{"id":193,"date":"2015-03-27T10:46:38","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T10:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmcldev.wpengine.com\/mcgovern\/2015\/03\/27\/centennial-photo-display-1930s\/"},"modified":"2019-08-30T17:59:37","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T17:59:37","slug":"centennial-photo-display-1930s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.tmc.edu\/mcgovern\/2015\/03\/27\/centennial-photo-display-1930s\/","title":{"rendered":"Centennial Photo Display: 1930's"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alethea Drexler
\narchives assistant
\nPendleton & Arto, Inc. medical supplies, January 1930<\/strong>
\nHouston\u2019s Medical Arts Building (1926-1980\u2019s) housed physicians\u2019 and dentists\u2019 offices, and related businesses such as this medical supplier.
\n\"1930-01jan-1-detail\"<\/a>“Vivian Maddox, medical records librarian, and hospital ‘sweetheart’.” (undated, circa 1938)
\n<\/strong>IC 086 Hermann Hospital archives P-box 2 folder 6
\nHermann Hospital apparently kept a pair of pet burros in the yard behind the hospital. The screened porches on the back of the nurses\u2019 dormitory are in the background.
\n\"IC086<\/a>
\n1936 Hermann Hospital School of Nursing graduating class
\n<\/strong>IC 086 Hermann Hospital archives
\n\"1936<\/a><\/p>\n

*\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

The following pictures are from a sizable collection of images of Memorial Hospital, from the 1930’s and early 1940’s.\u00a0 Most of the information about them comes from notations included with the photographs.
\nMemorial Hospital from the air, circa 1928-1938
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections P-467
\nMemorial as it appeared through most of the 1930\u2019s. The building had been expanded several times already in the 1910\u2019s and 1920\u2019s, and would be enlarged again in the early 1940\u2019s. [1]
\nThe large light-colored building in the upper left is the Phenix Dairy, established in 1914 and once a major distributor in the South. This area is near the Julia Ideson building of the Houston Public Library, but is otherwise all skyscrapers now.
\n[1] Memorial Healthcare System<\/a>, Handbook of Texas online.
\n\"P-467<\/a>
\nMemorial Hospital from the air, circa 1940
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections P-466
\nNote how much the area has changed:
\nThe big Victorian house in the lower left is gone, replaced by a Mission-style building and Carl McMillian\u2019s Ford dealership. There is a new gas station across the street.
\nThe Neoclassical building and Queen Anne house on the block to the left have been replaced by a modern office building, and there are two pharmacies, the L&L and the Continental, within a block of the hospital.
\n\"P-466<\/a>
\nChristmas Eve at the Memorial Hospital children\u2019s home, 1937
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections image P-487
\nThe nurse at left, sitting on the gurney, was also an attendant in the baby respirator demonstration.
\nThe \u201clittle white cottage\u201d was the former nurses\u2019 dormitory and was located behind the main hospital building, which is visible in the background.
\n\"1937-p-487<\/a>
\n1936 Oldsmobile ambulance, Memorial Hospital
\n<\/strong>IC 086 Hermann Hospital archives P-box 2 folder 8
\nUntil the 1950\u2019s, civilian ambulances were used primarily to transport patients, not to treat them en route<\/em>, so car-type models similar to hearses (many cars served as both) were standard. The taller, van- or truck-based ambulance that could carry more equipment and allowed more room for emergency personnel to work replaced the sedan-delivery in the 1970\u2019s. [2]
\n[2] EMT Resources<\/a>.
\n[3] Fire History<\/a>.
\n\"1936<\/a>
\nFlash board, 1930\u2019s
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections P-549
\nMemorial Hospital \u201cstaff flash board, for coming in and out\u201d. Mr. and Mrs. Jolly\u2019s indicators are at the upper left.<\/p>\n

\"P-549<\/a><\/p>\n

Lillie Jolly and nursing supervisors, 1936
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections P-439
\nLillian \u201cLillie\u201d Wilson Jolly was a graduate of the Kentucky School of Medicine School of Nursing and arrived in Houston in the first decade of the twentieth century. She became Memorial Hospital\u2019s\u2014then Baptist Sanitarium\u2014Superintendent of Nurses in 1912 and spent the next 35 years building the school of nursing into a first-class establishment. The school was renamed for her in 1945. [4]
\nThelma Parry, seated at left, appears in both the baby respirator and children\u2019s home pictures.
\n[4] Ted Francis and Carole McFarland, The Memorial Hospital System: The first seventy-five years<\/em>, Larksdale, Houston, 1982. Page 63-64.
\n\"P-439<\/a>
\nNursing station, 1930\u2019s<\/strong>
\nA hallway and small nursing station in Memorial Hospital\u2019s maternity ward.
\n\"Nursing<\/a>
\nMaternity ward nurses, 1930\u2019s
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections P-520
\nA posed photograph but a nice one, complete with a newly-minted Houstonian.
\n\"1930s<\/a>
\nMaternity ward room, 1936
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections P-439
\nNewly-furnished, home-like, room in Memorial\u2019s maternity ward.
\n\"P-451<\/a>
\nBaby respirator, Memorial Hospital.
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections image P-546<\/p>\n

\u201c1932. This infant respirator has already saved the lives of a dozen newborn babies. It is the only machine of its kind in the South. Called the Iron Lung because it compels breathing, preventing babies from being asphyxiated. Another friend donated a large Iron Lung for children and adults after seeing this machine.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This type of iron lung is called a Drinker respirator after one of its developers. Iron lungs work by alternating negative and positive pressure within their sealed body chambers\u2014the negative pressure creates a vacuum around the patient that expands the chest cavity, compelling inhalation, and then a cycle of positive pressure compels exhalation. Negative-pressure ventilators of this type only came into use in the late 1920\u2019s, so the acquisition of this in 1931 was quite a coup. At the time, it was one of only 36 in all of the United States and Canada. Hospital administrators publicized the new baby respirator to spur fundraising for an adult-sized one.
\nThe donor, J.W. Neal, was a Maxwell House Coffee distributor, banker, and philanthropist. His papers are held by the Houston Metropolitan Research Center. [5]
\n[5] Ted Francis and Carole McFarland, The Memorial Hospital System: The first seventy-five years<\/em>, Larksdale, Houston, 1982. Page 48.
\n[6] National Museum of American History<\/a> online.
\n\"1932-P546-memorial-baby-respirator<\/a>
\nIron lung, Memorial Hospital, 1937
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections P-547
\nThis is an Emerson (John Haven Emerson, 1906-1991) iron lung, an improvement on the Drinker design. It seems to have been Memorial\u2019s second adult-sized iron lung; the first one was a Drinker model donated in 1931 shortly after the gift of the baby respirator. The slide-out bed and portals in the side that allowed nurses to attend to patients without removing them from the lung were Emerson innovations.
\nIron lungs were expensive\u2014this one would have cost around a thousand dollars, and the earlier Drinker model almost twice that\u2014and still relatively rare in the 1930\u2019s. Note that this one was also funded through public donations. [6]
\n[6] National Museum of American History<\/a> online.
\n\"1937-P547-memorial-iron-lung-a\"<\/a> \"1937-P547-memorial-iron-lung-b\"<\/a>
\nHydrotherapy bath, 1937
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections P-243
\nPublic donations also purchased this Hubbard tank. The tank\u2019s shape, with its narrow \u201cwaist\u201d, allowed attendants to work with the patient without removing him or her from the bath. The water in this was likely heated and agitators provided a gentle \u201cmassage\u201d. This is probably being used to treat a joint disorder such as juvenile arthritis. [7]
\nThe man at the far right appears to be Robert Jolly, superintendent of Memorial Hospital and husband of Lillie Jolly of nursing fame. [10]
\n[7] Free Dictionary<\/a> online.
\n[8] Merriam-Webster<\/a> online.
\n[9] WebMD<\/a>.
\n[10] Ted Francis and Carole McFarland, The Memorial Hospital System: The first seventy-five years<\/em>, Larksdale, Houston, 1982. Page 63-64.
\n\"P-243<\/a>
\n\u201cFever cabinet\u201d, 1930\u2019s
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections P-548
\nThis apparatus is a \u201cfever cabinet\u201d, used to raise a patient\u2019s body temperature for therapeutic purposes. Induced fevers were used to treat several conditions, including some infections and forms of arthritis. A related picture shows this machine being used on a child, so it, along with the Hubbard tank, may have been part of an effort to treat a childhood joint ailment by increasing circulation.[11]
\n[11] Merriam-Webster<\/a> online
\n[12] Wikipedia – Pyrotherapy
\n\"P-548<\/a>
\nTissue Laboratory, 1930\u2019s
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections P-550
\nMemorial\u2019s tissue laboratory. The white appliance in the left foreground is a centrifuge and the cabinets to the left of the \u201ctissue room\u201d door may be incubators.
\n\"P-550<\/a>
\nRadiology department, 1930\u2019s
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections P-564a and P-564b
\nMemorial Hospital\u2019s x-ray equipment.
\n\"P-564a<\/a> \"P-564b<\/a>
\nRadiology department, 1930\u2019s
\n<\/strong>McGovern Historical Collections P-551b
\nRadiograph viewer in Memorial Hospital\u2019s radiology department. The images in the upper row are of a kidney and ureters, apparently enhanced by an intravenously-administered iodine contrast medium, which would have been a new concept in the 1930\u2019s. The lower row may be a barium series of the gastrointestinal tract. The use of barium sulfate contrast medium was introduced in 1904. [13]
\nRadiology was often referred to as \u201croentgenology\u201d until the mid-twentieth century, for x-ray pioneer Wilhelm R\u00f6ntgen.
\n[13] Norman Williams, Christopher Bulstroned, and P. Ronan O’Connell, eds., Bailey and Love’s Short Practice of Surgery, 26th ed., CRC Press, 2013, page 1274.
\n[14] British Society for the History of Radiology online<\/a>.
\n\"P-551b<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alethea Drexler archives assistant Pendleton & Arto, Inc. medical supplies, January 1930 Houston\u2019s Medical Arts Building (1926-1980\u2019s) housed physicians\u2019 and dentists\u2019 offices, and related businesses such as this medical supplier. “Vivian Maddox, medical records librarian, and hospital ‘sweetheart’.” (undated, circa 1938) IC 086 Hermann Hospital archives P-box 2 folder 6 Hermann Hospital apparently kept a […]<\/p>\n

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