Adopt-a-Book: Help Us Restore and Preserve 150 Rare Books

UCSF’s Rare Book Collection contains more than 15,000 volumes, including items from the 15th century, collected over the past 150 years through donations and gifts from faculty, alumni, and friends of the Library. Over time, many books have deteriorated so that additional use would add further damage to their condition. As a busy research library, it is important that we keep these materials accessible to present and future researchers.

A conservator at the UC Berkeley Library conservation lab.

A conservator at the UC Berkeley Library conservation lab.

In honor of UCSF’s 150th Anniversary, UCSF Archives & Special Collections has launched the Adopt-a-Book program, which aims to fund the restoration of 150 books that were published before 1864, the year that UCSF was founded. Your generous donations will support the work of conservators that will stabilize the books and prevent future damage, in addition to paper restoration, cleaning, and some cosmetic treatment.

Bartolomeo Eustachi; Bernardi Siegfried Albini, Explicatio tabularum anatomicarum, 1744

Bartolomeo Eustachi; Bernardi Siegfried Albini, Explicatio tabularum anatomicarum, 1744. One of the books that is featured on the Adopt-a-Book website.

The Library is very grateful to the members of the Bay Area History of Medicine Society, who have already donated money to restore a copy of De Humani Corporis Fabrica, 2nd edition (1555), written by Andreas Vesalius.

Interested in adopting a book from this exceptional collection? Learn more about the Adopt-a-Book program. We sincerely appreciate your generosity and continued support!

Medical History at UCSF: the Department of the History of Health Sciences, 1927-1998

The Archives and Special Collections contain both administrative and teaching files from the Department of the History of Health Sciences, especially between the years 1985-1998, before it became a Program in the interdisciplinary Department of Anthropology, History and Social Sciences. The unit was originally created in 1927, but became official on January 1, 1930 as Department of Medical History and Bibliography, supplied with a special seminar and rare book room in the new library. Fueled by the Oslerian cultural ideal, the medical classics were read and quoted since many educated physicians still could read Latin fluently. Chairing these seminars was Le Roy Crummer, a notable bibliophile and veteran collector of old books, together with Dean Langley Porter and professors Herbert Evans and Chauncey Leake. These activities were meant to convey to UC Regents that the campus provided a cultural environment that would preclude the removal of the Medical School to the Berkeley campus.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the Department flourished under the leadership of John B. de C. M. Saunders, a Professor of Anatomy and University Librarian. During these decades, its stewardship of archival materials and historical collections expanded, particularly with the acquisition of a collection of Oriental medicine titles. The name of the unit changed to History of Health Sciences in 1965 to accurately reflect the interests of the entire campus, and Dr. Saunders was appointed Regents Professor of Medical History, a post he occupied until his retirement in 1973. His long tenure featured the development of a graduate program of studies leading to an M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. His successor, Gert H. Brieger, then guided the Department from 1975 to 1984, when another change in name occurred to better illustrate its humanistic mission: History and Philosophy of Health Sciences.

Poster for the 1994 public lecture series at UCSF entitled “From House of Mercy to Biomedical Showcase: A Retrospective of Hospital Life.”

Poster for the 1994 public lecture series at UCSF entitled “From House of Mercy to Biomedical Showcase: A Retrospective of Hospital Life.”

My appointment in 1985 allowed a resumption of the graduate program and the development of new elective courses for medical students, all supported by a library and audiovisual collection. With bioethics rapidly becoming an independent field, the designation History of Health Sciences returned. By this time, moreover, medical history was no longer the medicine’s inspirational handmaiden of its early days, but a scholarly enterprise designed to carefully reconstruct the medical past within its scientific, social, political, economic and cultural contexts. Such an outward glance, however, was complemented with an inward look at medicine itself, particularly the emotional demands of becoming and being a healer and establishing relationships with patients.

To implement such goals, the Department sponsored a program of noon-hour illustrated lectures, delivered at the Parnassus campus and open to faculty, students and staff during the 1990s. Among the most prominent themes presented with the use of slides and films were a history of the Western hospital from antiquity to AIDS and another of alternative healing traditions. In my opinion at the time, the old-fashioned lecture format was still the best way to convey the complex and contingent panorama of medicine’s impact on society. For medical students, our elective tutorials were designed to allow a guided exploration of the process of becoming a physician—emotional and technical– with the help of historical examples.

During more than half a century of its existence, many scholars played prominent roles in the Department’s development. Among them were faculty, students, health professionals, visiting lecturers and guest speakers, as well as patrons and donors who provided resources for the unit to flourish, allowing it to remain at the forefront of similar academic medico-historical institutions in the country and the world.

Guenter B. Risse MD, PhD is a historian of health and medicine. He was the chair of the Department of the History of Health Sciences at UCSF in 1985–2001. He now is Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine at UCSF. His most recent book “Plague, Fear and Politics in San Francisco’s Chinatown”  was published in 2012 by Johns Hopkins University Press; it depicts the work of UCSF faculty during the epidemic.

Eric Berne Rare Book Inventory Completed

The Eric L. Berne collection includes over 300 rare books from Berne’s personal library. Published between 1829 and 1984, these volumes illustrate Berne’s study of medicine, psychology, philosophy, folklore, and therapeutic techniques, as well as his published work. The researcher will find medical textbooks from Berne’s student days at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, practical manuals from psychiatric clinics and hospitals, popular “self-help” books of the 1950s and 1960s, and weighty tomes on psychoanalysis by major thinkers like Freud, Erikson, and Federn. Many books are underlined and annotated in Berne’s handwriting.

Cover of Berne's medical school textbook "The Autonomic Functions and the Personality" by Dr. Edward J. Kempf, 1921

Cover of Berne’s medical school textbook “The Autonomic Functions and the Personality” by Dr. Edward J. Kempf, 1921

Berne's annotations in "The Autonomic Functions and the Personality"

Berne’s annotations in “The Autonomic Functions and the Personality”

The collection also includes copies of Berne’s published works. His 1964 best-seller Games People Play was translated into nearly twenty different languages, and the Italian, German, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Hebrew, Chinese, Norwegian, and Dutch editions are represented on the shelves. Working copies and first editions of The Mind in Action, A Layman’s Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis, The Structure and Dynamics of Organizations and Groups, Principles of Group Therapy, Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy: A Systematic Individual and Social Psychiatry, and What Do You Say After You Say Hello? are available, as well as works by other contemporary and later practitioners of Transactional Analysis.

Cover of Dutch edition of Games People Play (Mens erger je niet)

Cover of Dutch edition of Games People Play (Mens erger je niet)

The rare book collection will soon be searchable through the UCSF Library catalog, and is available to researchers in the Archives and Special Collections Reading Room.

Nursing students in the 1920s: Clara & Vivian Edmonston

Clara Edmonston and Vivian Coats met as nursing students at UCSF in the 1920s. We have small collections from both women– MSS 2011-14 Vivian Coats (Edmonston) papers and MSS 2013-9 Clara Edmonston papers. The collections are full of insights into the lives of the two women in nursing school and as working nurses in the 1920s. Much of the collections is correspondence and documentation of their work, allowing the reader to hear Clara and Vivian’s voices and get to know them a bit.

Clara Edmonston, 1924.

Clara Edmonston, 1924.

Vivian Coats (Edmonston), 1923.

Vivian Coats (Edmonston), 1923.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Frances Edmonston, daughter of Vivian and niece of Clara, and she elaborated on their stories. Clara and Vivian were friends in nursing school and Clara had the idea to introduce Vivian (nee Coats) to her brother, Charles Edmonston. The match was a success– Vivian and Charles later married. Vivian finished her BS in Nursing in 1923, Clara in 1924. Vivian later went on to graduate in 1927 with a certificate in Public Health Nursing and continued to work in public health-related nursing roles in the Bay Area.

Vivian took care to save items that she felt represented her nursing career. She saved notes, newspaper clippings, official forms, correspondence, reports, and other memorabilia.

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Vivian’s notes for making Poison Oak Lotion.

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Vivian’s notes on the incubation period of infectious diseases.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She worked in a number of nursing capacities to help underserved populations. In 1929 Vivian was employed by the Red Cross in Willows, CA  to provide Itinerant Nurse Service. Newspaper clippings collected by Vivian document the work that she accomplished and positive effect she had on the town.

In an April 30, 1929 report to the Red Cross on her work’s progress, Vivian wrote that “in the Willows Grammar School [she] examined 555 children and found 876 defects. These defects included faulty vision, carious teeth, throat abnormalities, skin eruptions, enlarged lymph nodes or glands in the necks, and those more than 10% underweight or 20% overweight.” Furthermore, she goes on to say that she “visited 19 rural schools examining a total of 392 children and found 837 abnormalities. Notice the greater number of defects in proportion to the number of children. If statistics are of any value as an indicator and guide, they surely point to the rural districts as needing prevention and correction of defects and health education.” A number of students were found to be in need of tonsillectomies and candidly she says, “I know many of the teachers will be relieved, next Fall, to see fewer mouth breathers and more nose breathers.”

Page 1 of newspaper clippings from Willows from February 16-May 1, 1929.

Page 1 of newspaper clippings from Willows from February 16-May 1, 1929.

Vivian is very clear about the services that must be improved in the schools and the communities to have a positive impact on the health of the residents. Her recommendations include follow-up home visits, new outhouses at schools, bacteriological examination of drinking water, and updated health and anatomy curriculum in schools.

During my conversation with Frances she called my attention to the work Vivian did with vaccinations, which serves to illuminate some of the larger public issues of the early 20th century. For one position Vivian was loaned a model T Ford and hired to investigate cases of diphtheria. In the event that the presence of the disease was confirmed, Vivian had to put a quarantine sign on door of the home. Other duties included vaccinating children for diphtheria and small pox in the San Leandro area– which, it seems, were controversial among the parents. Vivian saved many of the notes from parents concerning the vaccinations.

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Page 1 of a letter from a parent to the school teacher concerning vaccinations, circa 1934.

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Page 2 of the letter from a parent to the school teacher concerning vaccinations, circa 1934.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A close-up of the portion of the letter discussing the diphtheria vaccination, circa 1934.

This History of Vaccines timeline provides a bit of context for Vivian’s work. Around 1922, many schools began requiring the students to be vaccinated for smallpox before they could attend. Similarly new diphtheria immunizations were introduced in the 1920s (and are credited with virtually wiping the disease out of the United States). Furthermore, it notes that in 1926 opposition to mandatory vaccinations was growing among the public. The same argument is echoing in many communities today.

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Page of parents requesting that their children not be vaccinated at school, 1933-1934.

New year, new collections!

We’re very pleased anytime we’re able to bring new collections out of dark corners and, you guessed it, into the light. The following newly cataloged collections cover a breadth of topics including tobacco control, AIDS history, nursing school in the 1920s, inventing the pap smear, surgery in the 19th century, and UCSF history:

  • MSS 2013-4 Grande Vista Sanatorium collection, 1922-1938: Collection includes various medical mailings that Dr. Hendrik Belgum, the founder of the sanatorium, received. The sanatorium was founded in 1914 in Richmond, CA where some of its ruins can still be found in the Wildcat Canyon Regional Park.
  • MSS 2013-9 Clara Edmonston papers, 1921-1924: Papers include Clara’s correspondence while she was a UCSF nursing student in the 1920s. Our holdings also include the papers of Clara’s friend, future sister-in-law, and co-nursing student: MSS 2011-14 Vivian Coats (Edmonston) papers, 1921-1935.
  • MSS 2012-30 Dr. George N. Papanicolaou collection, 1945-1990:  Research material put together by Dr. Robert Liner for a film documenting the story of the Pap smear development by Dr. George N. Papanicolaou. Dr. Liner was not able to produce the film. It includes two boxes with papers, photographs, and publications as well as a box of six audio cassettes with interviews of Mrs. Mary Papanicolaou, Mrs. Trout, Dr. Joseph Hinsey, and Constantine Railey.
  • MSS 2012-27 Carolyn B. Martin papers, 1988-2004:  Document Martin’s involvement with California tobacco control. She was a Lung Association volunteer and helped to lead the state campaign for Prop. 99 in 1988 and served as the first chairperson of the state advisory committee on program and expenditures. Martin participated in the negotiations for the implementation legislation for the proposition, numerous other tobacco related bills and lawsuits, and education efforts.
  • MSS 98-60 Villagomez manuscript, circa 19th century: A handwritten, unpublished manuscript in Spanish concerning surgery techniques from the 19th century.
  • AR 2013-08 UCSF School of Nursing – Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner Program records, 1991-1995: Documents the grant application for the UCSF School of Nursing Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner program.
  • MSS 96-32 Brooks Linton ephemera collection, 1983-1995: AIDS-related ephemera collected by Brooks Linton, a former San Francisco General Hospital AIDS Ward nurse, from approximately 1983-1995. Items include newspaper clippings, brochures, reports, magazine articles, announcements, and others.
  •  AR 2012-25 UCSF Division of Gastroenterology lab records, 1968-2012Collection contains electronic data files, spectrophotometer recordings, and gastroscopy records books that were kept by Dr. McDonagh in his lab. Other materials include, floppy disks, zip disks, CDs, DVDs, slides, and hard drives. Dr. McDonagh was a professor and researcher at UCSF from 1971-2012.
  • AR 2012-26 UCSF Medical Center Quality Improvement Department records, 1989-1999: Collection includes materials on the projects, reports, and initiatives of the Quality Improvement Department. The department aims to develop data-driven strategies to improve care and to lead the field by disseminating their experiences locally and nationally.

If these, or any, of our materials strike your fancy and you’d like a closer look, please head to our homepage and click on the calendar to the right to schedule an appointment. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us!

Other additions in the latter part of 2013 included: