Wednesday, Mar. 28, Michael Sappol, Zoe Beloff and Sport Murphy educated a keen audience at The Housing Works Bookstore Café on topics as obscure as dentists’ hand silhouettes, plastic surgery reconstruction circa the 1900s and malaria pinup calendars from the 1940s. Why, you ask?

These subjects are only a few selections from Blast Books’ latest publication, Hidden Treasure. The new book showcases some of the most perplexing objects from the National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest medical library.