{"id":95,"date":"2015-05-04T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmcldev.wpengine.com\/mcgovern\/2015\/05\/04\/centennial-photo-display-1940s-part-i\/"},"modified":"2019-08-30T17:59:37","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T17:59:37","slug":"centennial-photo-display-1940s-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.tmc.edu\/mcgovern\/2015\/05\/04\/centennial-photo-display-1940s-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Centennial Photo Display: 1940's, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alethea Drexler
\narchives assistant
\n\"MS002S03b01<\/a>The 1940’s were big years for the Texas Medical Center.\u00a0 To begin with, there now was<\/em> a Medical Center: The Texas Medical Center was planned in the early 1940\u2019s by the trustees of the M.D. Anderson Foundation, to be located on land purchased from the city, next to Hermann Hospital and Hermann Park [IC002 Texas Medical Center].
\nThe dedicatory celebration was held on February 28, 1946, at Houston’s luxurious Rice Hotel.
\n\"MS002S03b01<\/a>Those in attendance were served fresh fruit dressed with sherry, celery hearts and olives, squab on toast with butter sauce, rissole potatoes and baby lima beans, salad, rolls, and chocolate meringue glace.
\nMedical Center founding father Ernst Bertner, M.D., is on the left:
\n\"1946-TMC-dedication-dinner-c\"<\/a>The map in the dinner program showed the handful of buildings that were in existence or under construction alongside ambitious plans for future growth [MS002 Ernst Bertner, M.D., S.III b.1 f.1]:
\n\"MS002S03b01<\/a>The buildings that are shown in black are Palmer Memorial Church and the James Autry House on the far right, Hermann Hospital in the middle, the Rice University gymnasium at top, and Baylor College of Medicine, which was under construction, at left (in the middle of the map).\u00a0 The Autry house, rectory for the church, operated a cafeteria that served Medical Center employees and students during the 1940’s and 1950’s [“The Cornerstone”, Rice Historical Society, Vol. 13, No. 1 Winter 2008].
\nBaylor University College of Medicine relocated from Waco to Houston in 1943\u00a0 and was housed in a former Sears warehouse until the Cullen Building was completed in 1947.\u00a0 It separated from Baylor University in 1969.\u00a0 The University of Texas Hospital for Cancer Research was founded 1941, now UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center) had been established a few years earlier [IC002 Texas Medical Center].
\n\"MS002S03b01<\/a>By 1948, the dedicatory map was becoming reality.\u00a0 This 1948 aerial shows the completed Baylor College of Medicine, Hermann Hospital’s new building and the Hermann Professional Building under construction, and the oval drive that would eventually encircle the Library building [IC002 Texas Medical Center]:
\n\"1948-TMC-Aerial<\/a>Architect Karl Kamrath’s concept for a Streamline building [MS071 S.4, F.6]:
\n\"1940-MS071-S4-F6-Kamrath-TMC-concept\"<\/a>Civil engineer Herbert A. Kipp was president of the River Oaks Corporation and was responsible for the layouts of the subdivisions in River Oaks, Glenwood Cemetery, Hermann Park, and the Texas Medical Center. The Corporation sent him on a research tour of other medical centers in the fall of 1944 in preparation for his work on the Medical Center. The colorful originals of some of his travel ephemera are held by the TMC Library\u2019s McGovern Historical Collections. [IC002 Texas Medical Center, Series I, box 25].
\nAn early admonishment to keep an eye on your luggage and keep your carry-ons to a minimum:
\n\"NYNHN<\/a>The Office of Defense Transportation oversaw railroads from 1941 through 1945 in an effort to ensure that transport was adequate both for civilians and for the war effort [The Presidency Project<\/a>].
\nMissouri Pacific Railway envelope with a “V for Victory” theme.\u00a0 :
\n\"Mo-Pac<\/a>Hotel rates have changed a little in the past seventy years.
\nAtlanta, Georgia’s, Winecoff Hotel, featured at the bottom of the left-hand column, would be the site of the deadliest hotel fire in United States history in 1946 [Winecoff Hotel Documentary<\/a>]:
\n\"Hotel<\/a>American Airlines ticket envelope.\u00a0 The plane resembles a Douglas DC-3:
\n\"American<\/a>A little more about Houston’s medical community during World War II:
\nNursing as a profession had suffered a blow during the Great Depression, and many nurses became unemployed or had to scrape by on reduced hours and wages [“Nursing During the Great Depression<\/a>“, Scrubs, August 27, 2012].\u00a0 The Second World War created both renewed need and new opportunities for nurses.
\nLois and Barbara Burnett, Hermann Hospital School of Nursing students, in 1940.
\n\"IC086<\/a>Interns and nursing students at Hermann Hospital, 1943.\u00a0 The girl at far right is wearing a one-piece playsuit, which probably had a skirt she could button over the shorts for street wear [Institutional Collection 086 Hermann Hospital Archives, P-box 02, folder 1].
\n\"IC086<\/a>Hermann’s pediatrics department, Christmas 1945:
\n\"IC086<\/a>Lydia Moglia, Hermann Hospital School of Nursing class of 1932, in her Army Nurse Corps uniform (and epic victory rolls), signed “I haven’t lost the twinkle in my eye, October 1945” [Institutional Collection 086 Hermann Hospital Archives, P-box 02, folder 1].
\n\"IC086<\/a>Moglia grew up on a ranch in Bruni, Texas, a tiny town near Laredo. She served in the Army Nurse Corps in Europe from 1942 to 1945, in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater in 1945 and 1946, and again during the Korean War from 1950 to 1954, in between working in hospitals in Houston, Laredo, and Corpus Christi [Ancestry.com; Findagrave.com].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alethea Drexler archives assistant The 1940’s were big years for the Texas Medical Center.\u00a0 To begin with, there now was a Medical Center: The Texas Medical Center was planned in the early 1940\u2019s by the trustees of the M.D. Anderson Foundation, to be located on land purchased from the city, next to Hermann Hospital and […]<\/p>\n

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