Pfizer donates "Great Moments in Medicine" art series to Michigan medical school

Oil paintings reflecting historic and iconic moments in medicine are being displayed for a new generation of physicians.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews Staff. Jan. 14, 2008.

Robert Kelch, MD, received a book of medical history portraits when he graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1967 that he has kept to this day.

"They tell you of your origins in a graphic, powerful way," Dr. Kelch said.

Now Dr. Kelch, as executive vice president for medical affairs and CEO of the university's health system, has the chance to share the original versions of those paintings with medical students and other campus visitors.

Pfizer announced in December 2007 that it will donate "Great Moments in Medicine," a 45-piece portrait series by the late Michigan artist Robert A. Thom, to the Ann Arbor university.

The series depicts significant moments and icons in medical and pharmacy history, such as the ancient Greek temples of Aesculapius, the demigod of medicine; the first use of a smallpox vaccine by Edward Jenner; the founding of the AMA; and the discovery of x-rays by Wilhelm Roentgen.

Pfizer acquired the paintings when it bought Warner-Lambert in 2000. Warner-Lambert became owners of the series in 1970 when it bought Michigan-based Parke-Davis & Co., which commissioned the medical history series, along with a 40-portrait series called "Great Moments in Pharmacy," from Thom between 1948 and 1964. Pfizer has donated the pharmacy series to the American Pharmacists Assn. Foundation.

Rick Chambers, Pfizer's spokesman, said the company wanted to donate the art to an organization that could make it available to the public. "It made sense to provide this gift in honor of medical innovation in Michigan," he said.