NEWS RELEASE 15 May 2000

Historic medical collection comes to Science Photo Library

A unique collection of images from one of the finest private archives of historic medical photographs is now available from the Science Photo Library (SPL). The core of the collection, assembled by New York eye surgeon Dr Stanley Burns, consists of 40,000 original medical images from the years 1840-1940.

The photographs in the Burns Archive show patients with diseases long since conquered, and medical procedures and practices long since outmoded. They portray hospital and nursing personnel, physicians and patients in contemporary clinical settings. The collection documents many medical firsts and famous cases, and includes the only known photographs of practising phrenologists, blood-letting and skull trephination.

Dr Burns has been acquiring vintage medical photographs since 1975, from a variety of sources. He has published a number of books, including Masterpieces of Medical Photography (1987), Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America (1990) and A Morning's Work (1998).

Maria Storey, Marketing & Communications Director at SPL comments: "These pictures constitute an incomparable document depicting the development of medicine during a period of rapid advance. Many of the images are shocking, since they show diseases that are all but unknown nowadays. Yet they remain deeply moving, and preserve the essential dignity of the patients portrayed".

The Science Photo Library is the world's leading photo agency specialising in science, medicine and technology, with over 120,000 images in its collection. Independent, privately owned and the only one of its kind in Britain, SPL is renowned for its high quality picture bank, created by photographers, illustrators, scientists and medical specialists.

For photographs please contact Maria Storey, Marketing & Communications Director, Science Photo Library, 327-329 Harrow Road, London W9 3RB Tel: 020 7432 1100 Fax: 020 7286 8668 www.sciencephoto.com

Note to editors: for more details or to arrange an interview contact Patricia Lotery or Fiona Davis-Coleman at PoLo PR, 30 Shrewsbury Avenue, London SW14 8JZ Tel: 020 8876 4242 Fax: 020 8876 8900 e-mail: info@polopr.co.uk

Publications by Dr. Stanley Burns include: 1990 Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America 1987 Masterpieces of Medical Photography: Selections from the Burns Archive 1998 A Morning's Work: Medical Photographs from the Burns Archive & Collection (1843-1939)