Dental Department Buried Treasure

Last week we looked at the Dental Department “Earthquake Class” of 1906. This week we have another unique dentistry story. It involves feuding faculty, buried treasure, and a surprise discovery!

The Dental Department / College of Dentistry of the University of California was established in 1881. San Francisco practitioner Samuel W. Dennis, MD, DDS, was instrumental in its founding; he gathered support from Medical Department faculty, corresponded with other dental programs in the country to create a curriculum, and recruited dental instructors. He served as the first dean of the school from 1881-1882 and was later reappointed, serving from 1883-1885.

Samuel W. Dennis

Samuel W. Dennis

Disagreements concerning curriculum and the school’s administration quickly developed between Dennis and his fellow dental faculty members. Tensions continued to mount for the next fifteen years until a disgruntled Dennis left the college in 1896.

First faculty of the Dental Department, 1882. AR 2015-4 SOD records

First faculty of the Dental Department, 1882. AR 2015-4 SOD records, box 1

When Dennis left, he took with him a number of the school’s early records, including receipts, announcements, lecture notes, and examples of course requirements and examinations. Apparently, he then buried the material in a lead box under a grove of eucalyptus trees in South San Francisco. When Dennis died in 1906 (some accounts say 1907) he had never revealed the exact location of the records.

From the "Treasure Chest" contents: Anatomy test, 1891. AR 2015-4 SOD records, box 1

From the “Treasure Chest” contents: Anatomy test, 1891. AR 2015-4 SOD records, box 1

In 1929, as workers were excavating an area on which the Bayshore Highway was to be constructed, they uncovered a heavy box. Inside they found old documents labeled “Dental Department of the University of California.” Luckily, one of the workers recognized the potential value of the discovery and returned the material to the university. Dean Guy S. Millberry began investigating the papers and came to the conclusion that they had to be the missing Dennis material.

From the "Treasure Chest" contents: Freshman student course requirements, undated

From the “Treasure Chest” contents: Freshman student course requirements, undated. AR 2015-4 SOD records, box 1

The box came to be known as the “Treasure Chest.” Today, the box and its surviving contents are housed in the UCSF Archives and Special Collections as part of the School of Dentistry records, AR 2015-4.

– Sources for this post include a 1997 School of Dentistry history booklet titled “The Early Days,” published by the University of California. The booklet is available to researchers in the School of Dentistry records, AR 2015-4.

Dentistry “Earthquake Class” of 1906

On April 18, 1906, a massive earthquake struck San Francisco. UC facilities in the city sustained serious damage, including the destruction of the clinical teaching lab of the School of Dentistry (then called the College of Dentistry / Dental Department). As the college began to reestablish teaching activities following the disaster, dentistry faculty considered how best to manage the would-be graduating class of 1906.

College of Dentistry class of 1906. AR 2015-4 SOD records

College of Dentistry class of 1906. AR 2015-4 SOD records

Though further instruction immediately following the earthquake was not possible and many of the department’s student records were destroyed, the faculty ultimately decided to recommend the class of 1906 for graduation. As Dentistry Dean and Professor Guy S. Millberry noted in his key to the class photograph, the students “graduated after the Earthquake April 18 without examination.”

Guy Millberry key to the "earthquake class" photo, 1906. AR 2015-4 SOD records

Guy Millberry key to the 1906 “earthquake class” photo. AR 2015-4 SOD records

Look closely at the class photograph above and you’ll notice a surprising detail: a skull in the second row (click on the image to enlarge). Millberry even includes a sketch of the skull in his key, noting its identity is unknown.

Click here to learn more about how the Affiliated Colleges (later UCSF) responded to the earthquake. The School of Dentistry records, AR 2015-4, include a number of early dentistry photographs and historical documents. Please contact us if you would like to view the material.

Recent donation: 1929 School of Pharmacy class photograph

We recently received a great image of the School of Pharmacy (then called the California College of Pharmacy) class of 1929. It was donated by Carol J. Matteson, daughter of alumna May Elizabeth Jennings. Jennings is pictured in the third row from the top; click on the image to enlarge.

California College of Pharmacy class of 1929

California College of Pharmacy class of 1929

We are so thankful for the wonderful UCSF alumni community and its continued support. Donations like this help build the archives and preserve the history of UCSF.

To learn more about the School of Pharmacy in the 1920s, check out material in our digital collections:

Quick Guide to Research Tools

Summer is officially here and with it comes research trips! Whether you are set on visiting the UCSF Archives and Special Collections or just getting started on your plans, the UCSF Library has a number of tools that can help. Take a look at the following list and please contact us if you have any questions.

Search for archival material and rare books:

View archival material and special collections online:

Access and Services:

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.

Children in line in front of the Mobile Dental clinic, 1966

Children in line in front of the Mobile Dental Clinic, 1966. Photograph collection

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.

Inside the Mobile Dental Clinic, 1974

Inside the Mobile Dental Clinic, 1974. Photograph collection

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.

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.

New Exhibit: The Radiologic Imaging Laboratory Archive

Visionary Bioengineering: The Radiologic Imaging Laboratory Archive                       UCSF Library, 530 Parnassus Avenue, 3rd floor, San Francisco, CA                             Now through May 2016                                                                                                   Free and open to the public during library hours

Image of MRI scan prepared for scientific publications and sales meetings, circa 1985, RIL records, MSS 2002-08

Image of MRI scan prepared for scientific publications and sales meetings, circa 1985, RIL records, MSS 2002-08

Come visit the UCSF Library and view our “sneak peek” exhibit on the history of the Radiologic Imaging Laboratory (RIL). The RIL was founded in the late 1970s by a team of UCSF scientists and engineers. The team’s goal was to create a clinically viable diagnostic tool using nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, later called MRI. Over the course of 25 years, the lab developed innovative MRI technology that transformed the way doctors diagnose and treat patients worldwide.

RIL graduate student researcher Tim Mills with imaging machine, 1986, Photograph collection

RIL graduate student researcher Tim Mills with imaging machine, 1986, Photograph collection

View images and original documents from the RIL records and learn how the lab combined entrepreneurship and biotechnology research. Join us again in the coming year for the full exhibit where we’ll further explore the RIL’s growth and technological discoveries.

Researchers and technicians Lawrence Crooks, Bob McCree, Ian Duff, and Roger Littlewood, circa 1981, Photograph collection

Researchers and technicians Lawrence Crooks, Bob McCree, Ian Duff, and Roger Littlewood in laboratory, circa 1981, Photograph collection

We’re excited to share this archive with the public. To learn more about using the RIL records (MSS 2002-08) for research, contact the UCSF Archives and Special Collections.

Exploring the Archives for 150: Attend a $3 course, circa 1879

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!

Check out the course registration process for UC Medical Department student Felix Bettelheim in 1878 and 1879. Forms included lecture admission tickets to courses in anatomy and surgery. The back of the tickets would be signed by the professor as a way to track attendance.

Lecture admission ticket, 1879, ArchClass H152

Lecture admission ticket, 1879, ArchClass H152

Lecture admission card, 1878, ArchClass H152

Lecture admission ticket, 1878, ArchClass H152

Note Hugh Toland’s name as instructor of surgery. Toland founded Toland Medical College in 1864 and later deeded the school to the UC. His gift created the UC Medical Department and paved the way for the establishment of UCSF.

Lecture admission ticket, 1878, ArchClass H152

Lecture admission ticket to Toland’s course, 1878, ArchClass H152

Bettelheim received certificates for completing dissection courses. According to a note in the collection, tickets to dissection courses were closely monitored to “prevent the morbidly curious from attending.”

Dissection certificate, 1879, ArchClass H152

Dissection certificate, 1879, ArchClass H152

Bettelheim’s tuition looked a bit different than today. As noted in the receipt, it cost $3 to attend the assigned course of study. Bettelheim graduated in 1880, we hope debt free!

Course receipt, 1879, ArchClass H152

Course receipt, 1879, ArchClass H152

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.

WF Sharp, Photograph Collection

WF Sharp, Photograph collection, undated

Above, Sharp with dental prostheses, undated.

WF Sharp, Photograph collection, 1906

WF Sharp’s office, operating room, April 18, 1906.

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WF Sharp, Photograph collection, 1906

Sharp in his office, April 18, 1906.

Women’s History Month – Ellen Brown

In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re spotlighting a few of the many talented and trailblazing women who have been important in the history of UCSF and you may not have heard of before.

Today, read a little about the remarkable life and career of Ellen Brown, MD. We are fortunate to have Brown’s manuscript collection, MSS 87-42, and her oral history in the UCSF Archives & Special Collections.

Ellen Brown was born in San Francisco in 1912. She and her older brother Fred were raised by her parents, Warner and Jessie Brown, in Berkeley. Jessie was a high school teacher and botanist and Warner was a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley. Fred died at the age of 16 of respiratory complications of polio. His death had a lasting impact on Brown– she dreamed of becoming a doctor as a child.

photocoll_portraits_brown_1939

Ed Fong, Tesauro, and Brown in June, 1939.

Brown attended University High School in Oakland and went on to study at the University of California Berkeley, graduating with a bachelors degree in 1934. She continued to the UC Medical School’s San Francisco campus and graduated with her medical degree in 1939. In a class of  63 students, she was one of a handful of women.

Following graduation, Brown became chief resident under William J. Kerr, UC Chair of Medicine, from 1939-1943. The two worked closely for years– prioritizing cardiovascular research at UCSF. Brown helped to found the , which opened in 1958. Kerr was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI), procuring the space on the 13th floor of Moffitt Hospital and funding from both UCSF and the National Heart Institute. The CVRI opened in 1958 with Brown as a co-founder and, later, a senior staff member. (Check out some of the CVRI’s milestones here.)

photocoll_portraits_brown_harvard1946

Ellen Brown at Harvard Medical School, 1946

Brown’s academic appointment at UCSF began with clinical instructor, 1943-1944, moved to associate professor, 1946-1959, and became professor of medicine in 1959. In 1944-1946 she was a Commonwealth Fund fellow in the Department of Physiology at Harvard Medical School (see photo above) and in 1958 she was a Guggenheim Fellow at Oxford University.

Brown operated a lab on campus for peripheral vascular research though the 1960s and 1970s. Concurrently, she worked on improving teaching techniques in predoctoral medical classes, initiating the “Introduction to Clinical Medicine” course and later serving as a residency evaluator for the School of Medicine.

This quote, from Brown’s oral history, demonstrates her zeal for education, enthusiasm for change in curriculum, and sense of humor: “The wonderful thing was how interested all these people in the non-medicine departments were. An ophthalmologist would sit down with a bunch of absolute nerds, and come and do that, four or five times, and teach them. The hardest thing to learn to do is to see in an ophthalmoscope. It is for most doctors. It’s one of the last things you feel comfortable about. That and a pelvic exam, I guess.”

Over the course of her illustrious career, Brown’s research interests included capillary pressure and permeability, blood volume and vascular capacity, cardiac failure, cardiac complications of pregnancy, and peripheral circulation in relation to pain syndromes and vascular diseases.

photocoll_portraits_brown_sanfrancisco1960

Brown on Edgewood Ave behind the CVRI on May 29, 1960.

When Brown officially retired from UCSF in 1979, she became a professor emeritus of medicine. Ten years later, in 1989, Brown received UCSF’s highest honor, the UCSF Medal, for outstanding personal contributions to the University’s health sciences mission.

photocoll_portraits_brown_2

Brown and Francis Sooy, UCSF Chancellor 1972-1982, at the time of her retirement.

 

Brown passed away in October of 2006 at the age of 96. At that time, she gifted over $100,000 to the UCSF School of Medicine for the improvement of teaching for medical students.

Browns’ numerous contributions over the course of fifty plus years can still be felt today– through her impact on cardiovascular research as well as her in her insight and refinement of medical education.

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