Iceland Spar, undated

The Donald L. Blanchard papers houses the personal and academic records of Dr. Donald L. Blanchard. This collections, which dates from 1996 to 2017, consists of writings by Donald Blanchard, including his 1996 translation of Georg Bartisch’s text Ophthalmodouleia, papers for the Cogan Ophthalmic History Society annual meetings, a certificate given to Blanchard, and an Icelandic spar. Blanchard has done extensive studying and writing about Georg Bartisch, a German physician from around the 1500s, who is thought to be the first person to produce a Renaissance manuscript on ophthalmic disorders and eye surgery. In Bartisch’s original book, as well as Blanchard’s English translation, there are wonderful woodcut illustrations of these various eye diseases, surgical tools, and surgical procedures. The Iceland Spar housed in the collection has been used in ophthalmology for glaucoma management and ophthalmoscopy. This collection contains a bevy of information about ophthalmologic history paired with corresponding visuals and artifacts.