by Matt Richardson, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian
The University of Texas has played a defining role in the Texas Medical Center ever since its founding. And the modern incarnation of its Houston footprint—the University of Texas Health Science Center, or UTHealth–is celebrating its 50th anniversary, having been formed in 1972.
One of the ways the TMC Library supports UTHealth is by collecting, preserving, and making accessible the archives of its institutions and faculty. The full list is too long to get into here, but the McGovern Historical Center is home to collections from several of these institutions, including the McGovern Medical School, the School of Dentistry, and the UT Health Science Center at Houston itself.
In a push to ensure access to these records, archivists and interns at the MHC have recently processed a handful of small institutional collections from the UTHealth umbrella. Let’s take a moment to highlight three of these.
University of Texas School of Public Health records
The School of Public Health (SPH) welcomed its first class in the fall 1969, and became part of the UT Health Science Center when that organization was created in 1972.
There are three boxes of records at the MHC, and they range in dates from 1967-2008. The collection contains copies of the SPH Catalog (1971-1995) and SPH Calendar (1978-1983), as well as photographic rosters, announcements, and other printed materials. There are also several reports connected to programs, seminars, or research. One VHS Tape—the 2000 James H. Steele Lecture on the topic of “Bioterrorism”—has just been digitized and will be made available soon.
In addition to the records of the school itself, the MHC also maintains the archival collections of faculty members like Dr. James H. Steele, Dr. Lu Ann Aday, and the just-accessioned papers of Dr. Robert J. Emery.
University of Texas School of Nursing records
The University of Texas School of Nursing in Houston—now the Jane and Robert Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth—opened in the Nurses’ Residence at Hermann Hospital in 1972. In 1976 the School of Nursing joined the UT Health Science Center.
This three-box archival collection consists of institutional records including catalogs, brochures, an annual report, a six-year plan, and a 1979 roster. Materials were created between 1978-2006.
While the collection itself is small, the MHC also has archival collections from prominent School of Nursing figures like Dean Patricia Starck, Dr. Marianne Marcus, and Dr. Dorothy Otto (whose papers just arrived in April), as well as the School of Nursing PARTNERS records.
The University of Texas Speech and Hearing Institute records
The Speech and Hearing Institute was part of the UT Health Science Center at Houston from 1972 to 1992. It had been founded in 1951 as the Houston Speech and Hearing Clinic, and in 1992 its services were taken over by the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast.
The four boxes of records here contain records from approximately 1960 to 1992. There are annual reports, information booklets, catalogs, brochures, reports, budget documents, and advisory board information. There are also three scrapbooks—with contents from 1964-1967, 1973-1974, and 1991-1992, respectively. Finally, the collection includes plaques, paperweights, and two VHS tapes.
Drs. Jack and Tina Bangs, who helped establish the Houston Speech and Hearing Clinic and guided it for many years, also have their professional materials archived at the MHC.
