Tag Archives: pamphlets

J. Michael Bishop Papers Online

Posted on by
Reply

We are pleased to announce that the J. Michael Bishop Papers digital collection is now available publicly on Calisphere.org. Bishop is a Nobel Prize-winning researcher and UCSF Chancellor Emeritus. The digital collection features hundreds of pages of material and photographs selected from Bishop’s papers housed in the UCSF Archives and Special Collections (MSS 2007-21).

J. Michael Bishop college portrait, Gettysburg College, circa 1955. MSS 2007-21, box 1, folder 4.

J. Michael Bishop college portrait, Gettysburg College, circa 1955. MSS 2007-21, box 1, folder 4.

J. Michael Bishop portrait with molecular model, circa 2000. MSS 2007-21, case D, folder 1.

J. Michael Bishop portrait with molecular model, circa 2000. MSS 2007-21, case D, folder 1.

J. Michael Bishop, MD, joined the UCSF faculty in 1968. He was appointed director of the GW Hooper Research Foundation in 1981 and named UCSF Chancellor in 1998, a post he held until 2009. He continues to serve as Hooper’s director and as professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

J. Michael Bishop email to Harold Varmus regarding Bishop's University of California, San Francisco Chancellor appointment, 1998-02-06. MSS 2007-21, carton 18, folder 43.

J. Michael Bishop email to Harold Varmus regarding Bishop’s University of California, San Francisco Chancellor appointment, 1998-02-06. MSS 2007-21, carton 18, folder 43.

In 1989, Bishop and his research partner, Harold Varmus, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in cancer research. Bishop and Varmus discovered the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes. Their work helped clarify the processes that convert normal cellular genes into cancer genes and impacted our understanding of the genesis of human cancer.

J. Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus at Nobel Shindig, a county-western themed dinner party given by Varmus and Bishop in celebration of their Nobel Prize award in Physiology or Medicine; held at DeMarco's 23 Club, Brisbane, California, 1989. MSS 2007-21, carton 8, folder 41.

J. Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus at Nobel Shindig, a county-western themed dinner party given by Varmus and Bishop in celebration of their Nobel Prize award; held at DeMarco’s 23 Club, Brisbane, California, 1989. MSS 2007-21, carton 8, folder 41.

The digital collection features selections from Bishop’s laboratory research notebooks and professional papers, including article drafts, correspondence with other scientists, and teaching and lecture material. Also included are photographs and draft figures created by Bishop for his publications.

Purification of Annealed Product Gd RNA graphs. Selected page from a laboratory research binder of J. Michael Bishop, circa 1970. MSS 2007-21, carton 18, folder 3.

Purification of Annealed Product Gd RNA graphs. Selected page from a laboratory research binder of J. Michael Bishop, circa 1970. MSS 2007-21, carton 18, folder 3.

The Life Cycle of Rous Sarcoma Virus diagram drawing (1) by J. Michael Bishop; created for Bishop's article "Oncogenes" published in Scientific American, 1982. mss200721_2_2_sciamerican1.

The Life Cycle of Rous Sarcoma Virus diagram drawing (1) by J. Michael Bishop; created for Bishop’s article “Oncogenes” published in Scientific American, 1982. MSS 2007-21, carton 2, folder 2.

You can view the digital collection on Calisphere.org. If you would like to visit the UCSF Archives and work with the complete physical collection, please check out the detailed inventory available on the Online Archive of California and make an appointment with us.

Processing the Papers of Nobel Laureate J. Michael Bishop

Posted on by
Reply

We are processing the papers of J. Michael Bishop, Nobel Prize-winning scientist and UCSF Chancellor Emeritus. The project will produce a detailed finding aid for the collection and a digital collection of selected material.

J. Michael Bishop

J. Michael Bishop

J. Michael Bishop, MD, joined the UCSF faculty in 1968. He was appointed director of the GW Hooper Research Foundation in 1981 and named UCSF Chancellor in 1998, a post he held until 2009. He continues to serve as Hooper’s director and as professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

In 1989, Bishop and his research colleague, Harold Varmus, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in cancer research. Bishop and Varmus discovered the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes. Their work helped clarify the processes that convert normal cellular genes into cancer genes and impacted our understanding of the genesis of human cancer.

Bishop and Varmus. Photograph Collection, Bishop.

Bishop and Varmus in laboratory. Photograph Collection, Bishop.

Bishop’s papers (MSS 2007-21) contain his laboratory research notebooks and professional papers, including article drafts, correspondence with other scientists, and teaching and lecture material. Also included are drafts and figures from Bishop’s autobiographical book, How to Win the Nobel Prize: An Unexpected Life in Science.

Handwritten wager between UC Berkeley faculty member Mike Botchan and Art Levinson, Bishop's staff scientist at the time. Figure included in Bishop's book, How to Win the Nobel Prize. Exhibit files, Bishop.

1983 wager between UC Berkeley faculty member Mike Botchan and Arthur Levinson, Bishop’s staff scientist at the time. Figure included in Bishop’s book, How to Win the Nobel Prize. Exhibit files, Bishop papers, MSS 2007-21.

Group photograph of California Nobel Prize winners with family members and dogs. Exhibit files, Bishop.

Group photograph of California Nobel Prize winners with family members and dogs, 1998. Bishop pictured at center. Exhibit files, Bishop papers, MSS 2007-21.

The collection even includes replicas of Varmus and Bishop’s Nobel Prize medals!

Replicas of Varmus and Bishop Nobel Prize medals. MSS 2007-21.

Replicas of Varmus and Bishop Nobel Prize medals. MSS 2007-21.

The UCSF Archives and Special Collections also houses the papers of Harold E. Varmus (MSS 93-51, MSS 84-25, and MSS 88-47). Please contact us if you would like to view any of these collections.

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

Posted on by
1

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.

mark_honigsbaum

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.

Vegetarianism and Raw Food in the 1930s

Posted on by
1

Many of us would assume that the vegetarian diets and other trends in eating one hears of so often lately are a more recent fad– a preoccupation brought on by modern life. Or, especially for those of us in the San Francisco Bay Area, we’d perhaps date them to the 1970s. However, a pamphlet from the George Williams Hooper Foundation Administrative Records, 1882-1958, collection number AR 59-1, shows us that like many ideas, vegetarianism has been around longer than we have.

The following issue of The Vegetarian and Fruitarian from March 1932, published in Lewiston, Idaho, promotes ethics, ideals, culture, health, and longevity. It describes itself as “a fund of information as to ethical and physical reasons for choosing meatless foods– for an argument or debate this booklet fits in nicely– giving ammunition for proving that vegetarianism is sound and logical.”

The Vegetarian and Fruitarian, March 1932

The Vegetarian and Fruitarian, March 1932

At the time, the vegetarian and raw food movements were, in part, tied to feminism. It was viewed as a way to free women from the confines of the kitchen and allow them to pursue other activities and interests. Notice the brief article “Vegetarian Soups for the Hurried Housewife” below on page 16. In the lower right hand corner of page 17, “Places to Visit When in Los Angeles” recommends raw food living “if you are wedded to the cook pot and would like to know of something different.” Similar to various lifestyle publications and articles today, it goes on to advise a vegetarian-friendly guest house in the area. Other vegetarian recipes appear across both pages such as Mock Hamburger– the parenthetical note for which is particularly interesting.

The Vegetarian and Fruitarian, March 1932. Hooper Administrative Records, AR 59-1.

The Vegetarian and Fruitarian, March 1932, page 16 and 17. Hooper Administrative Records, AR 59-1.

Pages 14 and 15 give voice to two other current food and health trends that have history in the early 20th century– carbohydrates as devil and raw food. A Texas subscriber wrote in that she believed that the raw food diet had cured a number of her family’s ailments, including one of her daughter’s bad tonsils. The article on page 15, “Lowly Spud Seeks Help,” attempts to make a case for the healthfulness of potatoes to help bolster decreasing potato sales. It says, “Women have a mistaken idea. Potatoes, it is claimed, do not round out the figure.”

The Vegetarian and Fruitarian, March 1932, page 14 and 15.

The Vegetarian and Fruitarian, March 1932, page 14 and 15. Hooper Administrative Records, AR 59-1.

For more information on the George Williams Hooper Foundation please see a brief history of the organization on the UCSF History Website and their current website. I’d also like to point you toward the post on Slate’s The Vault blog about 19th Century Vegetarian Personal Ads, which I found quite interesting.