The collection is available to researchers interested in the social and architectural history of hospitals as well as the history of patient care and the health sciences in general. A personal computer database allows users to access different types of information. A user may search the database using terms associated with the cards, including hospital name, city and state, and type of hospital.
The Moody Medical Library advances the education, research, patient care, and public service programs of the university by obtaining, applying, and disseminating biomedical information and the tools for its management and use. The library traces its history to the beginnings of the school in 1891, making it the oldest of its kind in Texas. Today, it is the primary source of biomedical information for students and faculty associated with the UT School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the School of Allied Health Sciences, the School of Nursing, the Marine Biomedical Institute, and the Institute for the Medical Humanities. The library invites inquiries about the postcard collection. For further information, please contact The Blocker History of Medicine Collections, The Moody Medical Library via phone at (409) 772-2397 or via e-mail at [email protected]. TH
Sarita Oertling is a medical history librarian at The Blocker Collection in Galveston, Texas.
Acknowledgements
The three postcards are from the Radbill Collection of Hospital Postcards, housed in the Blocker History of Medicine Collections, Moody Medical Library, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas.
Thanks also to Kathleen O’Guinn and Arlene Reynolds of St. Mary’s Medical Center and Kathleen Howat of the Historical Society of Long Beach, Calif. All provided information on the Long Beach Sanitarium card.
Christina Santiago in New York kindly assisted with the research on the Bellevue Hospital card.
I have also learned much from the book Postcards in the Library, edited by Norman D. Stevens (New York: The Haworth Press, Inc.; 1995), and the Internet site “Tips for determining when a U.S. postcard was published,” created by the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colo. Available at: http://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/Images/M194/PostcardDating.htm. Accessed on September 18, 2006.