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HUMAN BRAIN COLLECTIONS: YAKOVLEV-HALEEM COLLECTION: The Yakovlev-Haleem collection covers normal and pathological development of the brain as well as pathologic conditions based on the study of 1,200 human brain specimens collected between 1930 and 1994. Each of the brains are prepared in whole-mount serial histologic sections on glass slides. The collection consists of a total of more than 250,000 slides, with serially cut whole-brain celloidin-embedded sections that are stained alternately with Nissl and myelin preparations. Each specimen is accompanied by a case record that includes actuarial, clinical, and /or autopsy data. In addition to normative controls, pathological specimens include cerebrovascular disease, a wide variety of developmental disorders, results of postoperative neurosurgery (especially post frontal lobotomy cases) and also included are examples of various neuropathologic conditions including age-related neurodegenerative disorders. The collection was built by Dr. Paul Ivan Yakovlev (1894-1983), a neurologist/neuropathologist/neuroanatomist and esteemed member of the Harvard Medical School faculty. Yakovlev began the collection in 1930 while working at the Monson State Hospital and then moved to the Walter E. Fernald State School. In 1974 the entire collection from Harvard to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), where it was managed by curator Mohamad Haleem. In 1994 it was transferred to the NMHM and renamed the Yakovlev-Haleem Collection. Of the collection, in 1972, Derek Denny-Brown, Professor of Neurology at the Harvard Medical School wrote: “There is no other collection of neuroanatomical material in serial sections consistently fixed, embedded, cut, stained and mounted to such exacting standards. Dr. Yakovlev early recognized that only in this way could truly accurate comparative measurements be made. In this respect the Yakovlev Collection is an irreplaceable reference material, patiently collected over a period of 42 years., RITM0032953, In past years, researchers created very large collections of serial whole mount histology brain slides. Many of these archival collections were donated to the US Government and are housed at the National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM), Silver Spring, MD. Currently, the only way for researchers to use these precious slides has been to travel to Maryland and physically examine them onsite. Nevertheless, over the years these collections have been widely used and a number of seminal publications have emerged from this unique resource. However, we are now proposing to digitize these entire collections and make them widely available through on-line internet access. The collections being considered for this project are as follows: 1) Yakovlev-Hakeem Collection consisting of 1200 serially cut human brain specimens (250,000+ slides, Nissl and myelin serial sections representing normal, and many pathologic entities). 2) Welker Comparative Neuroanatomy Collection: serial sections of 275 brains representing over 120 species (aardvark to zebra). 3) Starr Collection containing serial sections of brains of chimpanzees and gorillas. 3) Meyer Collection with serially sectioned slides from the brains of patients seen by psychiatrist Dr. Adolph Meyer who practiced at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the early part of the 20th century (including his clinical note), and the Blackburn Collection with neuropathology evaluations of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital cases dating back to 1884. Both the Meyer and Blackburn collections date from the pre-antibiotic era with numerous examples of unique pathologic entities, (e.g. various forms of neurosyphillis, catatonic schizophrenia, etc.). Examples of these holding will be displayed and we will provide an on-line demonstration of the opportunities available to researchers for dealing with this material in a digitized format.