Are you an Excel guru? Or, does the sight of that little green X make you shudder? Either way, I thought you might like to take a look at a few examples of how it was done not so long ago when computing power equaled an adding machine and the flare of a graph was limited only by a straight ruler and your selection of colored pencils.
A reader sent in the following photograph in an effort to help identify unique and obscure locations within the Academic Health Center.
The scale is an 850 kg capacity flat scale (also known as a platform scale) located in the A (north) wing on the fourth floor of the Mayo Memorial Building. It was manufactured by the Toledo Scale Company with its motto, “No Springs, Honest Weight,” printed on the back of the lollipop scale. The scale’s design used a pendulum weight rather than a spring for measurement. The model number indicates it might have been manufactured in 1921, thirty-three years before the dedication of the Mayo Building.
At the time of the Mayo’s opening, the fourth floor was designated as the Department of Surgery including space for operating rooms, recovery rooms, and patient rooms. This type of flat scale is used to record weights of patients (minus the bed or wheelchair) in intensive care or surgical recovery. The scale’s platform was built into the floor and offered a seamless surface in order to role a wheelchair or gurney onto the scale.
The scale is no longer operational. The platform is fixed in place. A few unanswered questions remain: Why was a possibly thirty year old scale installed in a new facility and was the scale in use in the University Hospitals prior to its placement in Mayo? Did the scale serve some other purpose over the years before being disabled?
If you witnessed the use of the scale or used the scale yourself your input would be appreciated in the comments below.
After all, history is a matter of weighing perceived facts counter balanced by interpretation and local knowledge.
Several recent archival acquisitions for the AHC History Project are avian in nature.
The Raptor Center on the St. Paul campus transferred 28 boxes documenting administrative history, research, and outreach activities dating back to the early 1970s. Formally established in 1974, the Raptor Center provides clinical services and release programs to injured birds, public and veterinary education in raptor care and raptor-human relationships, and research and conservation information on raptor populations. A large portion of the archival collection is related to peregrine falcon restoration in the Midwest.
The Veterinary Medical Library recently transferred 124 research notebooks which had belong to the late Dr. Benjamin S. Pomeroy. The notebooks document agricultural turkey populations in the Upper Midwest and incidences of avian flu within the flocks. Dr. Pomeroy began studying avian diseases related to poultry farming in the 1930s and remained active in the field throughout his career. The research notebooks compliment existing archival material from Dr. Pomeroy. This material documents his research, academic career, presentations, and professional activities.
A third acquisition is the digital preservation of AHC documentation on the study of and proposed emergency responses to a pandemic influenza outbreak of the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The workplan, progress report, and supporting documents are stored in the digital archives. This material was organized and produced by the AHC Office of Emergency Response.
With these three collections, the archives is now a great resource for the history of avian health care and disease prevention and the study of the human economic and environmental relationships to bird populations.
Isabel Harris, dean of the School of Nursing from 1969 to 1975, passed away on March 2, 2008. The beginning of her tenure as dean at the School of Nursing coincided with the formation of the Academic Health Center and the reorganization of its six schools and colleges including the School of Nursing. Dean Harris was the first woman dean of an academic unit at the University of Minnesota. Prior to the reorganization in the health sciences, the School of Nursing was a unit of the College of Medical Sciences and lead by a director.
Originally from Michigan, Dean Harris’ early career focused on psychiatry nursing and institutional care. She earned her diploma in nursing from Johns Hopkins after earning a BA from the University of Michigan. During World War II she served in the Johns Hopkins medical unit in Australia. After her service she returned to Michigan for a year and then was invited by Katharine Densford, Director of the School of Nursing, to come to Minnesota to help establish a program in psychiatric nursing. Harris earned an MEd and PhD at Minnesota and later specialized in nursing administration and education. During her time as dean, Harris focused on growing the nursing program through increasing student retention, hiring talented faculty, and working toward the expansion of space. Dean Harris finished her term as dean in 1975 and retired from teaching in 1981. The School of Nursing moved into its new building (Unit F/Weaver-Densford Hall) that same year.
In an interview conducted with Dean Harris in 1999 she stated that “I’d always wanted to be a nurse or at least since I was five years old.” Her devotion and commitment to the profession and the University are reflected in the School of Nursing today.
This week marks the twenty-second anniversary for the grand opening of the University of Minnesota Hospital, conceptually known as Unit J, and now known as the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview.
When the $125 million, 566,000 square feet hospital opened in 1986 it held 432 beds, had 18 operating rooms including a transplant suite, and housed the Variety Club Children’s Hospital on the fifth floor. Eight-five percent of the patient rooms had a view of the Mississippi River. The opening week festivities for the new hospital also included a commemorative time capsule to be opened in 2086.
First proposed in the 1968 health science precinct plan, Unit J provided a centralized hospital facility that would replace many of the services offered in the Mayo Medical Center and other buildings. It is located on the former site of Powell Hall originally a dormitory for nurses.
As institutions grow in size and new buildings are added, older facilities are often remodeled (or not) and used for some other purpose other than originally intended. This often leads to the silent wondering of “What was this place?” by the present day occupants.
My own office space acts as a perfect example. Situated in the former (albeit the building still bears the name) Children’s Rehabilitation Center, my door opens up to an abandoned station that once greeted visitors and patients as they stepped off the elevators.
Many other spaces within the buildings that physically comprise the AHC are only shadows of their former self. The map below provides more examples. It depicts the third floor of the former Mayo Memorial University Hospital circa 1970. Today, the Office of the Dean for the School of Public Health is situated in the former space of Neurology Psychiatry. Station 32 along the southern wing (once the original Elliot Hospital) now serves as office space for many hospital social workers who now work out of old patient rooms. And although the coffee shop north of the main entrance is no longer there, a small snack counter is open for service at the former information desk.
The University of Minnesota Hospitals was established for the welfare of the state – and thus for your welfare.
So begins the introductory remarks of the patient pocket guidebook “For Your Health” given to each one of the estimated 13,000 annual patients treated at the University Hospitals in the late 1950s. The pocket guide gives information on hospital meal times and local area restaurants, visiting hours, billing and insurance, and what to expect when discharged.
The guide also explains the roles of individual staff members including doctors, medical students, nurses, dietitians, medical technologists, occupational and physical therapists, and social workers as well as what services to expect during a stay ranging from TV rentals to appointments with a visiting barber.
The language and illustrations of the pocket guide differ from today’s approach to educate visitors about the hospitals and clinics. Even the media has changed to online virtual tours to educate patients and families about what to expect.
Browse through the pocket guide “For Your Health” below.
The AHC History Project is about to launch an oral history project to work in tandem with the archives portion. The oral historian will hold a tenure-track, assistant professor position in the History of Medicine program. The focus of the oral histories will be on the individuals who participated in the formation and development of the AHC, its six schools and colleges, hospitals and clinics, and research centers. This will be a great opportunity for a scholar interested in the changes to medical education, research, patient care, and health policies during the latter half of the 20th century.
To learn more about the position and oral history project, please view the complete position description or see the job ad posted to H-Net.
The origin of today’s Medical School at the University of Minnesota dates back to the formation of the University in 1851. The territorial act establishing the University provided for a Department of Medicine, however, it was not created until 1882.
The Department of Medicine was not a teaching department but rather a credentialing board that provided examinations and conferred MDs upon physicians who had learned to practice medicine by studying with a preceptor.
In April 1887, Percy Millard, Charles Hewitt, D. Hand, and President Cyrus Northrop presented to the Board of Regents their request to abolish the Department of Medicine and replace it with a new department that would consist of the College of Medicine and Surgery, the College of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery, and the College of Dentistry. The Regents approved of the reorganization of the Department of Medicine in February 1888. The first class began in October 1888.
As part of the approval process, the Regents specified the admission requirements for the Department of Medicine. Students were evaluated by
1. Writing legibly and correctly an English composition of not less than two hundred words.
2. Translation of easy Latin prose, or, in lieu thereof, by passing an approved examination in any one of the following subjects: French, German, or one of the Scandinavian languages.
3. Passing an examination upon either of the elements of Algebra, Plane Geometry, or Botany.
4. Showing such a knowledge of Physics as may be obtained from the study of Balfour Stewart’s Elements of Physics.
However, examinations were not required for matriculated students or graduates of any reputable college, high school, or normal school, nor of persons holding a first-class teacher’s certificate or certificate of the State High School Board.
By contrast, today’s admission requirements are a little more demanding.
Select the image above to see the full page from the April 26, 1888 minutes.
Dr. Erwin Schaffer, dean of the School for Dentistry from 1964 to 1977, passed away on December 25, 2007. Dean Schaffer’s tenure at the School of Dentistry served as the basis for the growth of the School and its many programs and research initiatives including geriatric dentistry and cleft palate prevention.
Appointed in 1964 by then President O. Meredith Wilson, Dean Schaffer was a part of the reformation of the health sciences and long range planning for health education at the University. After chairing the Division of Periodontology for seven years, his leadership helped to transform the free-standing School of Dentistry into one of the six schools and colleges of the AHC focused on research and clinical education. He also helped oversee the physical expansion of the School of Dentistry through planning and fundraising efforts for the construction of Unit A Health Science Tower (later renamed Moos Tower).
A memo written shortly after Dr. Schaffer’s appointment in October 1964 captures the enthusiasm many felt for the new dean’s plans. The memo highlights Dean Schaffer’s vision of preventive dentistry as the next building block to the School’s already established restorative program. Read the full memo below.
