Question:
I'm looking any Hospital Postcard Collection . Anyone can give me some sources . Thanks

Answer: We are pleased to share with POSTCARD members the text of the Fact Sheet we prepared on our Hospital Postcard Collection. DESCRIPTION

The Hospital Postcard Collection housed in the Moody Medical Library,The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, is comprised ofapproximately 4,800 cards depicting primarily U.S. hospitals andmedical centers. The Collection provides a visual record of a varietyof hospitals, asylums, sanatoriums, health resorts, medical schoolsand other related buildings. Many of them are no longer extant. All50 states and nearly 1,100 cities are represented. The cards span 90years, from 1904 to 1994.

The Postcard Collection dates from 1984, when the Moody MedicalLibrary acquired the collection of Samuel X. Radbill, M.D. (1901-1987), a Philadelphia pediatrician and medical historian. Thecollection has grown gradually through the donations from variousindividuals, including William H. Helfand of New York City. In 1993,the Library was pleased to accept the gift of more than 3,500postcards from Morris M. Weiss, M.D., a cardiologist in Louisville,KY. The Weiss collection has greatly enhanced the Library's HospitalPostcard Collection, regarded as the largest of its kind owned by apublic institution.

RESEARCH VALUE

In the early years of the 20th century, postcards gained importanceas a form of communication and quickly became popular collectibles.Today, the interest in postcards continues. The Hospital PostcardCollection documents changing styles in hospital architecture andgives an intriguing peek into the lives of the correspondents as theybriefly chronicle both daily experiences and traumatic illnesses.

The Postcard Collection is available to all researchers interested inthe social and architectural history of hospitals, as well as thehistory of patient care and the health sciences in general. A per-sonal computer database for the postcards is available for accessingdifferent types of information about hospitals. (See below, AccessPoints.)

The Moody Medical Library invites inquiries about the HospitalPostcard Collection. For further information, please contact: