1950s
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The hospital's boys of summer, 1959
June 2023 Image of the MonthIn 1959 a baseball team was organized at University Hospital. It was comprised of staff from the hospital and from across the Birmingham medical center. The team competed in the Northern Division of the Birmingham Amateur Baseball Association and played home games in the city's Jordan Park, located just a few blocks west of the hospital at 8th Avenue South and 11th and 12th Streets South [the location of today's university soccer and baseball fields]. This first team photograph was taken on the roof of the hospital's Jefferson Tower.
Image ID: P16.1.12, #0239
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The Veterans Administration Hospital Dedicated, March 22, 1953
March 2018 Image of the MonthConstruction for a hospital for veterans began in October 1949 at the University of Alabama’s new medical center in Birmingham. Roy R. Kracke, MD, dean of the medical school, was a member of President Truman’s Special Medical Advisory Group on Veterans Affairs and was chiefly responsible for the location of the facility in Birmingham. The hospital was completed in January 1953 and was formally dedicated on March 22, 1953. The hospital contained 400 beds for veterans, but it also provided much-needed laboratory, research, and clinical space for medical and dental school faculty, many of whom had joint appointments with their school and with the VA. Students were also able to receive clinical training in the new hospital.
ID: MC51 #152a
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The University Hospital School of Nursing, circa 1958
November 2017 Image of the MonthOn November 26, 1958, an open house served as the official dedication of a new home for the nursing school operated by University Hospital. Prior to its acquisition, this building had been home to a beloved-Southside barbecue restaurant, known as Dr. Gus' BBQ. The program's occupancy of the building was short-lived, however, as the building was demolished in 1966 to make way for the Center for Developmental and Learning Disorders [Sparks Center].
Image ID: P16.1.1, #062
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Candles in the Canebrake, February 1955
February 2015 Image of the MonthIn 1955 the University’s five-year old Town and Gown Theatre program was moved into a new home, the Clark Memorial Theatre on Highland Avenue. The first production in this new location was Candles in the Canebrake, which opened on February 14, 1955, and told the story of the Vine and Olive Colony settlement near Demopolis, Alabama.
Image ID: P45.2, #0741
On the 60th anniversary of that inaugural performance, the UAB Archives announced the opening of a major collection of Town and Gown archival material, with over 5,000 photographs, hundreds of playbills and event programs, several scrapbooks, and administrative files. Click here to review Record Group 45 or here to contact the UAB Archives for additional information.
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Dr. Joseph F. Volker provides clinical instruction for dentists and dental students, Thailand, 1951
May 2010 Image of the MonthVolker (far right), the founding dean of the dental school at UAB, spent three months in Thailand as part of a US State Department education program. Volker's trip was the first of many for him and for other UAB faculty, a tradition that has continued for six decades. Today UAB is formally affiliated with several health science institutions in Thailand.
Image ID: P1, #0126
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Dental students in the laboratory, circa 1952
October 2008 Image of the MonthThe three students here, (left to right) Randall O. Laffre, Jr., Robert J. Eustice, and Gerald R. Rowe, were members of the first class to graduate from the School of Dentistry. Fifty-two men, all veterans of World War II, matriculated on October 18, 1948, and fifty would graduate on May 31, 1952.
Image ID: P1, #0221
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Urban Renewal area, 1958
June 2008 Image of the MonthOn June 10, 1958 university officials obtained 10 ½ blocks of land adjacent to the Medical Center. The Urban Renewal Project allowed the campus to grow west from its original four blocks. This photograph of the 800 block of South 17th Street – the site currently occupied by the Learning Resources Center – clearly illustrates the substandard conditions found immediately west of the campus. University Hospital and the Veterans Administration Hospital are visible in the background.
Image ID: P7.2.7, #0571
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Lawrence Reynolds, MD, at the opening reception of the Lawrence Reynolds Library, 1958
February 2008 Image of the MonthDr. Reynolds, an Alabama native, selected the medical school in Birmingham as home for his collection of over 6,000 books, manuscripts and artifacts. The Lawrence Reynolds Library was dedicated on February 2, 1958. Since 1974 the Reynolds Historical Library has been housed within UAB's Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences. The library collection has grown to over 13,000 items and the library is one of three units that comprise UAB Historical Collections.
Image ID: P7.2.7, #1521
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University Hospital staff train in the use of an iron lung, circa 1958
July 2007 Image of the MonthNurse Vivian Brown instructs hospital orderlies in the use of the Tank Respirator (iron lung) as part of University Hospital's in-service education program.
Image ID: P16.1.12, #2505
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A dental student at work in the School of Dentistry clinic, circa 1958
January 2007 Image of the MonthThe dental school was founded in 1948 and the first class graduated in 1952. The clinic facility pictured was completed in 1951 as a portion of the Medical and Dental Basic Science Building (renamed the School of Dentistry Building in 1976).
Image ID: P11, #033
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Jo Ann Hyatt, assistant instructor of nursing, 1958
May 2006 Image of the MonthJo Ann Hyatt, assistant instructor of nursing, examines the rare books housed in the Reynolds Historical Library at the University of Alabama Medical Center, Birmingham, 1958.
Image ID: P7.2.8, #0579