections belonging to universities and medical institutions.
Created 2010-06-30
Last modified 4 years 10 months ago
Format: Articles"Drama of Life Before Birth" (1965), by Life Magazine and Lennart Nilsson
By Olivia Conley
Life Magazine's 1965 cover story "Drama of Life Before Birth" featured photographs of embryos and fetuses taken by Swedish photojournalist Lennart Nilsson to document the developmental stages of a human embryo. Included in this article was the first published image of a living fetus inside its mother's womb. Prior to this, embryos and fetuses were observed, studied, and photographed outside of women's bodies as non-living specimens.
Created 2010-06-30
Last modified 3 years 4 months ago
Format: ArticlesThe Miracle of Life (1983), by NOVA
By Inbar Maayan
The most-watched NOVA documentary ever made and a revolution in the understanding of human development, The Miracle of Life (abbreviated Life) employs the most current developments in endoscopic and microscopic technology to capture the intricacies of human development. Narrated by Anita Sangiolo and vividly illustrating the most minute and hard-to-reach parts and processes of living systems, this film truly flexes the muscles of the newest photographic technology of its time, with esteemed photographer Lennart Nilsson behind the camera.
Created 2010-11-19
Last modified 3 years 4 months ago
Format: ArticlesLife's Greatest Miracle (2001), by Julia Cort and NOVA
By Inbar Maayan
The Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) documentary Life's Greatest Miracle (abbreviated Miracle, available at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/miracle/program.html), is arguably one of the most vivid illustrations of the making of new human life. Presented as part of the PBS television series NOVA, Miracle is a little less than an hour long and was first aired 20 November 2001. The program was written and produced by Julia Cort and features images by renowned Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson.
Created 2010-11-20
Last modified 3 years 4 months ago
Format: ArticlesIn the Womb (2005), by Toby Mcdonald and National Geographic Channel
By Inbar Maayan
Written, produced, and directed by Toby Mcdonald, the 2005 National Geographic Channel film In the Womb uses the most recent technology to provide an intricate glimpse into the prenatal world. The technologies used, which include advanced photography, computer graphics, and 4-D ultrasound imaging, help to realistically illustrate the process of development and to answer questions about the rarely seen development of a human being.
Created 2010-11-20
Last modified 3 years 4 months ago
Format: Articles"The Multi-Dimensional Human Embryo"
By Sarah Ly
The Multi-Dimensional Human Embryo website (http://embryo.soad.umich.edu/) is a publicly accessible online database of the first three-dimensional images and animations of human embryos during different stages of development. Both the images and animations were created using magnetic resonance microscopy and compiled for easy access.
Created 2011-03-24
Last modified 4 years 10 months ago
Format: Articles"Visualizing Human Embryos" (1999), by Bradley Richard Smith
By Sarah Ly
In March 1999 Bradley Richard Smith, a professor at the University of Michigan, unveiled the first digital magnetic resonance images of human embryos. In his article "Visualizing Human Embryos for Scientific American," Smith displayed three-dimensional images of embryos using combinations of Magnetic Resonance Microscopy (MRM), light microscopy, and various computer editing. He created virtual embryo models that it is possible to view as dissections, animations, or in their whole 3D form. Smith's images constitute a new way of visualizing embryos.
Created 2011-03-27
Last modified 3 years 4 months ago
Format: ArticlesIn the Womb: Identical Twins (2009), by National Geographic
By Maggie Pingolt
National Geographic's documentary In the Womb: Identical Twins focuses on the prenatal development of human identical twins. Director Lorne Townend uses three-dimensional (3D) and four-dimensional (4D) ultrasound imaging and microscopy to depict twin development , genetic and epigenetic variations in the fetuses, and methods of fetal survival in the confines of the womb. Artist renditions of scientific data fill in areas of development inaccessible to the imaging tools.
Created 2012-03-08
Last modified 3 years 4 months ago
Format: ArticlesGunther von Hagens (1945- )
By Britta Martinez
Gunther von Hagens invented a plastination technique and created Body Worlds, a traveling exhibit that has made anatomy part of the public domain. Von Hagens invented the plastination technique in 1977 while working at Heidelberg University in Heidelberg, Germany. Von Hagen's plastination technique preserves real bodies and tissues by the removal of the fluid and replacement with resin. Body Worlds features three-dimensional, plastinated human bodies.
Created 2012-10-10
Last modified 3 years 5 months ago
Format: ArticlesThe Cabinet of Frederik Ruysch
By Britta Martinez
Frederik Ruysch's cabinet of curiosities, commonly referred to simply as the Cabinet, was a museum Ruysch created in the Netherlands in the late 160ss. The Cabinet filled a series of small houses that Ruysch rented in Amsterdam and contained over 2,000 specimens, including preserved fetuses and infants. The collection remained in Amsterdam until it was purchased by Tsar Peter the Great of Russia in 1717 and transferred to St. Petersburg, Russia.
Created 2013-04-12
Last modified 3 years 5 months ago
Format: ArticlesThe Silent Scream (1984), by Bernard Nathanson, Crusade for Life, and American Portrait Films
By Mark Zhang
The Silent Scream is an anti-abortion film released in 1984 by American Portrait Films, then based in Brunswick, Ohio. The film was created and narrated by Bernard Nathanson, an obstetrician and gynecologist from New York, and it was produced by Crusade for Life, an evangelical anti-abortion organization. In the video, Nathanson narrates ultrasound footage of an abortion of a twelve-week-old fetus, claiming that the fetus opened its mouth in what Nathanson calls a silent scream during the procedure.
Created 2013-05-02
Last modified 3 years 4 months ago
Format: ArticlesOur Bodies, Ourselves (1973), by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective
By Maggie Pingolt
Our Bodies, Ourselves, a succession to a pamphlet of resources pulled from co-ops of women in and around Boston, Massachusetts was published in New York in 1973 by Simon and Schuster. Retitled from the original Women and Their Bodies, Our Bodies, Ourselves was an effort by a group of educated, middle class women to reinforce women's ownership of their bodies. There have been eight editions of Our Bodies, Ourselves, as well as sequels such as Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth and Our Bodies, Ourselves: Menopause.
Created 2013-06-21
Last modified 3 years 6 months ago
Format: ArticlesUniform Anatomical Gift Act (1968)
By Britta Martinez
The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA or the Act) was passed in the US in 1968 and has since been revised in 1987 and in 2006. The Act sets a regulatory framework for the donation of organs, tissues, and other human body parts in the US. The UAGA helps regulate body donations to science, medicine, and education. The Act has been consulted in discussions about abortion , fetal tissue transplants , and Body Worlds , an anatomy exhibition.
Created 2013-08-05
Last modified 3 years 6 months ago
Format: ArticlesA Child Is Born (1965), by Lennart Nilsson
By Mark Zhang
Dell Publishing in New York City, New York, published Lennart Nilsson's A Child Is Born in 1966. The book was a translation of the Swedish version called Ett barn blir till, published in 1965. It sold over a million copies in its first edition, and has translations in twelve languages. Nilsson, a photojournalist, documented a nine-month human pregnancy using pictures and accompanying text written by doctors Axel Ingelman-Sundberg, Claes Wirsen and translated by Britt and Claes Wirsen and Annabelle MacMillian.
Created 2013-09-17
Last modified 3 years 6 months ago
Format: Articles"Hybrids and Chimeras: A report on the findings of the consultation" by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in October, 2007
By Sarah Taddeo, Jason S. Robert
In 2007, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in London, UK, published Hybrids and Chimeras: A Report on the Findings of the Consultation, which summarized a public debate about research on, and suggested policy for, human animal chimeras. The HFEA formulated the report after conducting a series of surveys and debates from earlier in 2007. The HFEA issued a statement in September 2007, followed by an official report published on 1 October 2007. Their report on human-animal chimeras set a worldwide precedent for discussions of the ethical use of those embryos in labs.
Created 2014-11-22
Last modified 3 years 8 months ago
Format: ArticlesHamlin Fistula Ethiopia (1974- )
By Patsy Ciardullo
Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia is a nonprofit organization that began in 1974 as a joint endeavor by Reginald and Catherine Hamlin and the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia promotes reproductive health in Ethiopia by raising awareness and implementing treatment and preventive services for women affected by obstetric fistulas. It also aims to restore the lives of women afflicted with obstetric fistulas in Ethiopia and eventually to eradicate the condition.
Created 2015-04-13
Last modified 3 years 4 months ago
Format: ArticlesEugenical Sterilization in the United States (1922), by Harry H. Laughlin
By Rachel Gur-Arie
Eugenical Sterilization in the United States is a 1922 book in which author Harry H. Laughlin argues for the necessity of compulsory sterilization in the United States based on the principles of eugenics. The eugenics movement of the early twentieth century in the US focused on altering the genetic makeup of the US population by regulating immigration and sterilization, and by discouraging interracial procreation, then called miscegenation.
Created 2015-08-12
Last modified 3 years 5 days ago
Format: ArticlesThe Mother's Health Clinic of Phoenix (1937-1942)
By Claudia Nunez-Eddy
The Mother's Health Clinic opened in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1937 and provided women in central Arizona with contraception and family planning resources. A group of wealthy philanthropic Phoenix women founded the clinic under the guidance of birth control activist Margaret Sanger. The clinic was the second birth control clinic to open in Arizona and the first to serve the central and northern Arizona residents.
Created 2016-10-12
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesClinica Para Madres (1934-1950)
By Claudia Nunez-Eddy
The Clinica Para Madres (Mother’s Clinic) opened in Tucson, Arizona, in December of 1934 as the first birth control clinic in Arizona. After moving to Tucson, birth control activist Margaret Sanger, along with a group of local philanthropic women, founded the clinic to provide Arizona women with contraception. During the early 1900s in the US, contraception was illegal under the federal Comstock Act. Additionally, many viewed contraception and sex as obscene and not to be discussed in public or outside of marriage.
Created 2016-10-12
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesMargaret (Peggy) Goldwater (1909–1985)
By Claudia Nunez-Eddy
Margaret Goldwater advocated for birth control and reproductive rights in the United States during the twentieth century. Goldwater was a socialite and philanthropist and was married to Barry Goldwater, US Senator from Arizona. She spent much of her life working to further the women's reproductive rights movement, which sought to expand women's legal, social, and physical access to reproductive healthcare, including contraception and abortions.
Created 2016-10-13
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesMargaret Higgins Sanger (1879-1966)
By Claudia Nunez-Eddy, Lakshmeeramya Malladi
Margaret Higgins Sanger advocated for birth control in the United States and Europe during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although people used contraceptives prior to the twentieth century, in the US the 1873 Comstock Act made the distribution of information relating to the use of contraceptives illegal, and similar state-level Comstock laws also classified discussion and dissemination of contraceptives as illegal.
Created 2016-10-13
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesPlanned Parenthood Center of Tucson (1950-1977)
By Claudia Nunez-Eddy
Established in 1950, the Planned Parenthood Center of Tucson provided Arizona women with family planning resources until 1977, when it expanded to locations outside of Tucson and became Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona. The Planned Parenthood Center of Tucson was formed after the Clinica Para Madres, the first birth control clinic in Arizona, merged with the national organization Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Created 2016-10-22
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesPlanned Parenthood Committee of Phoenix (1942-1978)
By Claudia Nunez-Eddy
The Planned Parenthood Committee of Phoenix was established in 1942 to expand Arizona women's access to family planning resources. The Planned Parenthood Committee of Phoenix was formed through the merging of The Mother's Health Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona, with the national Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The clinic was primarily based within the Phoenix Memorial Hospital campus but expanded to other locations in the late 1960s.
Created 2016-11-08
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesPeople's Padre: An Autobiography (1954), by Emmett McLoughlin
By Claudia Nunez-Eddy
Emmett McLoughlin wrote People's Padre: An Autobiography, based on his experiences as a Roman Catholic priest advocating for the health of people in Arizona. The Beacon Press in Boston, Massachusetts, published the autobiography in 1954. McLoughlin was a Franciscan Order Roman Catholic priest who advocated for public housing and healthcare for the poor and for minority groups in Phoenix, Arizona, during the mid twentieth century. The autobiography recounts McLoughlin's efforts in founding several community initiatives throughout Phoenix, including the St.
Created 2016-11-08
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesEclipse of Reason (1987)
By Sepehr Abdi-Moradi
Eclipse of Reason is a 1987 anti-abortion documentary film directed, filmed, and narrated by Bernard Nathanson, an obstetrician in the US. American Portrait Films released the film in 1987 featuring Nathanson’s commentary and footage of an abortion of a four-month-old fetus. The film also featured the testimony of women who had suffered following similar procedures. In Eclipse of Reason, Nathanson equates the fetus to a person, likening abortion procedures to murder and arguing for the illegalization of abortion.
Created 2017-02-11
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesThe Malthusian League (1877–1927)
By Claudia Nunez-Eddy
The Malthusian League, founded in London, England, in 1877 promoted the use of contraception to limit family size. Activists Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant established the Malthusian League after they were arrested and exonerated for publishing a pamphlet describing techniques to prevent pregnancy. Founders based the league on the principles of Thomas Malthus, a British nineteenth century economist, who wrote on the perils of a population growing beyond the resources available to support it.
Created 2017-04-27
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesBetter Babies Contests in the United States (1908–1916)
By Reem Gerais
Better babies contests were competitions held in state fairs throughout the US during the early twentieth century in which babies between the ages of 6 and 48 months were judged for their health. In 1908, social activist Mary de Garmo established and held the first better babies contest at the Louisiana State Fair in Shreveport, Louisiana. The contests, mirroring theories established in the US’s eugenics movement of the twentieth century, aimed to establish standards for judging infant health.
Created 2017-05-04
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesSheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act (1921)
By Katherine Madgett
In November 1921, US Congress passed the National Maternity and Infancy Protection Act, also called the Sheppard-Towner Act. The Act provided federal funds to states to establish programs to educate people about prenatal health and infant welfare. Advocates argued that it would curb the high infant mortality rate in the US.
Created 2017-05-18
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesPrenatal Care (1913), by Mary Mills West
By Katherine Madgett
Prenatal Care is an educational booklet written by Mary Mills West of the US Children’s Bureau and published by the US Government Printing Office in 1913. The Bureau distributed West’s booklets in response to their field studies on infant mortality, which found that lack of access to accurate health and hygiene information put women and infants at greater than normal risk of death or disease. In Prenatal Care, West offers advice on nutrition, exercise, and personal hygiene during pregnancy and describes the processes of labor and birth.
Created 2017-05-18
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesJulia Clifford Lathrop (1858–1932)
By Katherine Madgett
Julia Clifford Lathrop was an activist and social reformer in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries and the first chief of the United States Children’s Bureau. In that capacity, she conducted demographic studies to identify links between socioeconomic factors and infant mortality rates. Lathrop mobilized the effort to increase birth registration and designed programs and publications to promote infant and maternal health throughout the US.
Created 2017-05-22
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesAmeisen: Die heimliche Weltmacht (Ants: Nature’s Secret Power) (2004)
By Kelle Dhein
Ameisen: Die heimliche Weltmacht (Ants: Nature’s Secret Power) is a nature documentary about ants. Wolfgang Thaler wrote, filmed, and directed the film, which focuses on the work of ant researcher Bert
Created 2017-05-23
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesBetter Babies Contests in the United States (1908–1916)
By Reem Gerais
Better babies contests were competitions held in state fairs throughout the US during the early twentieth century in which babies between the ages of 6 and 48 months were judged for their health. In 1908, social activist Mary de Garmo established and held the first better babies contest at the Louisiana State Fair in Shreveport, Louisiana. The contests, mirroring theories established in the US’s eugenics movement of the twentieth century, aimed to establish standards for judging infant health.
Created 2017-07-19
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesThe Magdalene Sisters (2002)
By Alexis Darby
In 2002, Miramax Entertainment released The Magdalene Sisters, a film that portrays an interpretation of the true events experienced by four young women who were forcibly placed into a Magdalene asylum in Dublin, Ireland, in 1964. Catholic nuns ran Magdalene asylums throughout the world, where they forced women whom society deemed sexually promiscuous to perform hard labor in their laundry facilities. The film portrays the experiences of four women, Margaret, Bernadette, Rose, and Crispina, as they experienced negative treatment from the nuns and sought escape.
Created 2018-06-01
Last modified 2 months 1 week ago
Format: ArticlesChernobyl Heart (2003)
By Jessica Pollesche
In 2003, HBO Original Programming released the documentary Chernobyl Heart. Maryann De Leo directed and produced the film, which is about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident and how the radiation from that accident has affected people living in the area. Side effects have included mental disabilities, physical disabilities, and genetic mutations.
Created 2018-06-01
Last modified 1 month 2 weeks ago
Format: ArticlesThe Business of Being Born (2008)
By Jessica Pollesche
In 2008, Barranca Productions released a documentary called The Business of Being Born, detailing the topic of childbirth. Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein produced and directed the documentary. The documentary explores pregnancy related healthcare in the US, including the history of midwives and obstetrics. The film also discusses potential consequences of medicalized childbirth common in the twenty-first century. The Business of Being Born provides viewers with information about home-births, midwives, and the positive and negative aspects of going to the hospital for childbirth.
Created 2018-06-09
Last modified 2 months 1 week ago
Format: Articles