Monthly Archives: October 2017

Archives Open Houses

Posted on by
1

October is coming to a close, and with it our Archives Month festivities, but we still have two open houses in the next week for those who would like to come and check out our reading room and some of our materials:

On Saturday, October 28th, we are participating in the San Francisco Archives Crawl, and our reading room will be open from noon until 5pm. On display will be materials from our collections that document counterculture and protest movements, including records from the UCSF Black Caucus, AIDS History Project materials, and selections from the Tobacco Control Archives.

On Monday, October 30th, we will be holding our 2nd annual Halloween Open House from noon until 3pm, where we will showcase some of our “spooky” holdings. This event is being held in conjunction with the Library Maker’s Lab Halloween event, and we will have a button maker available on the 5th floor for those who would like to create Halloween-themed buttons and magnets based upon materials in our collections.

One of the objects on display for our Halloween Open House is our 1883 edition of the Heinrich Hoffmann children’s book, Der Struwwelpeter (or Shockheaded Peter). The book itself is well-known for its collection of rhyming allegories about the dangers of children misbehaving, such as our title character pictured below, who is named Peter and has some shockingly bad grooming habits.

Bound with our copy of Der Struwwelpeter is an adaption of the same work from 1882 by an Obstetrical-Gynecological society that was evidently distributed at a society dinner. Frighteningly, whoever decided to do the adaption chose to focus on childhood disease, instead of misbehavior, and illustrate each disease with it’s own drawing. Even the “normal child” pictured below is a bit unsettling!

New Donald P. Francis Digital Collection

Posted on by
Reply

We’re highlighting the new digital collection of Donald P. Francis, CDC epidemiologist, pediatrician, and AIDS public health advocate. The digital collection includes selections from the Francis papers (MSS 2015-01) that we recently processed with the generous support of a National Archives NHPRC grant.

Francis grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended the University of California, Berkeley. He received his MD from Northwestern University, his Doctor of Science from Harvard University, and completed training in pediatrics. In 1971 he joined the CDC, where he continued to work for the next 21 years. At the CDC, he worked on a number of projects in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO), including the Smallpox Eradication Program in Sudan and India. He was also part of the WHO team that investigated the first Ebola outbreak in 1976.

Francis began investigating HIV/AIDS after its emergence in 1981. He directed the AIDS laboratory at the CDC and worked closely with the Institut Pasteur to identify the causative virus. He called attention to the threat of AIDS among gay and straight people and warned of the inadequacy of the public health response and lack of funding. As he stated in a 1983 letter to CDC Center for Infectious Diseases Director Walter R. Dowdle, “Our past and present efforts have been and are far too small and we can’t be proud. It is time to do more. It is time to do what is right.”

In 1992, Francis joined Genentech and helped found what became the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). Francis later co-founded VaxGen, which completed the world’s first Phase III trials of two candidate HIV vaccines in 2003. In 2004, Francis co-founded Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases (GSID) and he continues to consult regarding vaccines and public health.

You can view the digital collection on Calisphere. If you would like to research the Francis papers, please make an appointment with us.

New Faces in Archives: Fall 2017

Posted on by
Reply

Starting this fall we will be hosting two new volunteers: Edith Martinez and Seth Cotterell.

Edith Martinez

Edith will be working with Kelsi Evans and assisting with processing collections in the NHPRC grant, Evolution of San Francisco’s Response to a Public Health Crisis: Providing Access to New AIDS History Collections, an expansion of the AIDS History Project.

She is a graduate student at Wayne State University concentrating in Archival Administration. Edith graduated from San Jose State University with a BA in History. While at SJSU, she volunteered at History San Jose where she got interested in archives. Previously she interned with the Santa Clara County Archives and helped with the Santa Clara County Fair photo project. Currently she works at the Redwood City Public Library as a Library Assistant and enjoys helping patrons. Edith was born and raised in Santa Clara, in her spare time she enjoys gardening, baking, and trying new cuisines.

Seth Cotterell

Seth completed a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University in 2011, but has been working in another career field ever since. He’s excited to get back into a field that aligns with his passions and is eager to refresh and enhance his on-the-job understanding of archival standards and best practices, learn new archives management systems, and utilize other archives technologies. He will assist the archives staff with collection processing, cataloging, digitization, outreach, and other projects.

Originally from Boise, Idaho, where he earned undergraduate degrees in English Literature and Business Management, Seth moved to San Francisco in 2001. Hobbies include reading, stop motion animation, and nature walks. He lives with his husband and one fur baby.

Lecture: 50 Years of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics

Posted on by
Reply

Date: Friday, October 6, 2017
Time: 12 pm – 1:15 pm
Lecturer: David E. Smith, MD
Location: Lange Room, 5th Floor, UCSF Library – Parnassus
530 Parnassus Ave, SF, CA 94143

This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.
REGISTRATION REQUIRED: http://calendars.library.ucsf.edu/event/3555516

 

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. Born in the Summer of Love, the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, founded by UCSF alumni David E. Smith, MD, and staffed by volunteer medical providers from UCSF, celebrated its 50th anniversary on June 7, 2017.

Join Dr. Smith as he tells the story of the clinic’s founding and the 1960’s Haight-Ashbury luminaries who kept the clinic alive in its early days. He will discuss the clinic’s role in the birth of addiction medicine as a specialty, and the lessons the free clinic movement holds for healthcare reform efforts in the 21st century.

David E. Smith, MD, founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics

David E. Smith, MD, is a medical doctor specializing in addiction medicine, the psycho-pharmacology of drugs, new research strategies in the management of drug abuse problems, and proper prescribing practices for physicians. He is the Founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics of San Francisco.

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.

#AskAnArchivist Day – October 4

Posted on by
Reply

October 4th is Ask An Archivist Day! We’ll be diligently tending our Twitter account (@ucsf_archives) and responding to questions about our collections, our jobs, or anything else to do with the stewardship of historical material. Tag your questions with #AskAnArchivist to join the conversation.

For example, you could ask:

Have you found any interesting ephemera or artifacts in the AIDS History Project collections? #AskAnArchivist

And we’d say:

Yes, lots. For instance, the papers of epidemiologist Donald Francis include a 12th World AIDS Conference condom and Stop AIDS t-shirt.

12th World AIDS Conference condom, 1998. Donald P. Francis papers, MSS 2015-01.

Stop AIDS t-shirt. Donald P. Francis papers, MSS 2015-01.

#AskAnArchivist Day is part of our October Archives Month programming. Learn more about other upcoming events here.