Sandra Yates Archivist & Special Collections Librarian On November 18, 2016 the Texas Medical Center lost one of its most renowned pioneers in medicine. Dr. Denton A. Cooley revolutionized cardiovascular surgery, transforming open heart surgery from one of the most high-risk and high-mortality medical procedures to a low-risk and common life-saving procedure. “… I think […]
Dr. Jared E. Clarke & the Library
Sandra Yates Archivist and Special Collections Librarian As the centennial year of the Texas Medical Center Library comes to a close, we at the McGovern Historical Center have found a fitting send off. In February 1974, Don Macon interviewed Dr. Jared E. Clarke for the Texas Medical Center Historical Resources Project. The goal of the […]
Centennial Photo Display: 1950’s, Part I
by Alethea Drexler archives assistant Aficionados of midcentury modern architecture, hold onto your hats. . . . as was almost everything else in the Texas Medical Center during the 1950’s. This somewhat tipsy 1954 aerial includes, from left, Texas Children’s Hospital, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Methodist Hospital, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in the foreground, the […]
Helen Holt, Houston Academy of Medicine Librarian
Sandra Yates Archivist and Special Collections Librarian In the course of my research for the Library Centennial, I met the first full-time librarian of the Houston Academy of Medicine today, and I have to say that it has been one of the more exciting days in the archive. Helen Holt began working at the Houston […]
Hermann Hospital Radiology Department
by Sandra Yates, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian The TMC Library will be celebrating its centennial next year, and I’ve been searching high and low for images to adorn the website. These may or may not help the website, but I found a couple of great 1953 images from Hermann Hospital. Radiology was one of […]
Hermann Hospital Sweetheart
by Philip Montgomery, archivist A few months ago, Dr. Adrian Melissinos was searching for nursing photos when she discovered “Sweetheart” the donkey. Today, I had to find the photo of this early Hermann Hospital mascot. I love that the photographer, who remains unknown, made an effort to capture this donkey’s personality. What is even more […]
Blair Sanitarium
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant Marie Brannon, one of our volunteers, has been doing a great job sorting through some of our intimidating collection of photographs. What is the first lesson learned by projects such as this? Always document your pictures. I repeat: Always document your pictures. Few things are more frustrating than being confronted […]
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 […]
Sunset Hospital
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant One of the things that I find persistently frustrating is the speed, ease, and totality with which older hospitals disappear. Many, many, times I’ve received inquiries about such-and-such a hospital and started looking around for information, only to discover that, not only do we not have any material about it […]
Writing Home: Selections from the Texas Hospital Postcard Collection
by Alethea Drexler archives assistant The McGovern Research Center’s collection of postcards of Texas hospitals has been online for quite a while, and can be accessed through our website. Our postcard images are arranged alphabetically by town, and you can see scans of both sides of the card. Most cards are still blank on the […]