ANN ARBOR—”Landmarks in Afro-American Dentistry” at the University of Michigan’s Dentistry Library offers exhibits that range from the 1860s when Robert Tanner Freeman graduated from Harvard’s School of Dental Medicine to the 21st century with the award-winning book “Black Dentistry in the 21st Century” by U-M School of Dentistry faculty Michael E. Razzoog and Emerson Robinson.

Among the exhibits on display is the 1740 account of an African-American dentist practicing in the colonies, records of Ida Gray Nelson, not only the first African-American woman to graduate from the U-M School of Dentistry, but also the first to graduate from any dental school and the first woman to practice dentistry in Chicago. It was also an African-American dentist who designed and patented the first golf tee in 1899.

More detail about the exhibition can be found at http://www.lib.umich.edu/dentlib/about/exhibits/afam/. The site also has links to such subjects as the Kellogg African American Health Care Project, an Encarta article on African-American dentistry, and various biographies including that of boxing great Herb Odom who left the sport to become a dentist. Odom is a member of the Greater Flint Afro-American Hall of Fame.

The exhibition will continue through

Landmarks in Afro-American Dentistryhttp://www.lib.umich.edu/dentlib/about/exhibits/afam/