Braslow named UCLA Neuroscience History Archives director
[This press release is posted to HISTNEUR-L at the request of Dr. Allan Tobin] Contact: Allan J. Tobin Director, UCLA Brain Research Institute (310) 825-5061 atobin@mednet.ucla.edu UCLA Brain Research Institute News Release For Immediate Release February 2001 BRASLOW NAMED UCLA NEUROSCIENCE HISTORY ARCHIVES DIRECTOR Joel T. Braslow, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of History and Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, has been named as Director of the Neuroscience History Archives (NHA) in UCLA's Brain Research Institute (BRI). Louise H. Marshall, Ph.D., who co-founded the archives in 1980 with Professor Horace W. Magoun, has become Director Emerita and Neuroscience Historian in Residence. Dr. Allan J. Tobin, Director of the UCLA Brain Research Institute, said in announcing the transition, "Dr. Braslow will provide outstanding leadership for the NHA, both in continuing the legacy of its previous Director, Louise Marshall, and in helping to chart a new, richly collaborative course for the future. We are also delighted that Dr. Marshall will continue to be involved with the NHA and BRI, and are extremely grateful for the leadership and support she has provided over the years." Dr. Braslow is the author of _Mental Ills and Bodily Cures: Psychiatric Treatment in the First Half of the Twentieth Century_ (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). He is currently writing a book for Harvard University Press on twentieth-century psychiatric treatments for severe mental illness and is preparing another monograph on the history of antipsychotic drugs. "I am excited about this opportunity to lead what I believe has been, and will continue to be, an important resource for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge about the history of neuroscience," Dr. Braslow said. "Together with my colleagues, historian Marcia Meldrum and archivist Russell Johnson, I plan to continue the excellent work of Dr. Marshall to maintain the NHA's preeminent service to the profession." Through the identification, collection, and preservation of primary source material of twentieth century American neuroscience, the Neuroscience History Archives seeks to create a documentary heritage for future generations that will represent the ideas, actions, and accomplishments of the discipline's antecedent practitioners. The NHA identifies and preserves the papers of living neuroscientists and records of their professional organizations; assists neuroscientists in finding appropriate repositories for their papers; promotes access to this documentary evidence through the preparation of finding aids and other guides; facilitates scholarly use of the collections, and carries out research and education in the history of neuroscience. As one of the first archives to focus solely on a biomedical discipline, the NHA was established in 1980 at the UCLA Brain Research Institute in response to the scholarly need for documentation of American neuroscience in the twentieth century. With support from the National Library of Medicine and the Alfred P. Sloane Foundation, reference resources were complemented by primary materials such as oral history interviews, personal papers, and organizational records. The work continues, with income from the Frances O'Malley Trust, under the oversight of and in collaboration with UCLA's Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, the Brain Research Institute, the Neuropsychiatric Institute, the Department of History, and the Division of Medical History of the Department of Neurobiology in the UCLA School of Medicine. For details about NHA's collections and services, visit its Web site at http://www.NeuroscienceArchives.org. # # # ___________________________________________________ Russell A. Johnson rjohnson@library.ucla.edu Archivist and Cataloger (310) 825-6940 History & Special Collections Division Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, UCLA Box 951798 Los Angeles CA 90095-1798 <http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/biomed/his/hisdiv.htm> Archivist (310) 825-3191 or 206-2753 Neuroscience History Archives Brain Research Institute, UCLA Box 951761 Los Angeles CA 90095-1761 <http://www.NeuroscienceArchives.org>