Smiles all around as Santa Claus stops to chat with medical students in the cafeteria of University Hospital, 1967.

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Formally established in November of 1992 by President Charles A. McCallum, Jr., the UAB Archives is a campus-wide repository charged with maintaining UAB's records of historical value and with collecting the history of the health sciences. Previous attempts to collect historical material by the Department of Medicine and by the Jefferson County Medical Society helped in the development of the new campus repository. The archives was initially housed in the ETS area (pictured here) of the Mervyn H. Sterne Library. In 1998 the UAB Archives became a unit of the Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences.

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Initially UAB celebrated homecoming during the basketball season. The first homecoming was celebrated at UAB in January 1979. After the establishment of an NCAA Division I-AA football team in 1993, the festivities were moved to the fall to be part of football season. The first homecoming celebrated during the fall was held October 1994.

The former home was located at 2131 6th Avenue North and was acquired as part of a mortgage foreclosure. On September 14, 1936 the University of Alabama's Birmingham Extension Center opened in the renovated building. For the first term, 116 students were enrolled. The center remained at this location until 1954 when a new facility opened adjacent to the Medical Center. The old house was later demolished for a parking lot.

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In August of 1967 the nursing school was moved from its original home on the campus in Tuscaloosa to Birmingham to become part of the growing Medical Center. The nursing residence hall (later renamed Hixson Hall) offered living and entertainment areas for the students moving to Birmingham.

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Nurse Vivian Brown instructs hospital orderlies in the use of the Tank Respirator (iron lung) as part of University Hospital's in-service education program.

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Visiting actors Kitty Carlisle Hart (center) and Birmingham native Wayne Rogers (left) view artifacts in the Town and Gown Theatre, May 1978. James F. Hatcher (right) founded the theatre in 1950 and directed it until his retirement from UAB in 1991. Hatcher eventually created a museum in the Clark Theater Building with his collection of letters, photographs, scripts and props; some of the items from that museum are now contained in the Hatcher Collection at the UAB Archives.

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Ground was broken for a major renovation and expansion of UAB's health sciences library in September 1994. The new addition was completed in 1996, the renovation was finished in 1997, and the "new" Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences was dedicated in ceremonies on May 2, 1997.

The respiratory therapy program was developed at University Hospital and in 1970 was moved to the university's newest academic school, the School of Community and Allied Health Resources. Today, the respiratory therapy program is housed within the Department of Critical Care in the UAB School of Health Professions.

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The medical center's youngest academic school, the UAB School of Public Health, was approved by the University of Alabama Board of Trustees in May 1981. Until its move to the Ryals Building in 1996, the school was located in Tidwell Hall on South 20th Street (on the site currently occupied by the Kaul Human Genetics Building). At the time of this photo, the building's facade carried the university's official name, the "University of Alabama in Birmingham." In November 1984 the name was changed to the current "University of Alabama at Birmingham.

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UAB Athletic Director and Head Basketball Coach Gene Bartow (right) and Ferd Weil (left) of the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce hang green and gold welcome banners along UAB streets. The UAB Blazer Men's Team won the conference championship, gaining the school's first Sun Belt title. Bartow was named conference Coach of the Year and UAB player Oliver Robinson was named conference Player of the Year.

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The 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).

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