by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu I’m pleased to announce that we have cause to revisit the most recent Thingamjig! I did what I often have to do when faced with an object about which I know so little I don’t even know where to start looking: I send emails. Lots of emails. A few… Continue Reading Thingamajig, Part III […]
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… Continue Reading Thingamajig – The mystery returns […]
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… Continue Reading Thingamajig […]
Candid Camera: George H. Hermann
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu Phil and I found a few boxes of photographs stashed within the Hermann Estate collection when I was looking for hospital-supply ephemera last week. I had not seen these when I re-boxed the collection five years ago because they didn’t contain any business papers. One box consists mostly of… Continue Reading Candid Camera: George H. Hermann […]
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… Continue Reading Outfitting a hospital, 1925 […]
Stereoscopes, Hominids, and Hoaxes
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu I hope you’re sitting down, because this post is gonna be a wild ride. Archivist Philip Montgomery brought me a stereoscope image a few days ago and asked me to find out whether the fact that the card on which the photographs were mounted was curved was normal, or… Continue Reading Stereoscopes, Hominids, and Hoaxes […]
Pigeon Hole Parking, 1953
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu The following letter and brochure come from the Hermann Hospital estate collection, which is immense and has not yet been processed. I had the project of transferring it into clean archival folders and boxes a few years ago, and I know there are some interesting things hiding among the… Continue Reading Pigeon Hole Parking, 1953 […]
Thingamajig
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant We’re back with the answer to last week’s Thingamajig! Here it is, to refresh your memory: We got several suggestions about what this might be, including a snail race track (complete with “escargot”–car go–pun), a snake warmer, and, more seriously, a giant electrophoresis apparatus. Actually, the snake warmer guess wasn’t… Continue Reading Thingamajig […]
Thingamjig
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu We’ve gotten some new donations, which have included new Thingamajig fodder. The following came from the estate of Thomas Matney, M.D. (1928-2010). It’s almost three feet long and, although it’s made of aluminum, it’s pretty much cast solid and probably weighs fifty or sixty pounds. Phil commented that it… Continue Reading Thingamjig […]
Dr. Kenney's Surgical Suite
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu (Click on image for a larger version.) This image seems to have been a fairly recent acquisition for us: Phil’s predecessor got it on eBay, where it was described as a “patient’s room” at Dr. Kenney’s Sanitarium in San Antonio, from around 1920. It’s obviously not a patient’s, room,… Continue Reading Dr. Kenney's Surgical Suite […]