Exploring the Archives for 150: Happy Halloween

In preparation for UCSF’s 150th anniversary celebration exhibits, we’ve been doing a bit of exploring in the vaults. For the next several months, I’ll be posting some of the treasures we’ve discovered!

It’s Halloween and you know what that means…time for us to post some spooky artifacts! The first items come from the collection of UCSF founder Richard Beverly Cole. Cole facilitated the transfer of Toland Medical College to the UC in 1873 and served as the first dean of the UC Medical Department. These two quirky pieces seemed perfect for All Hallows’ Eve in the archives, enjoy!

Skeleton Pin with Blue and Gold Ribbons, circa 1880

Skeleton Pin with Blue and Gold Ribbons, circa 1880

Humidor, circa 1880

Humidor, circa 1880

Cole received this ceramic humidor in the shape of skull wearing a Sou’wester from the students of the UCSF Medical Department. For those non-smoking, non-seafarers out there, a humidor like this is used to store loose tobacco and a Sou’wester is a waterproof hat often worn by fishermen and sailors. Why the humidor is in the shape of a skull wearing a Sou’wester remains a mystery.

Humidor, circa 1880

Humidor, circa 1880

Next we have illustrations from Dr. Alfred Augustus Crawford Williams. Williams served as a surgeon for the Union Army during the American Civil War. His surgical instrument case is one of the items in our artifact collection. In the case, tucked beside the scalpels and bone saws, are several small illustrations of skeletons engaged in a variety of activities.

Illustration by Alfred Augustus Crawford Williams, circa 1865

Illustration by Alfred Augustus Crawford Williams, circa 1865

Illustration by Alfred Augustus Crawford Williams, circa1865

Illustration by Alfred Augustus Crawford Williams, circa 1865

Alfred Augustus Crawford Williams, circa 1865

Illustration by Alfred Augustus Crawford Williams, circa 1865

Happy Halloween!

Got questions? October 30 Is #AskAnArchivist Day!

On October 30, archivists around the country will take to Twitter to answer your questions about any and all things archives! This day-long event, sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, will give you the opportunity to connect directly with archivists in your community—and around the country—to ask questions, get information, or just satisfy your curiosity.

Postcard depicting the Affiliated Colleges, San Francisco, California, ca. 1900s

Postcard depicting the Affiliated Colleges, San Francisco, California, ca. 1900s

We are eager to respond to diverse questions you have about archives and archival work. Not sure what to ask? Here are a few sample questions we commonly get…

•    Who was the first chancellor of UCSF?
•    When the university was officially named UCSF?
•    How to archive a website?
•    What’s the most unusual thing you’ve come across in your collections?
•    How can I see you collections?
•    How can I volunteer in the archives?
•    Can you help me digitize VHS tapes?
•    I have old dental school yearbooks, can I donate them to archives?

#AskAnArchivist is open to everyone—all you need is a Twitter account! To participate, just tweet a question and include the hashtag #AskAnArchivist in your tweet. Your question will be seen instantly by archivists around the country who are standing by to respond directly to you.
If your questions are specifically for the UCSF archives, be sure to tweet them to @ucsf_archives using the hashtag #AskAnArchivist on October 30th from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
We may not know every answer right away, but we will get back to you after we’ve had the chance to do some digging.
The archives team will be on-hand to answer your questions. Click here to tweet.

History Exhibit at UCSF’s 150th Anniversary Block Party 8

We had a great time at UCSF’s Block Party, held October 8th on the Mission Bay campus. The event celebrated the university’s growth over the past 150 years and featured live music, food, and entertainment.

The archives team in a Wells Fargo stagecoach at the Block Party. UCSF founder Hugh Toland reportedly used the company’s services in the mid-nineteenth century to transport pharmaceuticals to patients throughout California.

The archives team in a Wells Fargo stagecoach at the Block Party. UCSF founder Hugh Toland reportedly used the company’s services in the mid-nineteenth century to transport pharmaceuticals to patients throughout California.

We organized an exhibit for the event that highlighted key moments and individuals from UCSF’s rich history. The displays featured artifacts and photos from the Archives and Special Collections, including Hugh Toland’s surgical instruments, a student nurse’s uniform, Guy Millberry’s dental equipment, and pharmacist William Searby’s brand-name medications.

School of Medicine artifacts

School of Medicine artifacts. UCSF founders Richard Cole and Hugh Toland are pictured along with Lucy Wanzer, UCSF’s first female graduate.

We also brought duplicate copies of UCSF’s student yearbooks and invited visitors to flip through them. One woman found a wild picture of her dentist from when he was a student in 1985!

School of Nursing artifacts

School of Nursing artifacts. Margaret Tracy and nursing students are pictured. Tracy served as director and dean of the UCSF School of Nursing from 1934-1956

School of Pharmacy artifacts

School of Pharmacy and School of Dentistry artifacts. William Searby and Guy Millberry are pictured. Searby helped found the California College of Pharmacy in 1872 and later served as dean of the School of Pharmacy. Millberry served as Dean of Dentistry from 1914-1939.

It was a lot of fun to share our collections. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the exhibit.

The Anatomy of the Human Body: Illustrated by One Hundred & Fifty Eight Plates

We bring you some images from the rare book collection to kick off your October:

Fyfe, Andrew, The anatomy of the human body... 1830

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. I.

I like to think of it as “Dancing Skeletons.” Doesn’t it look as though they’re mid-twirl?

Andrew Fyfe (1754-1824) was a Scottish anatomy professor at Edinburgh University where he lectured and performed dissections. He later went on to create anatomy textbooks and engravings. The above volume, The Anatomy of the Human Body: Illustrated in One Hundred & Fifty Eight Plates, was published after Fyfe’s death in 1830. It’s comprised solely of detailed engravings of human anatomy.

This book, along with 1,316 others, were digitized during the UCSF Google Books Project and is now available in full on HathtiTrust.

A few more– the thoracic cavity,

Fyfe, Andrew, The anatomy of the human body... 1830

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. XVII.

teeth and jaw,

Fyfe, Andrew, The anatomy of the human body... 1830, teeth.

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. LXXII.

nerves and muscles on the neck and head,

Fyfe, Andrew, The anatomy of the human body... 1830, nerves.

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. CV.

the brain,

IMG_0402_sm

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. LII.

and last but not least, a child skeleton and skulls on books. Now, who is ready for Halloween?

Fyfe, Andrew, The anatomy of the human body... 1830, child skeleton.

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. XXVII.

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body... 1830, Tab. IX.

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. IX.

100+ Years of UCSF Yearbooks Accessible Online: UCSF Partners with Google Books for Digitization Project

The UCSF library is an important UC contributor to the Google Books digitization project. Through the collaboration with the California Digital Library (CDL) digitization team 1,317 volumes from the general and rare book collections were scanned and uploaded to Google Books and HathiTrust, a central repository for digital books.

As part of this project, we also digitized the university publications (yearbooks, announcements, departmental newsletters). These materials are among the most heavily used in archives and requested not only by university departments, but also by people doing genealogical research and alumni. As a result, 460 of these volumes are now full-text accessible on Google Books and HathiTrust sites.

Chaff’98, v.2, yearbook of the College of Dentistry, University of California. College of Dentistry baseball team, 1897-98.

Chaff’98, v.2, yearbook of the College of Dentistry, University of California. College of Dentistry baseball team, 1897-98.

With hundreds of volumes digitized proper organization assures quick and efficient discoverability of these treasures by diverse users. With the help of HathiTrust colleagues at CDL and the University of Michigan, we set up two collections:

University of California, San Francisco collection

This collection contains books, pamphlets, UCSF University Publications, and yearbooks dating back from 16th century through 2000s held at the University of California, San Francisco Library and Special Collections.

UCSF University publications

This collection contains materials published by UCSF schools, programs, and research institutes (course catalogs, announcements, student publications, annual reports, newsletters, etc.) as well as yearbooks dating back from 1864 held at the UCSF Archives. Among them is “The Introductory address delivered by Professor H. H.Toland at the Toland Medical College, San Francisco on Monday, October 24, 1864.”

Please read the full story on the UC Libraries web site and CDL blog.

UCSF Library Google Books Team. Front row: Andy Panado, Polina Ilieva, Bea Mallek, Karen Butter. Back row: Eric Peterson, Art Townsend, Alberto Luna, Tyrone McCloskey, Don Ciccone, Bazil Menezes, David Campbell, Anneliese Taylor. Not pictured: Margaret Hughes, Julia Kochi, Bertha Hall, Lucy Friedland, Mark Zanandrea, David MacFarland, Alan Daniel, Jubeda Azam, Deborah Freeze, Susan Boone and Kirk Hudson.

UCSF Library Google Books Team. Front row: Andy Panado, Polina Ilieva, Bea Mallek, Karen Butter. Back row: Eric Peterson, Art Townsend, Alberto Luna, Tyrone McCloskey, Don Ciccone, Bazil Menezes, David Campbell, Anneliese Taylor. Not pictured: Margaret Hughes, Julia Kochi, Bertha Hall, Lucy Friedland, Mark Zanandrea, David MacFarland, Alan Daniel, Jubeda Azam, Deborah Freeze, Susan Boone and Kirk Hudson.

About CDL
The CDL was founded by the University of California in 1997 to take advantage of emerging technologies that were transforming the way digital information was being published and accessed. Since then, in collaboration with the UC libraries and other partners, CDL assembled one of the world’s largest digital research libraries and changed the ways that faculty, students, and researchers discover and access information. In 2006, CDL and the University of California libraries partnered with Google on a project to digitize millions of books from the campus collections.

About HathiTrust
HathiTrust Digital Library is a digital preservation repository and highly functional access platform. It provides long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives.  Launched in 2008, HathiTrust has a growing membership, currently comprising more than 90 partner libraries. Over the last six years, the partners have contributed more than 11 million volumes to the digital library. More than 3.7 million of the contributed volumes are in the public domain and freely available on the Web. For more information, visit the HathiTrust About page.