Blood policies and bioart in the 1900s
Christopher Hubbard Ohio, United States Image titled The Army Blood Transfusion Service Needs Blood Donors. Image located from the Digital Public Library of America. Rights: unrestricted. Policies related to blood that were adopted in the U.S. during the early to mid-1900s produced cultural and legal effects for certain populations. In 1920, for example, the […]
Karl Landsteiner and the discovery of blood groups
Safia Benaissa Mostganem, Algeria Karl Landsteiner (1868–1943), Austrian pathologist, hematologist and serologist; discoverer of the blood groups. Albert Hilscher. circa 1910. Accessed via Wikimedia Commons Karl Landsteiner was the Austrian scientist who recognized that humans had different blood groups and made it possible for physicians to transfuse blood safely. He entered medical school at […]
What can physicians learn from Benjamin Rush, blood, and the Red Cross?
Ryan Hill Jamestown, Rhode Island, United States Portrait by Charles Willson Peale, Benjamin Rush, circa 1818. Independence National Historical Park. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. Despite the adamant opposition he encountered from many of his contemporaries, Dr. Benjamin Rush was undeterred; he was certain that bloodletting was the most prudent of all medical procedures and remained […]
The gift of life—From whom?
George M. Pantalos Louisville, Kentucky, United States Students at the “Banned Blood” display outside the University of Louisville Red Barn, where a Red Cross blood drive was being held on campus in 2011. The students’ goal was to raise awareness about the FDA lifetime deferral from blood donation of all men who have sex […]
Royal blood: Queen Victoria and the legacy of hemophilia in European royalty
Carys O’Neill Chicago, IL Portrait of Queen Victoria with her husband, Albert, and nine children at Osborne circa 1857. From left to right: Alice, Arthur, Prince Albert, Albert Edward, Leopold, Louise, Queen Victoria with Beatrice, Alfred, Victoria, and Helena. Known for restoring the reputation of a monarchy tarnished by the extravagance of her predecessors […]
Bleeding science dry: The history of scientific racism and blood
Matthew Casas Kansas City, United States Help the Red Cross. U.S. Food Administration. Educational Division. Advertising Section. 1917 – 1919. National Archives Catalog, identifier 512661. One might be familiar with the expression “We All Bleed Red.” But what exactly does blood have to say about our “humanity”? Ripe with good intention, the aforementioned mantra […]
Blood’s journey: From lab technology to industrial technology
Cristina Sans-Ponseti Barcelona, Spain Josep Antoni Grifols-Roig at the injection phase of a blood transfusion using his flebula transfusora (Instituto Central de Análisis Clínicos, 1930). Source: Grifols, S.A. Nowadays, it is usual to see donation centers storing blood worldwide. Blood banks meet the demand for blood in order to perform transfusions and produce plasma-based […]
The history of the Red Cross / Red Crescent in blood
GAP Secretariat Perth, WA, Australia It has been almost one hundred years since the first Red Cross / Red Crescent (RC/RC) blood transfusion service was established by the British Red Cross in 1921. Today, more than 80% of all Red Cross / Crescent National Societies are operating a blood program as a core health […]
Blood debt
Jules Reich Chicago, Illinois, United States A patient donating blood, Australia, c. late 1940s. Via Wikimedia. In 1937, the first U.S. blood bank opened in Chicago. It was originally called a Blood Preservation Laboratory, but its founder, Dr. Bernard Fantus, changed the name to blood bank. For someone who spent a large part of […]
Blood type and personality
Nonoko Kamai Nagoya, Japan ICS code block for blood bag identification (sample). Photo by ICS International GmbH. 2013. Via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0. Why do Japanese people believe in a relationship between blood type and personality? Beginning in the 1970s, the blood type personality hypothesis became fashionable in Japan and it is still popular […]