On December 1st and 2nd the Health Sciences Library and the Robert L. Brown History of Medicine Collection were delighted to host three visitors from China, Dr. Zhongjie Li, Dr. Jianxiong Yang, and Dr. Zhihua Zhong. All three are from Sichuan Province, home of the giant panda. Dr. Li is a dentist and faculty member at the West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, in Chengdu and Drs. Yang and Zhong are engineers at the Sichun Anhengli Denture Technology Co. Ltd. in Mianyang. The reason for their visit was to gather information regarding the development of dental articulators in early 20th century. According to Dr. Li, during this period a large number of dental articulator designs came out and some of the most important designers were from the University of Buffalo including George Snow and DeWitt Gritman. Others such as Rupert E. Hall and Rudolph L. Hanau lived in Buffalo. Except for Hanau, who was an engineer, this group was referred to as the Buffalo Study Club of Dental Engineering. Together with other scholars, their work lead to important developments in the study of dental occlusion. The History of Medicine Collection was able to locate both online and print resources regarding the subject.
While they were here Dr. Pamela Jones, Assistant Dean of the School of Dental Medicine, graciously provided the guests with a tour of the Dental School where they were able to see a number of dental articulators. Before they left for the next leg of their travels, they had the opportunity to visit Niagara Falls! It was a great pleasure to spend time with Dr. Li, Dr. Yang and Dr. Zhong and hopefully they may be able to return in future.