Dates: 1939-1989

Extent: 1 cubic foot

Historical Note: Florence Alberta Hixson was born in Bingen, Pennsylvania, on October 18, 1899, the youngest of eleven children. Hixson enrolled at the Hospital School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and received her diploma in 1924. She received a bachelor's degree in nursing education from Columbia in 1931 and a master's degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1939. In the 1940s she began work in a doctoral program in education at Columbia University, she would be awarded the degree in 1952. From 1924 until 1949, while continuing her education, Hixson taught in several hospital nursing schools in New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania. In 1949 the Alabama State legislature authorized the creation of a four-year baccalaureate nursing program at the Tuscaloosa campus of The University of Alabama. Hixson was hired as the school's first dean and moved to the campus in 1950. That fall, the school opened with 17 students and one faculty member, Dean Hixson. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, the nursing program continued to grow and prosper on the Tuscaloosa campus. In 1966, however, University President Frank Rose appointed a committee which he charged with making recommendations for the future of the school. The committee recommended that the School be moved from Tuscaloosa to the University's Medical Center in Birmingham where faculty and staff had been present since 1953. President Rose accepted the recommendation and the School was moved during August of 1967. Hixson remained at the new location for the next three years, and again worked to "refound" the School of Nursing at the newly autonomous University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB). After serving as dean for twenty years, Dr. Florence A. Hixson retired effective June 30, 1970, and was named Professor Emerita by the Board of Trustees. In honor of her contributions to nursing and to UAB, the nursing student residence on the UAB campus was rededicated Florence A. Hixson Hall in 1985. Dr. Hixson returned from her home in Pennsylvania for the rededication of the building. Florence Alberta Hixson, founding dean of The University of Alabama School of Nursing, died in Pennsylvania in 1989.

Scope and Contents: Includes correspondence, news clippings, phonograph recordings, certificates and diplomas, reports, minutes, pamphlets, plaques, a scrapbook, and a feschrift.

Arrangement: Organized by material format.

Accession Number: M97-08

Provenance: After the death of Dean Hixson, her papers were donated by her brother to the School of Nursing Alumni Association. The papers remained in the Alumni Room of the School of Nursing Building at UAB until 1997 when nursing dean Dr. Rachel Booth and alumni association archivist Pat Cleveland transferred them to the UAB Archives.

Finding aid: Printed descriptive guide by Tim L. Pennycuff available in repository.

Access Points: Crossland, Kathryn M.
Denny, Linna H., d 1864-1955.
Hixson, Florence A., d 1899-1989.
Nurses z Alabama .
Nursing x Study and teaching z Alabama .
Nursing schools z Alabama z Tuscaloosa .
Nursing schools z Alabama z Birmingham .
Nursing students z Alabama .
Rose, Frank Anthony, d 1920-1991.
University of Alabama . b School of Nursing .
University of Alabama at Birmingham . b School of Nursing .
University of Alabama in Birmingham .
Volker, Joseph F., d 1913-1989.

Document Types: Certificates, Clippings, Correspondence, Diplomas, Feschrift, Minutes, Pamphlets, Phonograph records, Plaques, Reports, Scrapbooks.

Location: Manuscript Stacks

Related Series: PMC49, Florence A. Hixson Photographs

Physical Condition: For preservation purposes, several items, including photographs, phonographs, and oversized materials, have been removed and are now located in other boxes as noted in this finding aid.


This page created 1999 and last updated on 18 January 2000.

Copyright:  The University of Alabama Board of Trustees.

Name: UAB Archives Oral History Collection

Dates: 1950-1995 (bulk: 1989-1995)

Extent (size): 10 cubic feet

Historical Note:This artificially created collection consists of numerous oral history interview transcripts and audio tapes which have been combined to form one collection of oral histories.

Scope & Contents: Over 190 interviews with transcripts and/or audio tapes, also includes some resumes and other biographical materials.

Arrangement: Organized into four series: 1) Transcripts, 2) Drafts, Notes, CVs, etc., 3) Deeds of Gift (Restricted), and 4) Tapes, and within each organized into subseries for the discrete oral history projects.

Accession Number: various

Provenance: This artificial collection was formed in the Fall of 1998 from numerous oral history projects which had been conducted by UAB personnel between 1985 and 1995. Additional items may be added to this collection if other oral history projects are conducted at UAB or by the UAB Archives staff.

Finding Aid: Printed descriptive guide by Tim L. Pennycuff available in repository.

Access Points:
Birmingham ( Ala. ) x Officials and employees x Interviews.
College administrators z Alabama z Birmingham x Interviews.
Dentists z Alabama x Interviews.
Emerson, Geraldine M.
Fisher, Virginia Elizabeth.
Medical centers z Alabama z Birmingham x History.
Medicine z Alabama z Birmingham x History.
Physicians z Alabama x Interviews.
Universities and colleges z Alabama z Birmingham x Administration.
University of Alabama . b Medical Center .
University of Alabama at Birmingham .
University of Alabama in Birmingham .
Women physicians z Alabama x Interviews.

Document Types:
Audio tapes.
Interviews.
Oral history.
Resumes.
Transcripts.

Location: Manuscript Stacks

Related Series: Other oral history interviews or collections: MC10, MC11, MC22, MC24, and MC36

Physical Condition: These materials have been placed in acid-free boxes. The transcripts have also been placed in acid-free folders. The tapes have been organized by oral history project.


This page last updated on 7 July 1999.

Copyright:  The University of Alabama Board of Trustees.

Name Thomas E. and Eleanor Abrams Hunt Papers

Dates 1861-1983

Extent 2 cubic feet

Historical Note Eleanor L. Abrams was born in Ilion, New York, on June 4, 1902, the youngest of two children of Alfred Willis Abrams and Margaret Seeber (Mills) Abrams.  Eleanor received a bachelor's degree in 1925, graduating magna cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.   She then enrolled in the Department of Histology and Embryology of Cornell's Medical School in Ithaca where she received a master's degree in 1925.  From 1925 until 1927, she was an instructor at Adelphi College in Brooklyn where she taught physiology, histology, and embryology courses.  In the fall of 1927 Abrams went to the University of Chicago to work on a doctoral degree.  She enrolled in the Department of Zoology, worked as a laboratory assistant, and would eventually earn her doctoral degree in 1931.   Abrams met her future husband, Thomas E. Hunt, while at the University of Chicago.  They were married August 26, 1929, in the New York home of Eleanor's parents.  In 1929 the Hunts were hired by Dr. Edgar Allen Boyden, incoming chair of the Department of Anatomy at the two-year Medical College of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.  Eleanor was hired as a research associate and assistant in microscopic anatomy, and Thomas as an instructor in histology and embryology.  Dr. Eleanor L. Abrams Hunt remained with the Medical College, rising to the status of assistant professor of Histology and Embryology, until August 1936, when she resigned her position in order to devote her time and energy to two young sons.  After the Medical College of Alabama was transferred to Birmingham in 1945, she rejoined the faculty of the Department of Anatomy as an instructor.  In addition to her teaching duties, she continued to conduct research and published numerous articles with her husband in the 1950s and 1960s.  Dr. Eleanor L. Abrams Hunt served as an instructor in the anatomy department until 1967.  She died on November 25, 1987.

Thomas Elwood Hunt was born in Blue Island, Illinois, on December 15, 1902, the youngest of three sons of Thomas Hunt and Adella Celestia Gates.  In the fall of 1921 he began studies at Earlham College where he earned a Bachelor's of Arts degree in June 1925.  That fall Hunt enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Chicago.  He became the "curator in zoology" in 1927 and an instructor in Zoology in 1928.  He received his Ph.D. degree from Chicago in August 1929.   Dr. Hunt met his future wife, Eleanor L. Abrams, in 1927 when she joined the zoology department at Chicago.  They were married on August 26, 1929, just days prior to his receipt of his Ph.D. degree.  In 1929 the Hunts were hired by Dr. Edgar Allen Boyden, incoming chair of the Department of Anatomy at the two-year Medical College of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.  Thomas was hired as an instructor in histology and embryology, Eleanor as a research associate and assistant in microscopic anatomy.  Dr. Hunt became an assistant professor in 1930 and an associate professor in 1933.  In 1945 the Medical College of Alabama became a four-year program and was moved from the Tuscaloosa campus to Birmingham.   Transferring to Birmingham with the Medical College in 1945, Dr. Thomas Hunt remained on the faculty of the anatomy department and was one of the first full-time faculty members at the new Medical Center.  Hunt became a professor in 1947 and served as acting chair of the Department of Anatomy in 1959.  In 1967 he was selected as the Medical Center's Distinguished Faculty Lecturer.  His lecture, "The Tricky Business of Teaching," was presented on March 25, 1967.  After 38-years of service to the Medical College of Alabama, Dr. Hunt retired April 1, 1967, and was made emeritus professor of anatomy by the Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama.  Thomas E. Hunt died in Birmingham on July 31, 1983.

Scope & Contents Includes correspondence, diplomas and certificates, daily diaries, news clippings, reprints of research papers, ledgers, postcards, resolutions, and programs.

Arrangement Organized into three series: 1. Abrams-Mills Family Correspondence, 1861-1913; 2. Eleanor Abrams Hunt Papers, 1921-1977; 3. Thomas E. Hunt Papers, 1925-1983.

Accession Number M96-04

Provenance These materials were donated to the UAB Archives in 1996 by the son of Thomas and Eleanor Hunt.

Finding aid Printed descriptive guide by Tim L. Pennycuff available in repository.

Access Points Abrams, Margaret,  q  (Margaret Seeber Mills),  d  b. 1869.

Abrams family.

Anatomists  z  Alabama.

Embryologists  z  Alabama.

Hall, Agnes Elizabeth.

Hunt family.

Hunt, Eleanor Abrams,  d  1902-1987.

Hunt, Robert Leigh,  d  b. 1932.

Hunt, Thomas E.,  d  1902-1983.

Mills family.

Mills, Charles Johnson,  d  b. 1832.

Mills, Mary,  q  (Mary Elizabeth Seeber),  d  b. 1836.

New York  x  History  x  1865-1898  x  Personal narratives.

United States  x  History  x  Civil War, 1861-1865  x  Personal narratives.

University of Alabama.  b  Department of Anatomy.

University of Alabama.  b  Medical College of Alabama.

University of Alabama in Birmingham.

Women  z  Alabama  z  Birmingham  x  Interviews.

Women  z  New York  x  Correspondence.

Women  z  Vermont  x  Correspondence.

Document Types Certificates.

Clippings.

Correspondence.

Diaries.

Diplomas.

Ledgers.

Postcards.

Programs.

Resolutions.

Location Manuscript Stacks

Related Series PMC41, Thomas E. and Eleanor Abrams Hunt Photographs

P6 (Accession M99-11P), Thomas E. Hunt's Slides of the Medical Center, 1958-1961

Physical Condition Acid free folders and acid free boxes


This page created 1999 and last updated on 27 November 2007.

Copyright:  The University of Alabama Board of Trustees.