by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu Guess what? Ephemera! I found a new cache this week and it’s too beautiful not to share. The following come from a series of items related to the early days of the newly-founded Texas Medical Center, when the M.D. Anderson Foundation had development grants and was looking for ways […]
The Archival Chamber of Horrors
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu I have a different kind of scary blog post for you this week. Well, it’s scary if you’re an archivist. Phil Montgomery, the archivist, and I do a lot of different things here, but when people ask me what I do most of the time, I tell them I […]
Jones Motor Basal metabolism tester, 1937
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu I am easily distracted by shiny objects. There is more to an archive than books and professional papers. I’m a bit of a pop culture aficionado, as I’m sure our readers can tell from past blog posts: I love ephemera[1]–the postcards, advertising, commercial packaging. I also love the realia[2]. […]
Surviv-A-Life Resuscitator
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu I’ve noted several times that mystery objects are a common part of our jobs (there wouldn’t be Thingamjigs without them!). Last week, our couriers arrived bright and early in the morning with an armload of returned books, newsletters to be stored away for safekeeping, and this: I had not […]
Public Health and Christmas Seals
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu You know I never pass up an opportunity to scan something. We received an image request early this week that sent me scurrying off to look into Institutional Collection 34, the San Jacinto Lung Association[1], a collection with which I had never before had occasion to work. Oh, my. […]
Thingamajig follow-up
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu It looks as though the verdict is still out on last week’s Thingamajig. Suggestions have included rib cutters, a very small bottle opener, and tonsil guillotines. Tonsil guillotines strike me as a good guess but I think these might be a bit small even for those. One of the […]
Thingamajig
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu We haven’t had a Thingamajig in awhile but, luckily, we just got a new donation, and new donations often mean new mystery objects. We can thank the estates of Drs. Robert G. McCorkle, junior and senior, for the following: There are two of them, left and right. They’re about […]
Thingamajig – The mystery returns
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu Well, to borrow a sound bite from “Car Talk“, this chump is stumped[2]. The problem with identifying unidentified objects is that it’s very difficult to research them if you don’t know what they are. It’s a little bit like asking how a word is spelled and being told to […]
Thingamajig
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu Thingamajigs often make for short posts because I don’t want to give too much away. This one will be an especially short post because, in all honesty, I have no idea what it is. (I guess that solves the “give too much away” problem, doesn’t it? I can’t give […]
Outfitting a hospital, 1925
Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu Why, oh, why, didn’t I think to save last week’s post on Piltdown Man for April Fool’s Day? Oh, well. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Moving on from poor blog timing . . . this week takes us back into […]