Sunday, March 28, 2021

National Doctors' Day: Stanley Stamaty in the O.R.

National Doctors' Day comes around every year on March 30. I always assumed the date was chosen for its proximity to April Fools' Day, but actually it marks the anniversary of the first use of general anesthesia in surgery. And, speaking of surgery, a 1952 cartoon by Stanley Stamaty take us right into the operating room for a dose of medical humor.
"Robert, how much longer do we have to go on meeting like this?"
Stanley Stamaty
Cartoon Humor, Vol. 16, No. 3, 1952, page 80

Steven Boss humor magazine collection



Note:  This 1952 issue of Cartoon Humor is one of more than 5,600 magazines in the Steven Boss humor magazine collection at Columbia University. I took this photograph in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library more than five years ago on March 10, 2016, a time when lovers wearing masks had no particular social significance beyond the confines of the operating room. Today's post marks the fiftieth I got out of that half day's work—so far! I'm overdue for a return visit, but while the Butler Library where this wonderful collection is housed is now open to Columbia students, it is not yet open to the general public. Still, Curator for Comics and Cartoons Karen Green can provide interested parties with up-to-date information on access to the collection.

This issue contains several other full-page cartoons by Stanley Stamaty, but I did not photograph them, a serious error in judgment on my part. I'd like to redeem myself and post these other cartoons too when I get the chance. To that end, anyone with a copy of this magazine and a camera or scanner could be a tremendous help. Otherwise, this issue of Cartoon Humor should be my first stop when I return, eventually, to the RBML.

Stanley Stamaty still doesn't have a Wikipedia page. Shouldn't somebody do something about that?


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