From now through January 31, 2011, The New-York Historical Society will present the exhibition Breakthrough: The Dramatic Story of the Discovery of Insulin, recalling the desperate fight for life that used to be waged by juvenile diabetes patients, and commemorating the events of 1921 that inaugurated a new era of hope for them and their families.
The exhibition explores the roles of science, government, higher education and industry in developing and distributing a life-saving drug, and brings to life the personalities who discovered insulin and raced to bring it to the world. It also tells the story of one extraordinary New York girl—Elizabeth Evans Hughes, daughter of the leading statesman and jurist Charles Evans Hughes—who was among the very first patients to be saved with insulin.
For more on the exhibition, see here. And for anyone who isn’t in the New York City area and can’t make it to the exhibition, you can learn more about the discovery on insulin in the recently published book Breakthrough: Elizabeth Hughes, the Discovery of Insulin, and the Making of a Medical Miracle by Thea Cooper and Arthur Ainsberg.
