Winter morning glory

By Philip Montgomery Head of the McGovern Historical Collections The Christmas season is here along with damp, grey skies. My to-do list is longer than usual, and my cure for holiday despair is eating sweets or spending money. First of all I am grateful I can do both, but neither one is a cure for what ails […]

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Cortisone

by Sandra Yates Archivist and Special Collections Librarian As you may or may not know, the McGovern Historical Center houses the personal and professional papers of Philip S. Hench, MD. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1950 as co-developer of cortisone treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. While looking through some boxes in the archive, we […]

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Dr. E. Trowbridge Wolf's Notes

by Sandra Yates, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian Have you ever wondered what four years of medical school looks like? Or maybe even wondered about the courses, material, and techniques taught in medical schools in the 1930s? Well, you’re in luck! I came across six volumes of notes taken by Edward Trowbridge Wolf during his […]

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Archival Surprises

by DK Smith, Project Archivist In part, the fascination of an archivist’s job lies in the discovery of bits of lost history hidden in doctors’ papers. For example, the photo below contains a wonderful unknown trophy, faceless major characters, and an obviously emotional scene. What is going on? Five minutes with a loupe, an archivist’s […]

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Dental Decks

by Philip Montgomery This Dental Deck for the NDB exam appeared at the Texas Medical Center Library’s book drop. Staff on the circulation desk called the McGovern Historical Center and offered us the deck. We snapped it up. It is a curious set of flashcard. In my mind flash cards are something I used in […]

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Pulling Teeth from the Man of Steel

by Philip Montgomery, archivist I want to be perfectly clear at the beginning of this post that being an archivist is a tough job. I can’t even begin to describe the trials that come with being an archivist. You have your dirt, your mold, your sneezing, your cold temperatures, your silverfish, your 50 year-old hypodermics, […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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