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Texas Medical Center records

  • IC 002
  • Collection
  • 1907-2019

The Texas Medical Center records include TMC charter material, correspondence, committee minutes, interviews and transcripts, photographs and slides, budgetary information, newspapers and clippings, research material for books, surveys, materials related to TMC events and visitors, films and audiocassettes, brochures, architectural renderings, guidebooks and directories, and maps. The materials date from the 1900s to the present. The collection also includes the papers of Mary Schiflett who held leadership positions in the TMC from 1970-2009. The collection has been processed at box and folder level. The material is generally in good condition and consists of 39 cubic feet totaling 93 boxes.

Texas Medical Center

TMC Library Historical Photograph Collection

  • IC 098
  • Collection
  • 1543-2004

The TMC Library Historical Photograph Collection contains photographs, negatives, slides, published prints, printed materials, postcards, framed images, audiovisual materials, and a plaque. The collection consists of roughly 5300 items, which includes individual 35mm slides, 35mm negatives, 120 format negatives, photographic prints, and other printed materials. This is an artificial collection of several types of images collected by or donated to the McGovern Historical Center (MHC) through the years. The bulk of the materials date from 1940 to 1990. The entire collection depicts images from 1543 to 2004. The earliest date is related to copy photographs of pages from the 1543 edition of the Fabrica by Andreas Vesalius. Other early dates are framed prints of well-known medical pioneers from the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries. Some dates describe the date of the copy photograph others describe the date of the original image. The collection illustrates the history of medicine around the world and more acutely the Texas Medical Center and Texas Medical Center Library. Majority of the materials have been removed from this collection and incorporated into the original collections or new collections based on the donor records.

The collection is arranged into three series: Cataloged Photographs, Subject Photographs, and Oversize and Audiovisual Materials. Subject Photographs are arranged in files according to subject and then in alphabetical order. Subject terms used are as follows (in order): Attractions Photos, Building Photos, Event Photos, Individual Photos, Institutions and Organizations, Medical Equipment and Apparatus, and Surgical, Anatomical, and Medical Photos.

The collection was created to consolidate various photographs and images collected by the archive staff. Many were cataloged and assigned identification numbers (P-### for prints or N-### for negatives). These photographs were originally donated. The donor information in the card catalog was used to either create new photograph collections or incorporate into existing collections. This collection is comprised of the remaining items. Information about donors, if known, is available in the inventory. Uncataloged photographs were organized into general subjects and kept in alphabetical order. Oversize materials maintain the same identification number system and subjects. To increase discoverability of all archival materials, the collection was expanded to include materials with no known provenance. This includes framed items stored in the Garment Artifacts and Framed (GAF) section as well as audiovisual materials.

John P. McGovern Historical Collections & Research Center

Texas Medical Center Historical Resources Project records

  • IC 084
  • Collection
  • 1973-1991

The Texas Medical Center (TMC) Historical Resources Project records contain video oral histories of notable personalities associated with or visiting the TMC. Beginning in 1973, the initial group of interviews focuses on individuals involved in the founding or early days of the TMC. Later “video profiles” also include significant visitors to the TMC. Several of these feature national and international figures in cancer research on their visits to Houston. In total the collection features forty-seven unique recordings of interviews with thirty-eight different individuals. All forty-seven unique recordings have been digitized.

Don Macon, Director of the TMC Historical Resources Project, serves as interviewer in all but one of the recordings. The interviews are all staged as one-on-one conversations, with the exception of Macon's interview of Isaac Berenblum and Philippe Shubik. A typical interview begins with some biographical information about the interviewee, followed by accounts of their careers and, where appropriate, their involvement with the Texas Medical Center. Recordings each tend to be approximately 30-60 minutes long; the shortest interview is about 18 minutes, with the longest (Dr. Frederick Elliott's) being 2 hours and 18 minutes.

The bulk of the interviews took place from 1973-1978. There are also interviews from 1982, 1988, and 1991. Most if not all of the interviews were recorded in the studio at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Most are attributed to MDA-TV, Department of Medical Communications. Some later interviews are attributed to UT-TV.

While there are forty-seven unique recordings, the collection includes many duplications and totals nearly one hundred tapes. The videotapes are primarily 3/4" U-Matic, though there are also some VHS tapes. There are many original master recordings, as well as duplications on a variety of media--including a dozen interviews transferred to DVDs. Most interviews correspond to a single tape, but some speakers continue on to a second tape, typically labeled "part 2." Dr. Elliott's interview spans five tapes.

The level of detail in the descriptions varies across recordings. The collection includes contemporary typed transcripts for the first ten interviews from 1973. The MHC has created computer-generated transcripts for a handful of other interviews. Thirteen interviews have detailed descriptions with timecodes and summaries of content being discussed. The remaining interviews have paragraph-length descriptions transcribed from the original tapes or their cases.

Texas Medical Center Historical Resources Project