Join Curator Michael Seminara in the Rare Book Room at the Institute of the History of Medicine for a look at some of the Historical Collection’s most terrifying books! We’ll discuss connections between medicine and the occult from the 16th century to the mid-19th century. We’ll see exorcism manuals, conflicting theories on witchcraft, a grimoire, and accounts of vampiric activity. The live virtual Q&A with Michael will be moderated by Donna Hesson.
Michael Seminara is the Curator of the Historical Collection at the Institute of the History of Medicine. In this role, he oversees the development of the rare and circulating collections of about 70,000 books, along with manuscripts, images, and artifacts. With 10 years of experience in library special collections, Michael is an advocate for the use of primary sources and is always happy to discuss research with students and scholars. He holds a BA in Comparative Literature from Stony Brook University and an MLIS from Rutgers University.
Working as a professional librarian since 1979, Ms. Hesson brings solid experience in information services and management. She has been employed by Johns Hopkins University for over thirty years in various information services and information management capacities. Her current role as a Public Health Informationist is to serve the information needs of the faculty, staff and students of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In that role she provides instruction on how to access the wide-ranging resources through the Welch Medical Library and Sheridan Libraries websites, instructs how to use citation management products, collaborates with researchers in various literature reviews, and provides information sessions as well as one-on-one instruction on how to effectively search the various literature databases.
Event DateFriday, October 30, 2026Start Time: 12:00pm EDTEnd Time: 1:00pm EDT
Hopkins at HomeLivestream
ContactOffice of Alumni RelationsPatrick BurkeLifelong Learning(800)JHU-JHU1hopkinsathome@jhu.edu
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