Our extensive Historical Photograph Collection includes some really fascinating images. Check out these from the UCSF Radiology Department.
Category Archives: photographs
Highlights from the Photograph Collection – Lost on the Shelf
You never know what you’re going to find in an archives office. While the idealized vision is probably a mirror-image of the storage vault, with its neat rows of gray manuscript boxes and acid-free record cartons, this is almost never the case. Any flat surface can become a not-so-temporary resting place for the odd accession or accrual, or the item that was removed from its collection for research or exhibit, but has yet to find its way back to its proper housing.
This photograph of an early 20th-century surgical procedure was found a few weeks ago on top of one of our many filing cabinets. Who knows how it ended up there—or how long it had been waiting to be found again. Luckily, it carried a notation that it was from the Julius Comroe collection and the carton dedicated to illustrations for his book, Exploring the Heart. Looking at his notes, it is evident that Comroe had intended to use this photograph as the first illustration in his chapter on open heart surgery, but had later opted to use the Thomas Eakins painting, “The Agnew Clinic,” instead. Unfortunately there are no other notations or attributions on the photograph or its folder to tell us more about it, but at least this orphan work has found its way home—and we were given this opportunity to share it.
“A Winter Wonderland”
When recently asked whether the archives had any pictures of snow in San Francisco, one of my colleagues mentioned that she had seen a folder that mentioned snow in our photograph collection. We were able to track it down pretty quickly, and sure enough, the title of the folder was: “San Francisco—Some Snow, 1930s.” Quickly thumbing through the prints, I found this breathtaking photograph of the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, with snow on the Marin Headlands in the background.
It is fairly rare that I answer a reference question so quickly—and with such stunning results. But had I really? Trying to determine an approximate date for the image, I looked up the dates for the major snow storms in San Francisco (which was easy, considering there were only four during the 20th century) and cross-referenced it with the construction of the bridge. The only snow storm in San Francisco during the 1930s was on December 11, 1932—almost a full month before construction began on the bridge on January 5, 1933.
Disappointed, but also a little intrigued, I looked at some of the other “snow” images in the folder. This one, which appears to be of the Marin Headlands as well, with the city in the foreground, had the following caption on back: “Looking North: When the cold wind doth blow, we sell this for a snow picture. Infrared.”
The mystery was solved when I took a peek at the verso of another “snow” picture. This one was taken with a telescopic lens from the Dean’s office of the UCSF School of Dentistry, and showed downtown San Francisco with the Berkeley Hills in the background. The image was dated March 8, 1934.
A scan and transcription of the anonymous photographer’s description of how he or she was able to turn the Bay Area into a winter wonderland at the beginning of March is below. Evidently the infrared plates used in taking the image turned the “bright green grassy slopes of early spring” into what appeared to be snowy peaks. Unfortunately, this meant that we didn’t have any photographs of snow readily available, but at least it made for a fun little search.
The Nutcracker Visits UCSF Pediatrics
We’re bringing you some holiday cheer courtesy of the San Francisco Ballet! In December 1974, dancers in SF Ballet’s 30th anniversary performance of The Nutcracker visited patients in the pediatric wards of Moffitt Hospital, UCSF Medical Center. The performers danced and distributed nutcracker dolls and posters to patients.
Ballerina Diana Weber, as the Sugar Plum Fairy, chatted with patients and performed with the Rat King.
Other characters from the show joined in too, including one of the Rat King’s minions.
To learn more about the event and UCSF Pediatrics in the 1970s, check out this original press release available in our digital collections on HathiTrust.
UCSF Archives on Tumblr
We’re always looking for new ways to share our material, so we’ve joined Tumblr! View photographs, artifacts, rare documents, and more from our collections. If you’re a Tumblr user, follow us and share our posts
Tumblr is a microblogging platform and social networking website. It allows users to follow other blogs and share their own content. Check us out at ucsfarchives.tumblr.com.
UCSF Mobile Dental Clinic
We’re spotlighting two images of the Mobile Dental Clinic on display now in our exhibit Many Faces, One UCSF at the UCSF Library.
The UCSF Mobile Dental Clinic program originated in the mid-1960s. Led by dental faculty including Dr. Marvin Stark, the program provided care to underserved communities in California. Today, the Mobile Dental Clinic’s tradition of service continues with the School of Dentistry externships, a program that provides practical training for dental students and patient care to California’s rural and underserved communities.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Mobile Dental Clinic treated patients in California’s Central Valley, including migrant farm workers and their children. Dentists, students, and other health care professionals traveled from site to site in buses outfitted with equipment and supplies.
The work of Mobile Dental Clinic practitioners inspired students, including UCSF Dental Alumni Association Medal of Honor winner Nelson Artiga-Diaz. Artiga-Diaz would later become Assistant Dean for Community Clinics and help build the externship program.
Learn more about Artiga-Diaz and the UCSF School of Dentistry externship program here.
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:
- MSS 2014-15 Bernard Zakheim collection, 1918-2008
- MSS 2014-04 NCNMLG records, 1985-2012
- MSS 2014-12 John S. Wellington papers, 1931-1990
- AR 2014-22 UCSF Department of Pediatrics photograph collection, 1960-2014
- AR 2014-20 Fetal Treatment Center records, 1990-2003
- AR 2014-03 OB/GYN Depart. records, 1944-1974
- MSS 2014-17 Helen Fahl Gofman papers, 1940-2004
- MSS 2013-03 Laurie Garrett papers, 1970-2013
- MSS 87-37 Anselm L Strauss papers, 1975-1999 (added new accession)
- OH 2013-27 Physician Book Collectors of the Bay Area oral histories, 1985-1986
- MSS 2014-19 Melvin M. Grumbach papers, 1956-1987
- MSS 98-51 Constance Wofsy papers, 1980-1991
- AR 2014-27 UCSF Dept of Pediatrics records, 1954-1955
- AR 91-19 Sixth International Conference on AIDS records, 1988-1990
- AR 2014-30 UCSF School of Medicine, Undergraduate Medical Education (UME), Medical Student Services Records
- AR 2014-33 UCSF SOM, Dean’s Office, Medical Education
The following collections have inventories or finding aids on the Online Archive of California:
- MSS 2001-05, GASP (Group to Alleviate Smoking Pollution) of Colorado Records
- MSS 2000-19, Carol Stoughton Papers
- MSS 2009-15, David Powers photograph collection
- MSS 2014-15, Bernard Zakheim collection
- MSS 2014-17 Helen Fahl Gofman papers
- MSS 2001-33 Donna Shimp Papers and Environmental Improvement Associates Records
- MSS 2003-06 American Legacy Foundation (ALF) records
- AR 2014-30 UCSF School of Medicine, Undergraduate Medical Education (UME), Medical Student Services Records
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.
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.
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.
Professor of Prosthodontia photographs, early 1900s
William Fuller Sharp, DMD, DDS, was the first alumni of the Dental Department of the Affiliated Colleges of the University of California (later UCSF School of Dentistry) to be placed on the faculty– where he remained for over fifty years. Sharp joined the school as an instructor in 1894, later becoming Professor of Mechanical Dentistry in 1899, Professor of Prosthetic Dentistry, Professor of Clinical Prosthodontia, and Professor of Prosthodontia, Emeritus in 1921. Sharp served as Acting Dean from 1926-1927 while Guy S. Millberry was on leave.
Above, Sharp with dental prostheses, undated.
WF Sharp’s office, operating room, April 18, 1906.
Sharp in his office, April 18, 1906.
Happy National Library Week!
In observance of this lovely celebratory week, we bring you a few images of UCSF Library staff and librarians in their natural habitat from the 1950s.
Above, the entrance way to the old UCSF Library, in the Medical Sciences building, in 1959. Check out our previous post that expands a bit on the history of that library.
Tidying the current periodicals section in the 1950s.
Librarians of the Catalog Department (note card catalogs in the background) in the fall of 1958.