Accessions & Additions – Summer Edition

We’re always busy accepting new collections and pushing through our backlog to make as many collections available for research as possible. This list of new records includes materials relating to tobacco control, UCSF, infectious disease, pediatrics, nursing education, HIV/AIDS Toland Hall murals, book collecting, medical education, and more. Click on the titles below to learn more the contents, subjects, and size of these collections.

Contact us if you have any questions or would like to learn more. And please don’t hesitate to make an appointment to come in and use the collections!

Our catalog updates over the past six months:

The following collections have inventories or finding aids on the Online Archive of California:

New collections available in the Tobacco Control Archives

New collections available for research in the Tobacco Control Archives include the Donna Shimp papers and Environmental Improvement Associates records, the American Legacy Foundation records, and significant additions to the Stanton A. Glantz papers. Finding aids for these collections are available for perusal on the Online Archive of California and the collections may be requested for research.

Donna Shimp outside New Jersey Bell office, undated. MSS 2001-33

Donna Shimp outside New Jersey Bell office, undated. MSS 2001-33

Donna Shimp papers and Environmental Improvement Associates records

Donna Shimp began working for New Jersey Bell in 1961 as a service representative in a smoke-filled office (the kind of work environment shared by countless other American workers in the 1970s). In fact, the union representing her – Communications Workers of America – had recently fought for and won the right for employees to smoke in the office. Mrs. Shimp began to suffer acute allergic reactions to the environmental smoke in the office and sought relief from her employer.  New Jersey Bell declined to accommodate her request and likewise the union refused to step in on her behalf.  Mrs. Shimp had no choice to but to sue New Jersey Bell. Shimp won her case using an argument that she had a common law right to a workplace free from environmental hazards, a very different tactic than some other cases seeking constitutional protection, which were unsuccessful.  The favorable 1976 decision hinged on New Jersey Bell’s practice of prohibiting smoking around its sensitive electronic equipment. The judge reasoned that employees should enjoy the same protection as the computers and ordered New Jersey Bell to accommodate Mrs. Shimp’s demands.  Despite this victory, New Jersey Bell’s “accommodations” dragged on for years. Mrs. Shimp found herself having to pass through a manager’s office to use a separate smoke-free bathroom facility and litigation carried on well into the 1980s.

Mrs. Shimp continued to work at New Jersey Bell and used her case as a springboard into a new career as an activist seeking to help other workers across the country who were also seeking relief from smoke-filled work environments. Shimp and her husband E. Benjamin Shimp started a non-profit organization called Environmental Improvement Associates. They published and disseminated books and pamphlets aimed at empowering workers to rid their offices and workplaces of the toxic environmental effects of smoking, beginning with How to Protect Your Health at Work (Environmental Improvement Associates, 1976).

Layout for How to Protect Your Health at Work front cover, 1976. MSS 2001-33

Layout for How to Protect Your Health at Work front cover, 1976. MSS 2001-33

They sold publications to individuals and advocacy groups, barely able to keep up with demand. Shimp received reams of correspondence from workers seeking her help with workplace strategies and help bringing their own legal action. She traveled widely speaking at conferences and serving on panels, bringing out her homemade posters, slides and graphics. She continued her advocacy work through the 1990s and  donated her papers to UCSF in 2001.

Layout for smoke-free workplace poster, 1970s. MSS 2001-33.

Layout for smoke-free workplace poster, 1970s. MSS 2001-33.

American Legacy Foundation records

The American Legacy Foundation  was created in 1999 as a result of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), and used mandated tobacco industry funds to produce numerous anti-smoking campaigns. Legacy produced marketing campaigns that targeted youth and different ethnic groups and supported smokers who wanted to quit. The truth campaign, launched in 2000, employed a “bold and edgy” feel and sought to educate teens about the tobacco industry’s deceptive practices by using their own documents in campaign materials. Other major campaigns included the Great Start campaign aimed at helping pregnant smokers quit and Ex, which employed reality TV-style storytelling to help those who want to quit break the habit.

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Truth campaign. MSS 2003-06

The American Legacy Foundation (ALF) records contain marketing materials for smoking cessation campaigns and include brochures, mailers, press kits, photographs, TV and radio spots and realia such as t-shirts and totebags. Also included are foundation progress reports, policy and subject reports, fact sheets, memos, newsletters, press releases and media clippings.

ALF tank top. MSS 2003-06

ALF tank top. MSS 2003-06

Stanton A. Glantz papers

Stanton Arnold Glantz is a professor in the Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, at the University of California, San Francisco, Director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and a well-known anti-tobacco activist and writer. Glantz received the infamous shipment of Brown & Williamson documents from “Mr. Butts”, and thusly published the revelations contained in those documents as The Cigarette Papers.

In 1994, Glantz donated to the UCSF Tobacco Control Archives his research files based on the Brown & Williamson Collection and a small number of other publications, as well as his work  with the Statewide Air Pollution Resource Center (SAPRC). Further additions to this collections have been processed including additional background material and references for The Cigarette Papers, Tobacco War: Inside the California Battles, and recorded interviews with subjects involved in anti-tobacco advocacy and policy making in California and Arizona. These interviews are in the process of being digitized and will later be available on the Internet Archive.

Lecture now online – History, Science, and Art of Ocular Prosthetics

The lecture History, Science, and Art of Ocular Prosthetics given by Robert S. Sherins, MD, in the UCSF Library on May 28th is now available free online.

lecture

This lecture, and the current exhibition on the fifth floor of the library, feature the Danz ocular pathology collection. The beautiful collection of glass eyes was exhibited several times during the past 50 years, however many historic details about this donation were lost. This unique artifact is used to tell the story of family traditions continued through the centuries on two continents. Through partnership with several members of the Danz family – ocularists: Phillip Danz of Sacramento; William Danz of San Francisco; and William Randy Danz of Ridgewood, New Jersey; as well as the author/lecturer, Dr. Robert Sherins, ophthalmologist, UCSF School of Medicine Alumnus Class of 1963; and UCSF archivist, Polina Ilieva, this exhibit demonstrates the evolution of skillful craftsmanship of Müller-Uri and Danz families, as well as the science and art of ocular prosthetics.

Please use this link to view Dr. Sherin’s presentation in full. More information about the story of the Danz collection can be found here.

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.

New Exhibit: Many Faces, One UCSF

Visit the 3rd floor of the UCSF Library and view our new exhibit, Many Faces, One UCSF: Celebrating 150 Years of Innovation, Education, and Care.manyfacesoneucsf_smallposter1

The exhibit is free and open to the public now through May 31, 2016. View rare medical artifacts and unique photographs from our collections and learn how UCSF has pioneered health science education, research, and patient care for over 150 years.

School of Pharmacy case. The exhibit includes cases dedicated to each of the four schools: School of Pharmacy, School of Nursing, School of Medicine, and School of Dentistry

School of Pharmacy case. The exhibit includes cases dedicated to each of the four schools: School of Pharmacy, School of Nursing, School of Medicine, and School of Dentistry

UCSF Educates case. The exhibit includes cases dedicated to the UCSF mission of education, innovation, service, and care.

UCSF Educates case. The exhibit includes cases dedicated to the university’s missions of education, innovation, service, and care.

Visit the companion online exhibit here: Many Faces, One UCSF

We’re excited to share our collections with the public and proud to be a part of UCSF.

Who was Dr.Arthur Guedel?

This is a guest post by Dr. Selma Calmes

Arthur Guedel, MD (1883-1956), was an early anesthesiologist who made many important contributions to the development of anesthesiology.  His papers are now available at UCSF Archives & Special Collections.  Who was Dr. Guedel and why is he important?

Guedel’s early life was difficult.  He was born in Cambridge City, Indiana, and had to leave school at age 13 to help support his family.  A work accident led to the loss of the first three fingers of his right hand—and he was right-handed.  Guedel dreamed of practicing medicine even though he had no high school diploma and no financial resources.  American medical schools had few admission requirements then, and his family physician helped him get into the University of Indiana Medical School.  He graduated in 1908.
Guedel administered his first anesthetics while an intern at Indianapolis City Hospital.  This was a common duty for interns of the time because there were then few physicians interested in anesthesia.  Guedel started a general practice in Indianapolis in 1909 and earned additional income by giving anesthesia in hospitals and dental offices.  He was an exceptional observer, analyzing carefully what might be going on with his anesthetized patients and thinking of possible solutions to the problems.

GUEDEL CHT1

First version of Guedel’s signs of anesthesia

One example of his contributions is his work on the signs of anesthesia.  The various devices that tell us how an anesthetized patients are doing today, such as EKGs, blood pressure devices and pulse oximeters, weren’t available when Guedel began to do anesthesia.   Four stages of anesthesia were accepted:
Stage I: Induction, the start of administration until loss of consciousness
Stage II: Struggling, breath-holding, delirium, from loss of consciousness to onset of surgical anesthesia
Stage III: Surgical anesthesia, characterized by deep, regular, automatic breathing
Stage IV: Bulbar paralysis, irregular breathing, pupils no longer respond to light

Guedel’s contributions were to expand these observations and to look for other physical signs.  He better defined Stage III, the level at which surgery could be done, by further dividing it into four planes and by adding eye signs. This improved patient safety by making clear when the patient was too “deep” and might possibly die from overdose of anesthesia.

GUEDEL PORTRAIT-200

Dr. Arthur Guedel during World War I

The setting for these developments was Guedel’s service with the US Army in WW I in France.  The Army had no anesthesiologists when the US entered the war, and casualties were overwhelming.  After working 72 hours straight along with three other physicians and one dentist, and needing to run as many as 40 operating room tables at a time, Guedel decided additional staff had to be trained.  He developed a school that taught physicians, nurses and orderlies to give anesthesia.  But, how could he help his trainees do safe anesthesia once they left the school?  He prepared a little chart of his version of the signs and stages of ether anesthesia, the most common agent in use at the time and one with a wide margin of safety.  This chart was a visual version of the concepts he had been developing before his Army service.  Armed with their charts, the trainees went out to nearby hospitals to work on their own.  Guedel acquired a motorcycle so he could make weekly rounds of the six hospitals for which he was responsible.  He would roar from hospital to hospital through the deep mud that characterized WW I battlefields, checking on his trainees.  He was known as “the motorcycle anesthetist” of WW I.
After his return to the US in 1919, he presented his chart at meetings.  In 1920, he wrote an article on his signs for the first anesthesia journal. Additional articles appeared in 1935 and 1936 and also in Guedel’s notable book, Inhalation Anesthesia: A Fundamental Guide, published in 1937.

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Dr. Guedel (under the operating room table) and his anesthesia machine in the Zakheim mural. Chauncey Leake is standing above him

In 1929, Dr. Guedel moved from Indianapolis to Los Angeles.  He continued his careful observations and worked to solve important problems.  He collaborated with others, most importantly Dr. Ralph Waters of Madison-Wisconsin (considered the father of academic anesthesiology) and pharmacologist Dr. Chauncey Leake, then UCSF’s chairman of pharmacology.  Guedel would travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco for various research projects at UCSF. He even appears in the Bernard Zakheim murals at UCSF!   The papers now available in the UCSF Archives document many other contributions made by this important anesthesiologist.

Selma Harrison Calmes, MD is a retired anesthesiologist interested in history. A 1965 graduate of Baylor College of Medicine, she trained in anesthesiology at the University of Pennsylvania. She came to UCLA in 1976 as their first pediatric anesthesiologist. In 1988, she became chair of anesthesiology at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. She retired from clinical work in 2007 and now is the Anesthesiology Consultant to the Los Angeles County Coroner.
In 1980, she took a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Fellowship in Medical History at the University of Cincinnati under noted medical historian Dr. Sol Benison. She writes on various aspects of anesthesia history, especially in California, and on the many women who were early leaders in anesthesiology, especially Dr. Virginia Apgar. She co-founded the Anesthesia History Association with Dr. Rod Calverley in 1982 and served as the first editor of their publication, now the Journal of Anesthesia History. She is on the Board of Trustees of the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum and is president of the Guedel Memorial Anesthesia Center Board of Trustees. She appeared in the National Library of Medicine’s 2003-2005 exhibit on women in medicine, “Changing the Face of Medicine” and is listed in their biographic dictionary.

Arthur E. Guedel Anesthesia Collection transferred to UCSF archives

The UCSF archives would like to announce the acquisition of the Arthur E. Guedel Anesthesia Collection. The agreement to transfer these unique materials of high research value that will complement existing archival holding was signed by the Arthur E. Guedel Memorial Anesthesia Center Board of Trustees and the UCSF Library last March. This extensive collection contains more than 40 linear feet of personal papers, rare books on the history and development of anesthesia, journals and artifacts, including anesthesia equipment and unique collection of artifacts from Richard Gill’s journey into Ecuador to collect curare, as well as audio-visual materials.

Drs. Merlin Larson and Selma Calmes

Drs. Merlin Larson and Selma Calmes signing the agreement to transfer the Arthur E. Guedel Anesthesia Collection to the UCSF Archives & Special Collections, March 2015

The Arthur E. Guedel Memorial Anesthesia Center was founded in 1963 by a small group of anesthesiologists who were interested in preserving the history of their specialty. The center is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Arthur E. Guedel, a pioneer of modern anesthesiology on the West Coast. For many years it was housed in the Health Sciences Library at California Pacific Medical Center and we are grateful to our colleagues there, in particular Anne Shew, director of the Health Sciences Library for an outstanding stewardship of these materials. The personal papers have detailed finding aids and after they are moved to the UCSF library later this summer, they will be made accessible to the visitors in the archives reading room. The reminder of the collection will be transferred to archives after removing duplicate material within a year. The Guedel collection materials will be incorporated into UCSF library catalog and archival collections finding aids describing the contents of personal papers will be added to the Online Archive of California. At the conclusion of the transfer, a Guedel collection digital portal describing history and materials in the collection will be built by the archives and linked to the UCSF Department of Anesthesia website.
Dr. Selma Calmes, retired Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology at UCLA and president of the Guedel Board of Trustees, noted in her 2004 article that Dr. Chauncey Leake, Professor of Pharmacology at UCSF was a person with strong ties to anesthesia and was instrumental in naming and organizing the center: “He suggested dedicating it to the memory of the only pioneer of modern anesthesia on the West Coast, Dr. Arthur Guedel of Los Angeles. Leake had been good friends with Guedel, who often visited UCSF to do research.” (1) The UCSF archives is the home of the Leake papers (as well as collection of rare books on anesthesia) and the addition of the Guedel collection will reunite these resources. It includes the papers and correspondence of several pioneers in the field on anesthesia, in particular, Richard C. Gill, Drs. Ralph Waters, Abram Elting Bennett, William Neff, and Arthur E. Guedel.

We would like to express our gratitude to the Guedel Board and in particular Drs. John Severinghaus, Merlin Larson, and Selma Calmes. Tomorrow we will be publishing a guest post written by Dr. Calmes and in the next year are planning to share updates about the transfer of the collection to UCSF, as well as showcase its treasures.
1.    Calmes, Selma. “The History of the Arthur E. Guedel Memorial Anesthesia Center.” California Society of Anesthesiologists Bulletin. 2004 July-September; 53 (3): 71-72.