Library holds Opening Doors exhibit

Through the National Library of Medicine and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, there is a six-panel exhibition discussing four African American surgeons’ advancements in their fields.
The university borrowed the exhibition from the National Library of Medicine, which has toured in medical schools, libraries and universities for two years already and plans to for at least another two years.
Evelyn Penman, assistant director of the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, along with Dr. Monica Thomas, director of Franciscan health care professions program, wanted to have this exhibition to encourage the movement of art onto the rest of campus, as opposed to strictly the Quick Center.
“The Quick was offered this exhibition as a traveling exhibition through the National Library of Medicine, which is a division of the National Division of Health,” Penman said. “I spoke with Dr. Thomas about having something here as a part of the initiative started a few years ago to move artwork out of the Quick Center into the rest of campus.”Initially, Penman and Thomas planned to set up the exhibition in De La Roche Hall, because while it is open to all students, it’s geared toward students who are interested in science and the medical field.
“It was going to get a lot of visibility there, but when you see the exhibition, it’s a little bit cumbersome, so it was just really a mechanics kind of thing,” Penman said. “De La Roche is where most of the students who will be looking at it are located, but there were security concerns by the National Library of Medicine based on the set up, so we decided to ask if it could be set up in the library.
The exhibition features a biography of each surgeon and what they’ve accomplished and advancements made towards medicine, in addition to some of the struggles they’ve faced as African American doctors.
“It showcases what they’ve accomplished in the workforce, as well as the struggles they had as African American doctors,” Penman said. “Even though they went to African American colleges for medicine, that doesn’t mean they didn’t face difficulties, so it’s interesting to almost any student to read the biographies and the things they went through in order to accomplish these unbelievable tasks.”