A celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Moody Medical Library building featuring photographs, a program, a rare book, and an article from its dedication ceremony in 1972.
Treasure of the Month display materials were purchased with funds provided by the South Central Academic Medical Libraries Consortium (SCAMeL) Speedy Startups Award (2022).
A few items from the Louis Pasteur Collection, over 200 items that either belonged to Pasteur or relate to his works. The display includes a handwritten letter, a publication of his very early work on crystals, and a publication of his later work on the rabies vaccine.
A collection of handwritten letters from 1926 UTMB School of Medicine graduate, Dr. Felix Butte. During his first year in medical school (1922-1923), Dr. Butte wrote 103 letters to his future wife, Miss Elizabeth Kirkpatrick.
Three of the oldest books held in the Blocker Collections: Rosa Medicinae (1390s) John of Gaddesden; Liber Physiognomiae (c. 1490) Michael Scot; and, Liber Chronicarum (1493) Hartmann Schedel.
Photographs, signatures, and grades of the first three graduates of the School of Medicine class of 1892; Thomas Flavin, William Gammon, and Houston Guinn.
The Blocker Collections holds over 5,200 postcards depicting a variety of medical buildings from all over the world.
The script of a "fantastical historical musical" written by Professor of Pediatrics and Human Biochemistry and Genetics, Dr. Rose G. Schneider, about the history of UTMB. Sawbones on a Sandbar was performed by faculty in 1967 as part of UTMB's 75th anniversary festivities.
Two works by Andreas Vesalius: De Humani Corporis Fabrica and De Human Corporis Fabrica Librorum Epitome (1543).
An 1888 architectural drawing of the original John Sealy Hospital built in1890, the same year that the School of Nursing was established. Also displayed are materials from the UTMB School of Nursing Archives.
Benjamin Rush (1746-1813) was one of four physicians to sign the Declaration of Independence. He is also considered the Father of American Psychiatry because of his many contributions to the field including Medical Inquiries and Observations, Upon the Diseases of the Mind (1812), the first published work in the United States of descriptions and treatments of psychiatric disorders. This work and others by Dr. Rush are displayed.
A display of five rare books about witchcraft from the 16th and 17th centuries.
Dr. Keiller, UTMB’s first professor of anatomy, used his art training to create over 200 oversized drawings of anatomical structures and relationships for use as teaching aids in his classroom. At least 60 other UTMB students and faculty members also contributed drawings to what is called the Keiller Collection. This collection of 2,540 drawings is among the largest of its kind in the nation.
An exhibit of materials from the archival collections of Dr. Charles A. Berry, Dr. William E. Thornton, and Dr. James G. Gaume was on display in 2019 to celebrate the end of a project which saw the digitization of over 7,500 photographs, documents, and film from these three collections. The exhibit also served as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing.
Dr. Charles Berry (1923-2020) was the first doctor to the astronauts and helped select the Mercury 7. He also served as UTMB’s first director of the department of aerospace medicine.
Dr. William Thornton (1929-2021) was selected in the first class of scientist-astronauts in 1967 and flew on two shuttle missions. He was a professor at UTMB in the 1990s and invented what students today refer to as “heart sounds.”
Dr. James Gaume (1915-1996) was the only civilian in the early US space program and developed the “first house on the moon” in the late 1950s.
In the summer of 1920, Galveston fell victim to an outbreak of bubonic plague. The Truman G. Blocker, Jr. History of Medicine Collections had on display photographs, notebooks, and other items from that outbreak. Also displayed were rare books relating to the history of the Black Death from its first recorded appearance in 541CE through the discovery of the plague bacillus in 1894.
The UTMB School of Medicine Alumni exhibit highlighted 16 graduates of UTMB between 1893 and 1959.