Sans titre

oldads:

Continental Oil Company - 19481211 Post on Flickr.

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obitoftheday:

Obit of the Day: The Woman Who Saved 800,000 Babies

Prior to the work of Dr. Mary Ellen Avery, 15,000 premature babies died every year from hyaline membrane disease. Avery and other pediatric pulmonologists originally thought that the infants died because of a glassy membrane on the lungs. But Dr. Avery discovered that what was truly the cause was a lack of a foam in the lungs that is called surfactant. A Japanese colleague, Dr. Tetsuro Fujiwara, took the new information and created an artificial surfactant from cows’ lungs. The death rate for premature babies who die from what is now called “respiratory distress syndrome” is down 1500% from the time when Dr. Avery began her research in 1959.

Dr. Avery was awarded the National Medal of Science for her work on surfactant. She was also a pioneer in other areas of pediatrics and research:

• 1st woman to be appointed physician in chief at Children’s Hospital Boston
• 1st to head a clinical department at Harvard Medical School
• 1st to serve as president of the Society for Pediatric Research
• 1st pediatrician to lead the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

She passed away at the age of 84.

(Image of Dr. Avery checking on one of her tiny patients is courtesy of Center for the History of Medicine at the Countway Library in Boston.)

todaysdocument:

On January 12, 1932, upon winning a special election to fill the remaining months of her late husband’s term, Hattie Caraway became the first woman to be elected to the United States Senate.  In November 1932, she won election to her first full term to the United States Senate and held the seat until January 2, 1945.  This is the election certification from when Caraway was elected to her first full term to the U.S. Senate on November 8, 1932.

eatsalaska:

An irate-looking, sleek Alaskan Black Cod.

“Alaska boasts the largest Black Cod population in the world…”

Via Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute

inothernews:

That kind of morning.

Also, I need a new jacket.

ourpresidents:

In which President Ford gets a dog:

“Our family didn’t have a dog when we moved into the White House. Susan [the Fords’ daughter] and David [David Kennerly, the White House photographer] thought that situation should be rectified before Betty came home from the hospital.

Without telling me his intention, David did some research and discovered that a fine retriever had recently given birth to a litter in Minneapolis. David called the kennel’s owner and said he wanted to buy a puppy for a friend of his.

That was fine, the owner said, but what was the name of David’s friend?

David said it was a surprise; he wanted to keep the name secret.

‘We don’t sell dogs that way,’ the owner replied. ‘We have to know if the dog is going to a good home. ‘

‘The couple is friendly,’ David said. ‘They’re middle-aged, and they live in a white house with a big yard and a fence around it. It’s a lovely place.’

‘Do they own or rent?’ the owner asked.

David thought for a minutes ‘I guess you might call it public housing,’ he said.”

-Gerald R. Ford, 1979, in his memoir “A Time To Heal”

The Ford’s acquired Liberty, a Golden Retriever, as a puppy in the fall of 1974. She grew up in the White House and gave birth to her first litter of puppies there.

-from the Ford Library

necspenecmetu:

Abraham Hondius, Mercury Piping Argus to Sleep, 17th century

oldflorida:

I love Mermaid Thursday, 1968.

(Alvin Lederer Collection)