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The History of Medicine Committee was appointed in March 1989, with the charge to develop an exhibits area and to produce historical displays for a new building that was to be completed in June 1991.
By the time the building was dedicated in July 1991, the Committee had its first exhibit, entitled Technology in Medicine: 150 Years of Innovation, in place. To highlight the exhibit, the museum successfully secured a loan from the Smithsonian Institute for the first artificial heart model designed by Dr. Denton Cooley.
At the Texas Medical Association (TMA) Fall Leadership Conference in 1991, the
Committee presented a long-range plan to the Board of Trustees. The approval of this plan by the Board demonstrated support for the program. Subsequently, the Board appropriated a budget for the next year to produce three to four original exhibits using the artifacts and materials housed within the TMA Library. Currently, this collection includes over 1,000 medically related artifacts, over 5,000 photographs, and approximately 1,000 books and printed material dating pre-1900.
Ongoing projects include inventory and cataloguing the collection and organizing the printed materials into a workable arrangement that can be accessed as needed.
The library also offers a genealogical research service for persons interested in finding information on physicians who were located in Texas from the early 1800's. The library is the repository of the TMA membership archives for noncurrent files from 1853 to the present.
As the library becomes more automated, plans include the cataloguing of the artifact and historical collection as well. Cleaning, conservation, preservation, and exhibiting are a few of the areas that the Resource Sharing Project could benefit the museum. In exchange, the museum would gladly share its educational program(s) on the history of medicine. It is in the process of beginning a travelling exhibit program. In 1995, Dr. Elgin Ware, Dallas, established the Elgin W. Ware, Jr./Texas Medical Association Collection of prints and drawings at the Blanton Museum of Art on the UT campus for public education of the profound connections between medicine, art, and print making from the renaissance to the present.
Medical reference books, journals, 1,000 artifacts.
Transactions of the state association from 1853-present; available for research by appointment.
p>Docent program, gallery tours, special exhibits; exhibits available for loan.