Thanksgiving recipes from Doctor’s Wives Association

The holidays are almost here… Are you still searching for a perfect recipe to amaze your guests and share with the family? Look no further! “Kitchen Consultations,” a cookbook which was put together in 1950 by the University of California Doctor’s Wives Association – a group of “health-minded, vitamin conscious women who used these recipes in their own homes.” This organization traces its origins to 1917 when its first members met and adopted the name “Ladies of the Medical Faculty of UC.” In 1925 the name was changed to “Doctors’ Wives Association of U.C.,” but the goals remained the same – working for the benefit of the hospital and especially pediatric wards. Later the major fundraising efforts were directed to Dr. Mary Olney’s Diabetic Youth Camp as well as amenities for patients, loan fund for students and the Founder’s Clock restoration.

"Kitchen Consultations,” a cookbook compiled in 1950 by the University of California Doctor’s Wives Association

“Kitchen Consultations,” a cookbook compiled in 1950 by the University of California Doctor’s Wives Association

The exquisite artwork in the book was done by Ralph Sweet, professor of Medical Arts and Illustrations at UCSF Medical School.

Here is a selection of recipes for a four course dinner…

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Golden Gate Soup recipe by Mrs. Seymour Farber

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Stuffed Meat Rolls by Mrs. Ralph Sweet

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Corn Bread Turkey Dressing by Mrs. Donald Smith

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String-Bean Casserole by Mrs. Clark Johnson

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Pecan Pie recipe by Mrs. Thomas Fullenlove

Happy Thanksgiving and best wishes from the UCSF Archives team!

“Kitchen Consultations” cookbook is part of the Faculty Wives, University of California, San Francisco Records, 1948-87 and can be consulted in the archives reading room.

Through the Eyes of an Intern

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Hi everyone, my name is Armani Fontanilla and I am an undergraduate student at the University of San Francisco interning at the UCSF Archives & Special Collections.

At the archives, I am currently tasked with the processing of small box collections, or the creation of box level inventories and the digitizing, and creation of, metadata for the archives that have yet to be placed into the virtual catalog. Other projects that I am potentially tasked with are research for the upcoming 150th Anniversary of UCSF on the level of researching stories, scanning images, and looking for documents, as well as helping with the vast inventory of the Medical Artifacts collection.

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It’s restricted for a reason. We can’t reveal why. All you need to know is Maggie has the really cool “restricted” stamp. It’s actually really cool.

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And wow is our inventory big… Get it? Because the texts are big?

Even though the potential projects are only potential projects, my senior co-workers, Maggie and Kelsi have both taught me a lot in the projects that I am currently working on. For example, Kelsi has taught me about her work with the Medical Artifacts collection: How the UCSF catalogs have changed from one form to another, and that cross-referencing catalogs with each new edition that has come through the library archives since 1864, one also has to decipher the writings and annotations of previous archivists, as well as come up with new ways to reorganize the collections in our possession.

Maggie, on the other hand, has taught me how to do the projects that I am currently doing, as opposed to the potential projects that Kelsi lets me shadow every so often. She has taught me proper labeling procedure, and storage techniques, as well as projects that mirror the one that Kelsi is currently doing, which would be creating catalogs for documents in storage.

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Cataloging kind of like this, but more modern.

Finally, the first project (that I am still working on when I’m not being taught by Maggie or Kelsi, is the creation of a digital inventory of UCSF affiliates and members. Fortunately, most of the physical inventory is in English, and it is all on-site. Unfortunately, the physical inventory itself is not backed up – folders that are not archival standard need to be replaced, labels need to be printed out because of the inconsistent handwriting of previous archivists (and this intern’s), and more files need to be created for the ever expanding role of UCSF affiliated persons who are recognized in the news worldwide – from China, to America, to Brazil, to the Philippines, UCSF’s impact on the world is growing. And my first, and current job, is to help sort the files so that we can keep track of them for people to use and peruse in the future.

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Before this data can hit the internet, I need make sure they’re all in order.

Within these jumbled folders, however, lie treasures that I am so excited to find. While often the files just contain one or two articles, some contain as many as ten plus! And these articles are often varied – they come in the form of obituaries, photocopied documents, magazine clippings, newspaper articles, biographies, and more! But instead of letting me describe them, let me show you some examples.

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A button with 1989 Nobel Prize Winners Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus.

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Brown, Leatha. School of Nursing, Class of 1928.

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Holt A. Cheng, 1904. He was the first Chinese to be licensed to practice medicine in California after graduating from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in San Francisco. After returning to China, he established the Guang Hua Medical Society, the first medical college of western medicine established by the Chinese, for the Chinese, and the first medical school to accept female applicants.

And finally, the UCSF archives are not only home to just Western schools of thought in medicine, but include Eastern Thought as well. On site and in a state-of-the art archival room, various Eastern texts in Chinese and Japanese are stored, either purchased by the Head Archivist, donated to UCSF, or willed by their owners.

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Chinese medical texts in the archival room.

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Japanese medical texts.

 

Armani Fontanilla

Armani Fontanilla

Armani is currently a senior majoring in History with an emphasis on European and Asian Studies in the University of San Francisco (USF) public history program. After he graduates, he hopes to be able to earn a teaching position at his old high school, Bellarmine College Preparatory, and eventually pursue a Masters. In choosing the UCSF archives through the USF internship program, he hopes to not only practice skills that can only be found through working at an established institution but to also enhance his ability to do archival work and explore history of Western medicine at the archives.

 

UCSF Archives Lecture: Karl F. Meyer, California’s Forgotten Microbe Hunter, December 5, 2014

Join us on Friday, December 5th as Mark Honigsbaum, PhD, gives a lecture in a series launched by UCSF Archives & Special Collections.

Date: Friday, December 5th, 2014
Time: 12 pm-1:20 pm
Location: Lange Room, UCSF Library, 530 Parnassus, 5th floor
This lecture is free and open to the public. Light refreshments provided.
Please RSVP to reserve a seat.

In the 1930s California’s rapid population growth and the incursion of agricultural settlers into valleys and deserts teeming with exotic pathogens resulted in outbreaks of ‘new’ infectious diseases. To divine the cause of these outbreaks and trace the epidemics to their source, health officials turned to San Francisco’s premier ‘microbe hunter,’ Karl Friedrich Meyer.

Karl F. Meyer in his office.

Karl F. Meyer in his office.

All but forgotten today, Meyer was once a nationwide figure renowned for his feats of disease detection. As director of the George Williams Hooper Foundation for Medical Research at UCSF in the 1920s, Meyer – a Swiss-born veterinarian and bacteriologist – spearheaded investigations into botulism, mussel poisoning, and brucellosis. By the 1930s he focused increasingly on parasitic diseases of birds and other animals.

These included ‘parrot fever,’ a deadly disease caused by a bacterium in parakeet droppings, and ‘staggers’ (equine encephalitis), a viral disease of horses spread by mosquitoes that bred in irrigation ditches. Most famously, they also included outbreaks of ‘sylvatic’ plague along the California-Oregon border – outbreaks that Meyer traced to migrations of squirrels and other flea-infested rodents. What linked these outbreaks is that, one way or another, they were all ‘man-made’ – the result of human interference with animal ecologies.

Drawing on Meyer’s papers at the UCSF and Bancroft libraries, this talk reviews Meyer’s feats of microbial detection and his pioneering investigations of disease ecology. Dr. Honigsbaum views Meyer as an important bridge figure in mid-20th century medical research who sought to link microbial behavior to broader environmental and social factors that impact host-pathogen interactions and the mechanisms of disease control.

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Mark Honigsbaum

Mark Honigsbaum, PhD, is a medical historian and journalist with wide-ranging interests encompassing health, science, technology and contemporary culture. A specialist in the history of epidemics and pandemics, he is the author of four books, including The Fever Trail: In Search of the Cure for Malaria and A History of the Great Influenza Pandemics: Death, Panic, and Hysteria, 1830-1920. He is currently working on a history disease ecology as a Wellcome Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London.

About the UCSF Archives & Special Collections Lecture Series

UCSF Archives & Special Collections launched this lecture series to introduce a wider community to treasures and collections from its holdings, to provide an opportunity for researchers to discuss how they use this material, and to celebrate clinicians, scientists, and health care professionals who donated their papers to the archives.

Commemorating UCSF Dental Alumni WWI Veterans

In honor of Veterans’ Day this year, we bring you a scrapbook from our collection, titled Dental College Alumni Serving in the First World War, 1917-1919. The scrapbook is filled with letters written to Dr. Guy S. Millberry by both former and on-leave students during their military service. Millberry began working at UCSF in 1906, was appointed Professor in 1910, and became Dean of Dentistry in 1914– a role he continued in for twenty-five years.

The collected letters were written from a variety of places– Camp Greenleaf, GA; Camp Fremont, CA; Vancouver, WA; Royat, France; Oakland, CA; Camp MacArthur, TX; San Pedro, CA; Camp Lewis, WA; Khabarovsk, Siberia; New York, NY; Fort D.A. Russell, WY; Camp Greene, NC; Camp Shelby, MS; Camp Lee, VA; La Ferte, France. They were sent from forts, camps, ships, submarines, and hospitals. Most of the the letters are handwritten, a few are typewritten.

Dental College alumni Serving in the First World War, 1917-1919 scrapbook

Dental College Alumni Serving in the First World War, 1917-1919 scrapbook

 

The soldiers ask Dr. Millberry for letters of recommendation, job advice, proof of graduation, if their leave of absence will be honored or extended to allow them return to school after the war ends, and give updates on their lives. One soldier, who wrote on September 21, 1918, included a copy his records detailing the dental work he did in one week.

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Dental College Alumni Serving in the First World War, 1917-1919 scrapbook

A graduate of the 1917 UC College of Dentistry class, Edwin Busse, wrote a letter on October 18, 1918 from his station in Paimboeuf, France that included several photographs (the letter is transcribed in full at the end of this post). Busse is pictured in the 1917 Blue and Gold UC yearbook as a member of the Psi Omega dentistry fraternity. Below, a photograph of the Arch de Triumph in Paris, France. The caption reads: “Note how French have protected statue on right with sandbags.”

Dental College alumni Serving in the First World War, 1917-1919 scrapbook

Dental College Alumni Serving in the First World War, 1917-1919 scrapbook

Included with same letter, a photograph of a “portable dental outfit.”

Dental College alumni Serving in the First World War, 1917-1919 scrapbook

Dental College Alumni Serving in the First World War, 1917-1919 scrapbook

As well as a photograph of a “dental office at Paimboeuf.”

Dental College alumni Serving in the First World War, 1917-1919 scrapbook

Dental College Alumni Serving in the First World War, 1917-1919 scrapbook

 

Clark R. Giles received his Degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery from UC in 1914 and had been an instructor in Prosthetic Dentistry here before serving in World War I. He wrote a detailed letter to Millbery on on October 7, 1918 from Royat, France describing the work that goes on at Base Hospital 30, the war, his recent leave, and even mentions Busse.

 

Dental College alumni Serving in the First World War, 1917-1919 scrapbook

Dental College Alumni Serving in the First World War, 1917-1919 scrapbook

Royat France
Oct 7, 1918

My dear Dr. Millberry:

I have been a long time in writing to you but rest assured it is not because I have not thought many times of you and of the University.

We are located in Royat near Claremont-Ferrand a city of 60 thousand. We have the hospital well established in 17 or 18 summer hotels and at present have a little more than 1700 patients and within a few months expect to be able to care for 3 thousand if necessary.

Our department is very comfortably (not lavishly, naturally) equipped and just at present we are five dentists and six assistants. However we expect to lose our extra help ere long but in all probabilities they will be replaced by men from incoming organizations. We are kept very busy for example last month we saw some 650 patients and we try to have each man who comes in, go out with his mouth in a completed condition. We naturally have a great amount of routine work to do but mixed with it are also numerous very interesting wound and fracture cases from which we learn a great deal in the surgical and fracture line. All cases involving facial or other structures than the jaws or teeth are as you probably know handled in conjunction with the surgical department.

Click through to read the rest of the letter written by Giles followed by the letter from Busse that included the photographs, written to Millberry a week later than Giles’, also from France.  Continue reading

Medicine Chest Video and UC Public Records

Watch the film to see Polina, Head of the UCSF Archives & Special Collections, show off a medicine chest we recently accessioned from the California Historical Society. Medicine chests were once things of beauty: hand-written labels, silver leaf coatings for pills, delicate bottles. The chest belonged to the family of Joseph Donoghue of San Francisco and was used during their travels to Hong Kong and Europe. We’ll bring you a longer post of the history of the chest soon.

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The chest includes 19th century pharmaceutical drugs from a pharmacy owned by a figure important in UCSF history– William Searby— that was located on Market Street. Searby was was a key player in the founding of the California College of Pharmacy (later UCSF School of Pharmacy). In addition to being the school’s first professor of Materia Medica, and later professor of pharmacy, he was also the second dean of the college. (We recently conserved a portrait of Searby from the 1880’s– read about that process here!)

The University of California Public Records project is on a quest to celebrate UC’s bevy of unique treasures. The University of California houses an incredible diversity of museums, libraries and other collections. Some are small and eclectic; others are recognized as world-class. Many are open to the public, and all are cared for by passionate curators, historians and scholars. Take a behind-the-scenes peek at UC’s incredible collections.