Anatomy and Surgery Instruction on Halloween

As Halloween approaches, we thought it’d be a perfect time to highlight these 19th-century UC Medical Department surgery and anatomy lecture admission tickets, dated October 31, 1878!

Lecture admission card, 1878, ArchClass H152

Anatomy lecture admission ticket, 1878. Archives Classification H152.

The UC Medical Department tracked attendance and enrollment using lecture admission cards. Note that the lecture on clinical surgery was given by Hugh Toland. This is the same Hugh Toland who gifted his medical school to the University of California in 1873, thus creating what would eventually be the UCSF School of Medicine.

Lecture admission ticket, 1878, ArchClass H152

Clinical surgery lecture admission ticket, 1878. Archives Classification H152.

While these tickets were originally designed for academic use, they now look tailor-made for Halloween party invitations!

Students performing dissection in University of California Medical College, 1896. Photograph collection, T, Toland Medical College interior.

Students performing dissection in University of California Medical College, 1896. Photograph Collection.

For more spooky fun in the archives, join us Monday, October 31, for a Halloween Open House in the Archives.