The Institute of Religion, now known as the Institute of Spirituality and Health, was founded in 1955 by members of the Houston medical and religious communities. The Institute established the first medical ethics center and one of the first hospital chaplaincy programs in the United States. The Institute conducts lectures on subjects related to medical ethics, healthcare, spirituality and well-being.

Jan de Hartog was born April 22, 1914 in Haarlem, Netherlands. He ran away as a young teenager and took jobs on fishing boats, as a coal shoveler, and as a tour boat captain. He wrote in his spare time, published a series of mystery novels, and started a career in theater in the late 1930s.
In May 1940, ten days before Germany invaded, de Hartog published Holland’s Glory, a novel about ocean-going tugboat captains. The book was not political but because of the title and thoroughly-Dutch subject it became a bestseller and drew the attention of the Gestapo. De Hartog had already joined the Dutch resistance movement and had to flee to England, where he continued resistance work alongside like-minded British. He eventually became a pacifist and joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). His years in England introduced his work to English-language audiences and he produced several successful books and plays.
De Hartog moved to the United States in the late 1950s and married his third wife, Marjorie Hein. In the early 1960s, the de Hartogs and others became aware of the poor conditions at Jefferson Davis Hospital and the ongoing dispute over whether the city or county was responsible for its funding. The expose The Hospital spurred the formation of the Harris County Hospital District (now Harris Health System).
De Hartog died September 22, 2002, in Houston. He and Marjorie were long-time members of Houston’ Live Oak Friends Meeting. This VHS was donated by the Drexler family, who were also members of LOFM; their daughter Alethea was an assistant at the John P. McGovern Historical Collections at the Texas Medical Center Library.

Samuel Egal Karff was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 19, 1931. He graduated from Harvard University. He served as rabbi for Houston's Beth Israel congregation from 1974 to 1999. After his retirement from Beth Israel, he founded the Texas Medical Center's Health and Human Spirit Program, the forerunner of the McGovern Medical School's Center for Humanities and Ethics. He also lectured for Rice University's Department of Religion for twenty-two years. He was a longtime advocate for civil rights, social justice, and equality, and is honored at Interfaith Ministries for Great Houston's Brigitte and Bashar Kalai's Plaza of Respect, alongside Reverend William Lawson and Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza. Karff died on August 14, 2020.

Live Oak Friends Meeting was founded in 1954 and met in congregants’ homes and in several temporary locations before settling in first to an adapted house on Alexander Street. In 2000 they moved into a building on W. 26th Street in the Heights, designed for them, that includes an installation by light artist James Turrell.
Jan and Marjorie De Hartog were longtime residents of Houston and members of Live Oak Friends Meeting, and personal friends of the donors. The original video was recorded by Warren, Ph.D., and Marsha Holleman, M.D., also members of Live Oak and faculty at Baylor College of Medicine.
Jefferson Davis Hospital opened originally in 1924; a second building was constructed in 1939 (razed 1999). By the 1950s, disputes between the city and county over who was responsible for its costs had left it underfunded, understaffed, and plagued by appalling conditions. The De Hartogs’ expose The Hospital prompted the formation of the Harris County Hospital District (Harris Health), the reform of public hospital conditions in Houston, and the development of Ben Taub Hospital in 1963.

Sister Agnes Mary Joy served as director of chaplaincy services for the Institute of Religion, which provided chaplaincy services for the Texas Medical Center (TMC) healthcare facilities. Sister Joy fulfilled chaplaincy roles in the TMC from the mid-1970s until early 2000s.

"Sister Agnes Mary Joy, M.M. died on August 13th, 2020 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll. NY. She was 89 years old and had been a Maryknoll Sister for 66 years! Agnes was born on June 10th, 1931 in Newburgh, NY to Louise McLaughlin Joy and Edward Joy. She had one sister, Mrs. Jane L. Larkin, who pre-deceased her.

In 1949, she graduated from Mount St. Mary High School in Newburgh, NY. She then attended the College of St. Rose in Albany, NY where she earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and Philosophy in 1953. Agnes then continued her education and earned a Master’s Degree in History at the Catholic University of America in 1955.

After completing her studies, she entered the Maryknoll Sisters Novitiate, Maryknoll, NY on September 2nd, 1954 (from St. Mary Parish, Newburgh, NY). She made her First Profession of Vows at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY on March 7th, 1957 and her Final Vows on March 7th, 1963 in Puerto Armuelles, Panama.

In 1957, after making her First Vows, Sister Agnes was assigned to teach at Colegio San Antonio High School in Puerto Armuelles, Panama. After a few years, in 1963 she relocated to Puebla, Mexico. There, she served as Director of the Jesuit Elementary School until 1967 when she was assigned to the Maryknoll Sisters Novitiate in Valley Park, MO. She then returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY in 1969 to serve as Assistant Director of the Formal Education Department and to serve on the Orientation Team until 1973.

Sister Agnes relocated to Houston, TX in 1973 to serve as Chaplain Intern for the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education Program at Ben Taub Medical Center (located within the Texas Medical Center). In 1979, she was promoted to Supervisor of the Clinical Pastoral Education Program and also served as Director of Chaplains for the hospital for the next 31 years.

Sister Agnes then retired, but remained an active volunteer with the Texas Medical Center. From 2006-2014, she spent her time researching and writing the 60 Year history of Chaplaincy Departments, Prayers, and Pastoral Care in the Hospitals, Clinics, and Health-Care Institution of the Texas Medical Center.

In 2015, Sister Agnes returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY to fully retire."