Gualala Arts Lecture Series presents:
Harvey Cushing's Holiday Revisited

with Russ Hardy
Monday, October 18, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Admission is $5

Gualala Arts will host a lecture by Russ Hardy about Harvey Cushing, neurosurgeon, painter, author on Monday, October 18 at 7:00 p.m.

Harvey Cushing is widely regarded the founder of neurosurgery as a surgical specialty (at least in America), and is, by general agreement, our country's most distinguished neurosurgeon. Cushing was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1869, was an undergraduate at Yale, received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins, and eventually became Chief of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.

During his career, he almost single-handedly established the scientific basis for modern neurosurgery. He published extensively, developed a number of innovative surgical techniques and basically revolutionized the new specialty.

Yet he did even more. He was a superb author, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of William Osler. In addition, he was also a very good artist, and that talent forms the core subject matter for this presentation.

In 1900, while still a young man, he traveled to the Auvergne, in central France, and subsequently left behind a diary extensively illustrated with Cushing's own paintings and drawings of that journey. The slim volume was published in 1944 as a limited edition by the Rowfant Club of Cleveland, Ohio, a fraternal organization founded in 1892 to promote the critical study of books to please the mind of man.

Many decades later, Russ Hardy discovered, at a Rowfant Club Christmas party, a copy of this long forgotten book. Subsequently Russ encouraged the Rowfant Club to publish a second edition of "A Visit to Le Puy-en-Velay."

As a way to promote the book among prospective neurosurgical buyers, Russ and his wife Judy decided to retrace Cushing's route through the Auvergne, and visit the sites Cushing illustrated and photographed for the book.

Russ will talk about Cushing's life, a little about the history of Cleveland, more about the history of neurosurgery, but most particularly, about the trip to revisit the Auvergne, as seen in Cushing's artwork, and how these same vistas appear today in modern photographs. A $5 admission fee will be collected at the door.

About Russ Hardy

Russell Hardy is a retired neurosurgeon who grew up in New Jersey but spent his professional years in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Medical School. He is Professor of Neurosurgery, emeritus, at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

Russ is the author of numerous scientific and professional papers and the editor of a book "Lumbar Disc Disease." He is a member of several professional organizations, including, among others, the Neurosurgical Society of America and the Academy of Medicine of Cleveland, both of which he served as President.

A particular interest during his career was international neurosurgical education; for many years he served on or chaired the Foundation for International Education in Neurosurgery. He has lectured or performed surgery in a number of countries and is an honorary or corresponding member of several foreign neurosurgical societies.

Since retirement, he has taken up watercolor painting as a second career, and two years ago had a successful one man show at the Sea Ranch Lodge.

The Gualala Arts Center, located at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala, CA,
is open weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and weekends from noon to 4:00 p.m.
Please call (707) 884-1138 for more information, or email info@gualalaarts.org.

Serving the coastal communities of northern Sonoma & southern Mendocino Counties.