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Image of the Month (2023)

  • The Eye Foundation Hospital opened for patients, 1963

    Birmingham's new Eye Foundation Hospital opened adjacent to the university medical center
    December 2023 Image of the Month

    The Eye Foundation Hospital in Birmingham was dedicated on December 8, 1963, and was opened to patients later that month.  The private, independent hospital was constructed at the edge of the university medical center campus.  Dr. Alston Callahan, founder of the hospital, was on the original faculty of the medical school and had served as the inaugural chair of the Department of Ophthalmology from 1945 until 1954.  The Eye Foundation Hospital was acquired by UAB in 1997 and was later renamed in honor of its founder.  The brick building on the left of this image was the dormitory for students enrolled in the University Hospital nursing school.  This later named Hixson Hall was demolished by UAB in 2007.

    Image ID: M2001-01

     
  • National radio broadcast from UAB's Alys Stephens Center, 1996

    Michael Feldman and Kathryn Tucker Windham at the Alys Stephens Center at UAB
    November 2023 Image of the Month

    Radio host Michael Feldman (right) interviews Alabama author, journalist, and storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham as part of the weekly radio broadcast of "Whad'Ya Know?"  The syndicated National Public Radio program was broadcast live on Saturday, November 2, 1996, from the stage of the concert hall at UAB's new Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, which had just opened in September.  "Whad'Ya Know?" was a long-time staple of the broadcast schedule for UAB's WBHM 90.3 FM Public Radio Station.

    Image ID: P46.1, #0200

     
  • The first class of the School of Dentistry, circa 1948

    Dental students on the steps of Hillman Hospital
    October 2023 Image of the Month

    Recruited to Birmingham by Dr. Joseph F. Volker, founding dean of the dental school, the 52 members of the first class of the School of Dentistry were all veterans of World War II.  The students began studies in the new dental school on October 18, 1948.  With no stand-alone home, the dental school was initially housed in the Hillman buildings of the hospital complex and it would remain there until 1951 and the completion of a new building.  Fifty members of the inaugural class would graduate on May 31, 1952; Walter C. Andrews, Jr., was the school's first graduate.

    Read more on the School of Dentistry website.

    Image ID: A90-01, #0223

     
  • Business school renamed as the Collat School of Business, 2013

    Collat School of Business
    September 2023 Image of the Month

    On September 13, 2013, the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System approved the renaming of the UAB business school as the Collat School of Business in honor of university benefactors Charles and Patsy Weil Collat.  This was the first named academic school at the university.  The Collat name was added to the home of the school later that year, and at that ceremony were (left to right): Dr. Eric P. Jack, dean of the Collat School of Business, Charles Collat, and Dr. Ray L. Watts, president of UAB.  Dr. Jack was dean of the school from 2012 until 2023.  Dr. Watts became the seventh UAB president in 2013, the first person to serve as president with an undergraduate degree (Engineering) from the university.

    Image ID: Campaign Newsletter

     
  • Welcoming Students Back to the UAB Campus, 2007

    President's Ice Cream Social, 2007
    August 2023 Image of the Month

    To welcome UAB students back to campus for the new school year,President Carol Z. Garrison (left foreground) hosted an ice cream social at the Commons on the Green on August 21, 2007.  Attendees received ice cream, beverages, and a UAB tee-shirt.  Dr. Garrison served as UAB president from 2002 until 2012.  She was the second UAB president to have graduated from the university, having earned a master's degree in nursing.

    Image ID: A2018-13P

     
  • Visiting a patient at the Birmingham Zoo, 2001

    Examining a hippopotamus at the Birmingham Zootamus at the Birmingham Zoo
    July 2023 Image of the Month

    UAB's Dr. Steven J. Filler became a volunteer dentist for the Birmingham Zoo in 1983; his first patient was a polar bear with a bad tooth.  Over the years, Filler let UAB dental students accompany him on his zoo rounds on a regular basis.  Filler worked with the zoo while serving as a member of the dental school faculty and as one of the school's assistant deans.

    Image ID: P7.3.13, #1155

     
  • The hospital's boys of summer, 1959

    Univesity Hospital Baseball Team
    June 2023 Image of the Month

    In 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

     
  • On the plaza at Sterne Library, circa 1975

    University College Plaza at Sterne Library
    May 2023 Image of the Month

    UAB President Joseph F. Volker (second from right) speaking to members of the UAB community.  Dr. Volker and the group were enjoying the day in the plaza between the Sterne Library (left) and University College Building No. 1 [later the School of Education Building].  A new outdoor plaza has just opened between Sterne Library and the newest academic building on the UAB campus, Phase I of the Science and Engineering Complex.  The new building replaced the School of Education Building and will be occupied this summer by the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.

    Image ID: P7.3.2, #0054

     
  • Dr. Thomas Wdowiak with a NASA spectrometer, 1999

    UAB astrophysicist Thomas Wdowiak
    April 2023 Image of the Month

    Dr. Thomas Wdowiak, an astrophysicist at UAB, worked on several NASA research and exploration teams and helped design the Mars Rover vehicles.  Once the rovers were on the planet, Wdowiak “drove” them from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and from his home in Birmingham.  His NASA colleagues named a ridge on the western rim of the Endeavour crater on Mars as Wdowiak Ridge in his honor following his death in 2013.  Wdowiak was a member of the faculty of the Department of Physics from 1976 until his retirement in 2005.

    Image ID: P23.1

     
  • First Miss UAB selected, March 26, 1983

    Phyllis Pope the first Miss UAB, 1983
    March 2023 Image of the Month

    The inaugural Miss UAB pageant was held in the Bell Theatre on March 26, 1983, with twenty-two students competing.  Phyllis Pope, a pre-dentistry major from Illinois, was chosen as the first Miss UAB.  Her talent competition was vocals.  The UAB pageant was established as an official preliminary for the Miss Alabama and Miss America organizations, and today's scholarship competition remains as a preliminary for the two organizations.

    Image ID:Phoenix yearbook 

     
  • UAB Bookstore, circa 1978

    UAB Bookstore on South 15th Street
    February 2023 Image of the Month

    In February 1973 UAB opened a new bookstore after a move from the store's prior location in the basement of Tidwell Hall.  The "new" bookstore, a building which had formerly housed a dry-cleaning business, was located on 15th Street South at the corner of 8th Avenue South.  The bookstore remained in this location until it was moved into the original Hill University Center in 1983.  This building was again renovated and was renamed as the 15th Street Classroom Building, which provided the academic community with six classrooms and a conference-seminar space.  The building was demolished in 2006 as development proceeded on the Campus Green.

    Image ID: P8.1.1, #0013

  • Students participate in events honoring Martin Luther King Day, 1991

    Martin Luther King Day, 1991
    January 2023 Image of the Month

    UAB first observed Martin Luther King, Jr., Day as a university holiday in January 1993.  But the university had held or participated in various commemorative events in prior years.  In 1991 UAB students participated in a wreath-laying ceremony in front of the statue of Rev. King located in the city's Kelly Ingram Park; the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is in the right background.  This ceremony was one of several UAB events held that year to mark King Day.

    Image ID:P7.4.1, #0027

Mervyn H. Sterne Library

917 13th St S
Birmingham, AL

(205) 934-6364

Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences

1700 University Blvd
Birmingham, AL

(205) 975-4821

Reynolds-Finley Historical Library

1700 University Blvd - 3rd Floor
Birmingham, AL

(205) 934-4475

Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences

1700 University Blvd - 3rd Floor
Birmingham, AL

(205) 934-4475

Lister Hill Library at University Hospital

615 18th Street S - P235 West Pavilion
Birmingham, AL

(205) 934-2275

801 Building

801 5th Ave South
Room 1111
Birmingham, AL

(205) 934-5432

J. Ellis Sparks Medical Library

301 Governors Drive SE - 3rd Floor
Huntsville, AL 35801

(256) 551-4405

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